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Published: October 11th 2011
Hello All!
So, I'm sory about the delay on the updates... It's been difficult to get Internet here, mainly because I don't have it in my room yet. I'm still using the internet at the library, but I'm hoping to have full internet access in my room by tomorrow... Mostly because the internet here is really slow. We'll see how that goes.
Anyway, let's see if I can update you all on my time here. I've decided that a travelblog is probably the best way of communicating my adventures here, mainly because there's a lot of you that seem interested in what I have going on, and I can't imagine telling the same stories over and over again to different people....
So ANYWAY. Here goes with the story telling.
You all remember how I was supposed to leave October 2nd? Yeah, that didn't work out. Flight was full. Anyway. I bought a plane ticket for the next day, and my friends Badger and Roxie took me to the airport. It was weird when I finally got on the flight... My first flight was to Seattle Washington, and after a five-hour layover I flew to Frankfurt. I couldn't really believe that I was finally going to Germany... After all of the stress of getting ready and packing and whatnot... I was finally doing it.
Anyway, when I arrived in Frankfurt I was... quietly petrified. I pretended like I knew where I was going and what I was supposed to do, but really, I had no bloody clue. See, if I would have been able to leave on the 2nd and arrive on the 3rd, a friend of mine who lives in Germany would have been able to pick me up from the airport... Unfortunately, since I was arriving on the 4th, she couldn't do so. That meant I had to use the Public Transportation System in Germany... By myself. I'd barely even used Public Transportation in the US, but I was nowhere near familiar with it. But I knew what train/bus I had to take (someone who works at my apartment in Mainz e-mailed me directions, thank god) so I went to the counter and bought a ticket (My first German conversation in Germany!) and had to ask someone where the train station was, but I made it in time... Then I got off the train at Mainz Hauptbahnhof, which is basically the "big bad train station", and went to find my bus. I waited on it a while, and when it finally came and stopped, I was about twenty yards away from the door... I picked up my bags and went to catch it, but it drove away before I could reach it. Busses in Mainz wait for no man. X.x
It wasn't that big of a deal though. Busses here generally come every 30 minutes, so I just had to wait a while longer. I got to my apartment, and had a bit of trouble finding a supermarket so that I could, you know, eat or use the restroom... But I found it after a lot of asking people and pretending like I understood what they were saying. You know, the American way.
That night I was really worried about all the fees I'd have to pay the next day... the next day was the start of the InfoDays, and all of the information papers said that there were a lot of fees I would have to pay BEFORE the start of the InfoDays. Since I arrived in the Land of Deutsch later than I anticipated, I didn't have any time to accomplish those things like I'd planned.. So I was worried that I'd arrive at the InfoDays, they'd find out that I hadn't paid anything, then send me away in disgust and I'd return home a failure.
Well, that didn't happen. *insert smiley-face here*
The next day I had a bus-mishap... Basically I took the wrong bus and ended up God knows where... Apparently there can be two busses with the same number that go different ways... who knew? I was late to take the test that would place me for the Intensive German Course, and naturally I was freaking out about that, but when I finally arrived and asked about it, they said no problem, you can take it tomorrow. Yaayyy.... And then about the other things? Even though they said that we had to pay the fees BEFORE the info days, everyone was doing it AT the info days, so I had no problem.
It was all rainbows and freakin' butterflies from then on out.
I've met a whole bunch of people on this trip so far.. and I've only been here a week. I've made friends with three other people from the US, a couple of people from Turkey, two girls from the Czech Republic, one girl from Lithuania, a few guys from Albania, two guys from Italy, and a handful of Germans. They are all really great, and we hang out quite a bit. We all recently went on this thing called the "Mix Tour," and we got to go visit this cute little town about an hour's train ride away from Mainz called St. Goar. It was absolutely beautiful... Not to mention the first night there we had this awesome party where everyone got drunk and danced a lot.... Myself included. Well, I wasn't so much drunk as I was a dance-aholic, but whatevs, same thing. :-)
The next day we visited a castle in St. Goar and took a tour... I didn't have my camera because I'd forgotten to charge it the night before. ;( But since my train tickets are free since I'm a student here, i'm thinking I'm going to go back and take more pictures some weekend when I have some free time... god knows when that will be. Haha.
After a two-hour hike (which was NOT for fat people, omg) we took the train back to Mainz and had to prepare for our Intensive course the next day. That's been interesting so far... It's basically a class in which they try to cram as much German in your head as humanly possible before classes start. The classes are 3.5 hours long every day and they can be quite the headache...But oh well. I am learnin' the German... that's why I came here.
I've been sick too... just like everyone said I would be. =P just a cold, so DON'T FREAK OUT... MOM. Haha. But oh well, it'll pass. I'm taking all of my vitamins and stuff.
Let's see, what else...
I've been having a bit of trouble with not knowing the language... It's truly an odd feeling, because I have never experienced being in a country where I don't fully know and understand the language. It's been cause for some worry, I will admit. It's really frustrating when people come up to talk to you and you have to ask them several times to repeat what they said, or just admit that you don't understand them at all... I've often felt like an idiot because of it, and sometimes it's hard not to let it get to me. There are quite a few people with whom I can practice my German though, and there have been more than one occasion that I've had a great German conversation and have been very proud of myself, so it's not all bad.
The exchange rate is pretty ridiculous. Getting 360€ out of the bank costs me about $500, which is my maximum withdrawal limit per day. I'm hoping to find a small job for a while (I can work for about 3 months on a student visa) so that I can earn some extra money to travel and whatnot. It would be nice to be able to see some more of Europe while I'm here and the flights are so cheap. =)
Anyway, I think that's going to wrap up today's blog... I'll probably update more when I have internet in my room. So 'til then... Ciao!
~Sea
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anonymous
non-member comment
Yay!
So glad to see your first post. Wish I\'d known you had a layover--I live 15 minutes from SeaTac! Do you have a new address where we can send you stuff? <3 Mo