June 6- June 12

So behind....this is unacceptable! I am so sorry for anyone who is actually reading this!

Day 25- Monday June 6th- I spent half of the day in my PJ'S because I felt so bad from the plane ride. They definitely didn't hurt as bad as the night before but they were definitely still sensitive. Skyped with my mom, picked up Simon...same old.

Tuesday- I had language school in the morning and then Julia came home with me because she had the day off. She met my host family and then we left for the Elbe Einkaufzentrum which is amazing! I advise this mall to anyone who is in Hamburg....It's near Othmarschen. We did some little shopping that day...I really like Julia...she is from Vancouver and she's so much fun! I could hear so much better today too! yay!

Wednesday- I cleaned a little and then went off to school. We definitely learned a lot today, some days I think my head could explode from listening to German, translating it to English, and saying it back in German. Julia and I then went to the Dat Backhaus and got our usual sandwiches at Jungfernstieg S- Bahn station. Then I went home and got Simon in the pouring rain and then skyped with my mom and played some. Then I ate with my host family and watched Schindler's list in English with my host dad. That movie is so good and sad!

Thursday- I had to clean so much shit today, but it's okay  haha. Later since I didn't have to get Simon on Thursdays I went with Julia to this pub close to the Rathaus called Finnigans Wake. It's an Irish pub, but I didn't care for the drinks because most were to strong for me. Later Isaac came, he's in one of the groups I am part of on Facebook. He is from New Zealand and lives here in Eidelstedt which isn't too far from me. He's really cool and I like his Kiwi accent haha. Cece joined later but didn't drink anything...she got an orange juice haha....I don't think we will ever let her live that one down....all of us were drinking beer and rum and coke and she drinks orange juice haah^^ I came home around 2!

Friday- Party Party! First I had school then I came home and cleaned and then got Simon, ate dinner, then left to meet Julia at Altona where we then went to Finnigans Wake where we drank some, it was a little awkward because the other au pairs I didn't really get along with were at a different table across from ours, and I didn't want to say hi so we drank our drinks and then left. We walked around Jungfernstieg waiting for Hannes and Julian who we were supposed to meet later after the movies they were at. We met them at Schweinske's on the Reeperbahn instead though and headed over to Molly Malones...we all drank a lot there! Isaac also joined too and Hannes friend David too, but David had to leave early. The bar was so fun with lots of good music and it was nice and mellow! Cece then joined also but I don't think she liked the music. We had a good group going I must say! We then went onto Thomas Read's and we all danced and had a ton of fun. Julian is a fun person to party with too...he's mellow in his own way but still knows how to have fun.... I wish I had a friend like that back home. I will miss him. We left in the daylight around 5 am and I was in bed at 6....so tired!

Finnigans wake

Isaac and I

 

 

Julian and me:))

June 11, 2011 Saturday... I got up at 10 so I only slept 4 hours, UGH! I spent the whole day at home and asked Julia if she wanted to go out and walk around at night. So we walked around some and no drinking though then walked around the Reeperbahn and people watched...finally sober on the Reeperbahn haah! Then Isaac showed up and we all sat on a bench on the Reeperbahn and talked. Then at 2 we all left for out homes. I was in bed at 3....Again so tired!!!

Sunday- I hung out with my family then I met Isaac and his Flatmate called Dominik who is German and we went to Schanzepark and had a picnic of bread and gummi bears haha. We were there from 4-7.. I really liked that park because I have never seen people my age actually hangout in a public park for fun. I think back home people in Bryan would think that was stupid. We then went to Thomas Read's where a quiz thing was going on. It's 6 rounds of current event questions all in English. We had a good group of Julia, Cece, Isaac, Dominik, and a swedish, Australian, and New Zealand au pair named Caitlin. It was a lot of fun and around 10:30 it was over. And since it was a holiday on Monday we all decided to go out (Pentecost) to the Reeperbahn. So Isaac, Dominik and I went back to their apartment to drop our picnic stuff off and we headed back to the Reeperbahn where we met Hannes, Julian, Julia, Cece, and Caitlin at Schweinske and headed over the Thomas Read's. This time was wasn't completely plastered so I knew everything that was going on. We met a bunch of people on the patio at Thomas Read's and some cute guys haha. I now have 4 new friends on Facebook haah! There was a basketball game going on upstairs and a lot of Germans were watching it because a German was on one of the teams. So I went upstairs with Julian and watched most if it with him. Some guys joined our table also...it's funny to see shocked faces when people speak to you in German and you say "keine Deutsch" haha. Everyone but me, Cece,  and Julian were trashed in out group. We all left at 5:30 to go home but missed the first s-bahn because Julia didn't think it was the right one, haha. So we had to wait forever for the next one. After Julian and Hannes and Isaac left we saw a man fight with the police down on the Platform it was so bad ass. haha I was in bed at 6:15....OMG 2 hard nights of partying haha.


P.S. guys I do work even though it sounds like I don't haha. I get evenings free along with Weekends!

Switzerland!

SHIT.....I am almost a month behind...I am not happy about this! So I need to take the time right now to catch up! This will be a post about my time in Switzerland.

Thursday- June 2nd

Zurich

Swizz Cow ;)

Zurich

Lake Zurich and where the mountains would be if you were able to see them

It's so pretty here! Although the whole day we couldn't see the mountains, you could see the hills in front of it. Stephans cousin Mischa has a really nice apartment too:) So today we set out to see some of Zurich. Lake Zurich is pretty, the water is green and really clear. It wasn't so nice outside, like it was really dreary out and stuff. But the transportation is really good, they have buses, trams, subways....but it is so damn expensive. Also it was a pain to always have to have change to get a ticket for the transportation. I think Hamburg's transportation is a bit easier. We walked around the old and new part of Zurich. The buildings were so beautiful with so many colors and some had designs on them. We ate at a typical swiss restaurant...really good food! Later that day Mischa longtime friend came and joined us to show us around. She is really nice, I liked her a lot. I was still basically deaf and sick all day but I made the best out of it. I didn't want to spend the trip inside all day. The city was so pretty! 

Friday- June 3, 2011

We woke up early to leave for a town called Luzern. We took a train through the countryside and then spent a couple hours in Luzern, but again it was a cloudy day and we couldn't see the mountains.

Swiss countryside

Luzern

My host mom and I

Luzern

Luzern

The hills in front of them we could see though and those are also pretty! Luzern is an old town and beautiful! We took a boat across Vierwaldstattersee (Lake Luzern) to a spot called Birkenstogg and took an old fashioned cable car up the hill. It was so steep!

Lake Luzern

Lake Luzern

Lake Luzern

We then ate at a restaurant and hiked some to a lift that took you up to see Lake Luzern. I wish we could have seen the mountains. It would have been magnificent!I was so happy to be there though, even though I was sick, it was beautiful either way.

Lake Luzern

Lake Luzern

Me, Svenja, Mischa, Miri and Simon

Chocolate Cow!

Lake Luzern

You could hear the cow bells in the distance and Stephan and I joked about stealing a chocolate cow.

Saturday- June 4, 2011
We took a train to Uetliberg which is a nice place to see all of Zurich. We couldn't see the mountains again but the sun was shining enough to see Zurich below. We then hiked for a bout 2 hours up and downhill with the stroller...OMG it was so heavy! But fun! After we made it up to the top we had a Panoramic view of Zurich while we were eating at a restaurant. Really nice!

Switzerland:)

hiking

View from my host families aunt and uncles apartment.

View from the restaurant

We then took a cable car down later and took the tram home. We all went to bed early that night. I think when I come home to Ohio I will have huge calves from all the walking I do hahah. I just wished I wasn't sick the whole time and with all the different elevation going up at down my ears were hating me. I was debating on paying for a train ticket to go back to Hamburg when we left, because I knew it would be painful to take the plane. But again and awesome day!

Sunday- June 5, 2011


My last day in Switzerland. We got up and Miri came over and we walked around since it was finally SUNNY! I could see the Alps! You have no idea how happy I was! It was so beautiful and I was in Aww! People were just chilling by Lake Zurich and swimming in the lake and we got some ice cream and sat by the water and looked at the beautiful scenery. I can only imagine how wonderful it is to have a picnic there, or see the mountains in the winter time. It is so picturesque.

Lake Zurich with the Mountains in the back

Loved this!

Bye bye Switzerland <3

I want to so back at some point! We then headed back to the apartment and got our luggage and left for the main train station and then onto the airport. Mischa and Miri came with us to the main station and we all said our goodbyes. I really liked them and I am so happy I met them. We got some airplane pressure earplugs for me which I put in before we took off. Everything was going so good until about 5 minutes before we landed in Hamburg..my ears had been releasing pressure the whole time until we started descending, then the earplanes making my ears pop and it got to plugged up and painful I started to cry. When we landed I waited 5 minutes and then took them out and I literally could not hear anything. Then every time I swallowed my left ear would pop so painfully then plug up again, I wanted to scream it hurt so bad. I had never had that much ear pain in my life. For the rest of the night my ears popped so bad and I couldn't do anything about it. I got home and went downstairs and cried and cried and laid down some to see if it would help....I later came upstairs to eat and then went to bed.

Friday May 27th- June 1st

Again it has been so busy here and now I am really behind! Shit. Okay here it goes.....

Friday May 27- My host dad's brother (Patrick) and his parents came here for the weekend. Patrick is actually lives in North Carolina but their parents live in Bonn. That night I decided I wanted to go out with some friends but Cece and Julia were already busy so I choose to go with some au pairs I had not met before that were on a Facebook I am part of. Let's just say the night didn't go how I wanted it to...the girls knew each other to well that I felt left out 95% of the time, and none of them really talked to me unless if it was the usual aupair questions, "do you like your family?" "how many kids are you watching?" "and how long are you staying here?" Let's just say I was ready to leave early that night.... I left around 11:30 but when I got to Altona to get on my bus the bus only went to Schenefelder Platz which meant a 1.5 mile walk home after the bus ride... I really wasn't looking forward to that! I wasn't to pleased with my night in general. But the next night made up for it definitely.

Saturday May 28
BBQ today! Wow it was fun! Lots of good food and I got to meet a lot of my host families friends. Later that night around 8 pm Cecilia and I left the BBQ to go meet Julia at Altona then we all went up to where Cece lives so she could get around and we were on the Reeperbahn an hour later:) BUT Cecilia forgot her ID at her house and she lived to far away to go back and get it...so we did get into a club without it...we got some shots and soon Julia was drunk^^ But then surprisingly I got a phone call from Hannes asking me if we all wanted to go to his friends house to hangout for a while and then go back to the Reeperbahn later that night. So we did and we all left. So we all hungout at his friend Davids for a few hours and drank and smoked some cigarettes (and for the days following my throat hated me for that). Cece and I ironed David's shirts for him....I didn't know I could be so helpful drunk haha. Then at 2 we left for the Reeperbahn and danced in a bar/club until 3:30 or so. It was so damn hot in there! And when we were leaving everyone went there separate ways...lucky for my the freaking bus only went to Schenefelder Platz again so another 1.5 mile walk for Ash. But this time it was light outside as it was 4:30 am! I was home at 5 and ready to sleep!

Sunday May 29th

I only got 4 hours of sleep and I was up...I went to church with my host family again along with the family that was staying with us. The rest of the day was spent just hanging out at home and drinking some more with Patrick....Grapefruit beer is freaking good too! I was definitely ready to sleep that night!!

Monday May 30th
Monday I did the normal au pair stuff but my host dad had the day off since it was the last day with his family that were here for the weekend. Patrick and I went to some stores and got food and beer, it was so nice and warm this day! Later my host dad, his mom, and Simon and I all went to the Elbe Einkauf Zentrum to look around...it is a huge mall! I really liked it but it was really expensive..they even had a Hollister hahaah. We got ice cream too and later we had Raclette which is a popular dish where you melt some cheese and put things on it too and pour it over potatoes....the cheese is so strong though that I didn't like it very much. I am not used to such strong cheese. Also over the weekend we played some major table soccer which was fun!! the guys got so intense! haha

Tuesday May 31st
My host family parents and brother left to go back to Bonn and I had to leave early that day for my first day of Language classes. The first day was so easy as I knew it would be I knew everything we did and Julia is in it which is even better!! The teacher only speaks German and she also uses a lot of hand gestures. There are 11 people in the class but Cece makes the 11th person but she wasn't there the first day because she was sick. There are 3 Japanese, 1 Chinese, 1 Albanian, 1 Italien, 1 South Korean, and Julia and me. Almost all the Asians can't pronounce anything, I feel bad for them! Julia and I will do the best I know. This is all a refresher for me. My throat was still messed up and then I knew it wasn't just from smoking but I knew I was getting sick.

Wednesday June 1
I had language school again today and again it was really easy. I have to miss class on Friday because we are leaving for Switzerland tonight. Julia and I met a new au pair from Ireland after school but I could only stay for about 10 minutes because I had to pack for the trip that night and go get Simon. Simon and I skyped with my mom while I packed. I knew today I was really sick, my ears were plugged too and I was pretty congested. I took an aspirin before the Taxi picked us up at 7 pm. The Airport in Hamburg is really nice and its weird there are so many clothing shops in european airports...you don't see that in U.S ones normally. AirBerlin is a nice company to fly with, I will definitely fly with them if I can again. It felt weird packing to go somewhere else when I wasn't at my real home in the first place. I was fine when we took off and while we were steadily at one altitude but then about 15 minutes before we landed there was so much pressure in my ears it started to hurt so bad because I couldn't get them to pop (it was from being sick) and I started to cry. It sucked I didn't even get to enjoy the flight because of how much pain I was in. We then met Mischa (Stephan's cousin that we were staying with) and he took me to a pharmacy at the main train station in Zurich so I could get medicine. It was really nice of him. I hungout with everyone for a bit but then I went to bed because I felt like shit.

Week 2

I didn't know it would be so hard to keep up with my blog! But here we go!

Sunday, May 22nd- I went to church with my host family, they go to an English speaking church...the congregation is small but it was a nice service. I didn't know British English would be so hard to understand sometimes, but it definitely is! Afterwards we hungout at home then went off to Blankenese to see the Elbe River. Unfortunately the was was really crappy so my host family and I didn't stay for very long. Blankenese is where a lot of the rich people live. The houses are beautiful!

Some houses in Blankenese overlooking to Elbe river

Lighthouse on the Elbe River

Hamburg has a huge harbour and many bug ships go down the Elbe river so people who live on it can see these huge freight ships going down it. I want to go there on a bright and sunny day and just sit at the beach and watch the boats go in an out. Also the Airbus industries are located across the river so you can see planes take off too. Later that night I went into Hamburg with Julia. And some random German guy from Heidelberg joined us and he had not been to Hamburg before so we showed him the Harbour, Reeperbahn and the Jungfernstieg area. I got home late that night^^ But it was a good night.

Monday- I walked all over Schenefeld because I had to get Simon from the Kita and then we went to the mall which is the opposite way, we then came home and played a little. Later that night I watched some German news with my host dad, my head was pounding afterwards...They talk so fast I couldn't understand basically anything. I love how you have to walk and you don't really even need a car here. The bus/ subway tickets are expensive though....5,50 euro for a day card....ughh I've spent so much on just going into Hamburg!

Tuesday- I met Julian! He's so much taller than I thought he would be haha! We met at Jungfernstieg at 7 and Phips came along too and we went into Europa Passage and got some food for the movie we were going to see later (Pirates of the Caribbean)...It was even in English! After the movie we all got on the U-bahn and went to a bar in some place I had not been to before...The bar was called Einstein, but there are a few around Hamburg. I got a 2 for 1 Strawberry Margarita, but OMG it was so strong I couldn't drink them both. Julian and Phips are both really nice, so far all the guys I have hungout with are really nice ..but thats only three (Hannes, Julian and Phips). I had known Hannes and Julian for a while before so I knew they would be nice anyways haha. Phips then left us after the bar and Julian was a gentleman and took me back to Altona since it was so late. I later found out Julian caught the last subway into his town...I felt bad! If he would have waited any longer with me he might have missed it=/ But Tuesday was awesome! I had a lot of fun!

Wednesday- I went to H&M to get some jeans since I didn't have any nice ones with me...I thought the weather was going to be a lot warmer than this! I spent like $60 on Jeans...ugh I wanted to puke, I never spend that much. Later that day I went on a 10 km bike ride with Svenja and her gym class she is part of. We went to Kloevenstein (sp?) which is a beautiful park right outside of Schenefeld. There are lots of walking paths and everything. I really like it there. We saw so many deer..It was awesome! My ass hurt so bad the next day though...haha I'm not used to that long of bike rides!

Julia and I

Cecilia and I

Alster:)

Thursday- I met Julia at Altona and then we met Cece at Jungfernsteig where we then went to another H&M and I bought more stuff..UGH! haha Afterwardds we got some sandwiches and sat by the Alster and took some pictures and just talked. It was really nice:) (See pictures above)
There is some E. Coli thing going around here in Northern Germany and in the Hamburg area..and it is coming from Spanish Cucumbers. People say not the eat lettuce or tomatoes either...Funny because ALL of those were on my freaking sandwich. I only ate the cucumbers though because I had heard that no one should eat lettuce or tomatoes. After Cece went home around 2 Julia and I walked to Saint Nikolai Church which is the church you can go up to the top can see the city. So we did that and I got lots of pictures:)

Saint Nikolai Church

Rathaus and Alster Lakes

Harbour

Julia then had to leave after and I waited for my host dad because we were getting my monthly ticket ready for next week. After we got my monthly ticket we took the subway back home and lucky for us the subway in front of us broken down so we waited on a subway in the same spot for 1 hour....fun times! haha. Friday my host dad's parents from Bonn and his brother from North Carolina will come in for the weekend. So until then Ciao!

First Week in Germany

WOW! One week in Germany already and I have done so many things so far! So I will go day by day with what I did.

Sunday: I woke up at 1 p.m and then ate some and  then Simon had a nap and then after we set out to see some of Hamburg. We also drove by the Kita (Kindergarten) that Simon goes to so I knew how to get there when I was going to begin picking him up. This was the first day I was ever on a subway and when we were on it I thought to myself, "how will I ever understand it?" ..but now I am doing much better! I saw the Hamburg City hall (Rathaus)

Hamburg Rathaus

and the Inner Alster and my language school. We also got some ice cream at a mall called Europa Passage, but my host family wanted me to order my own which I did, but yikes....my German is so bad! haha All in all my Sunday was a really nice day, but the jetlag was still getting to me!

Monday: Monday was my first real day of having to do au pair work. I had to clean a little and some easy stuff like that. Later I walked to the Kita to meet my host dad so I could meet the daycare people. None of them spoke much English. Afterwards we went to the mall by bus with Simon. It's a nice mall in Schenefeld but people are aloud to smoke outside the stores...I hated that! I also met some of their neighbors by their house. Later we ate dinner and talked about my first time going into the city alone on Tuesday as I was to meet Cecilia!

My language school - "Colon Language school"

My bedroom

Tuesday:  So Tuesday I met Cecilia, I had to get my own day pass for the bus and subway and yikes I was sooo nervous to speak in German to the bus driver! We went into the city and I bought some postcards, Kinder chocolate, and pretzels. Later we sat down at the Rathaus and talked. She is really really nice and I am glad I finally got to meet her! We will have some fun times this summer! We also took the Subway to the Reeperbahn because I wanted to see it in the daylight. We ended up at Schweinskes which is a restaurant thing, and I got my first legal alcoholic drink! haha It was yummy!! We then made some plans to go on the Reeperbahn on Friday and I decided I would ask Hannes and Julian to go too. Overall a good day!

Inneralster

Wednesday: Wednesday I decided I really needed to buy a jacket since I didn't really have a warm one here. But I had no luck in the mall when I walked to it. I later picked up Simon with Stephan I decided I would walk Simon back but Simon soon realized that his dad was beside him and he began to cry but he quickly got over it...thank goodness! I always feel bad when kids cry around me! haha He's a good kid, really cute, and when he says "woof woof" for a dog he pronounces it like "voof voof" hahahah I love it! Us three all then went to the mall and ordered some veggies and fruits from the Turk^^ He's a cool guy haha. Then later that night I received and email on TOYTOWN from an aupair who had just arrived in Hamburg the same day as me. She's from Canada and her name is Julia. She was going to meet me at Altona and then take the subway together to Poppenbuttel to meet Cece at a huge mall there. AND ironically enough she is in my language class too! I couldn't wait to meet her! She was so nice! My host parents also signed me up for classes then for language school Wednesday too.

Thursday: So today I met Julia and Cece and we all went shopping and of course I spent the most! haha Julia is really nice and gorgeous! After Cece left around 3 Julia and I went back into the city and walked around some, we went to Planten un Blomen which is a botanical garden and its HUGE! There is no way I can walk all of it. I hope to meet Julia again soon because she's super cool! Friday was to be the big day for me, as I was to meet Hannes and Julian. SHIT! I had a hard time sleeping for two days because of it...I mean how are you supposed to act when you talk to someone for 1.5 years and then finally meet? haha

Planten un Blomen

Inneralster

The famous Reeperbahn!

 

 Friday:  Scheisse! What a day Friday was! I picked up Simon for the first time alone and everything went well too. Which was awesome! Then I began to get ready for tonight....Julian was not able to go because he was sick and Cecilia was also not able to go because of other things. So I then invited Julia and Hannes invited his friend Phips. At 7:45 pm I set out and met Julia at Altona and we rode to Jungfernstieg station and walked to the Rathaus where we were to all meet. And so I finally met Hannes. He's just a nice as I thought he would be. Nice car too^^ He decided not to drink that night so he could be the driver. So we all got in and went to a bar on the other side of the Alster called Alsterperle...It's a really cute bar right on the lake with a good atmosphere! I loved it, we just talked and chilled out for a few hours...they bought us some drinks and I had a Beck's beer:) Yummy! At 11pm we went back to the car and drove around the city some then Julia and I drank all the jack and coke Hannes had mixed in the car^^ Yummy too! We then went through the Elb tunnel on the autobahn and then after that Hannes took off with the car on the autobahn going about 160- 180  KM ....thats like 120 mph! haha It was awesome!! I have to say I love his driving haha! We then turned around and went to the Reeperbahn (Kiez) as locals would call it. We then walked to a McDonalds and Phips and Julia got some food and later we went to a bar called Thomas Reid which was an Irish Pub. It was really cool! I drank a Jack and coke, a shot of Sambucca, and 2 Heinekens. Yummy!! Let me say after that I was feeling great!! We all just chilled and talked and Julia and I also went and danced....I noticed the guys here don't just come up and dance with you...Sorta weird compared to the US. I loved the music there because It's music I had listened too that Hannes had sent me a long time ago and I finally got to dance to it, haha. around 3 am we left back to the car and Hannes took Julia and I home. I was in bed around 4 wow! haha I can't wait to go back out on the Kiez or anywhere else with him. His friend Phips is really nice too. He bought us quite a few drinks too. Both are really nice guys! But damn, to have met Hannes yesterday,....haha I was in shock, like I couldn't believe it! And I still can't believe it! I went to bed super tired that night, but and awesome night though!

View of the Alster from Alsterperle

Hannes and I..finally we meet!

Julia and I...one of my Canadian friends!

Saturday: Saturday was a rough day with only 4 hours of sleep because I woke up at 9 am soo freaking thirsty! haha I then got around and we went to a shoe store for Simon and then to a store called Famila which is a really cool store, I love the German food here, sometimes my stomach doesn't agree with me but I am getting used to eating bread basically everyday haha. I like the bread though.We then came home and chilled out for a while and Stephan helped me with my numbers in German and then one of Svenjas friends came over and we all went to a park outside of Schenefeld...I swear we walked like 4 miles! Then my allergies got the best of me too. When we came back we had a little BBQ out back which was cool. Overall a nice chilling out day:) Tuesday I will meet Julian and we will watch the last Pirates of the Caribbean in English together at the Cinema:)

So there you have it all! Enjoy this long one! I will try to do it more often so I'm not stuck here for 2 hours typing this! Tschuss!

First Day in Germany/ First Impressions

So here it is...I'm in Deutschland!!!! I can't believe it! I'm in shock^^ My flight over was really nice and easy, but it just such a long day on Friday. I woke up at 4:30 am and left my house at 5:30 am for the Detroit airport. At 11:00 my plane left for Newark, New Jersey, and I even got to see the Statue of Liberty! then at 5:40 pm I left Newark for Germany, where I then arrived around 7:15 am in Hamburg. Remember there is a 6 hour time difference....my flight was 7 hours long. The food was good though!! And I was lucky because I got the window seat but no one sat in the middle seat so I had a lot more room! As I got on the plane I did begin to cry a bit because I was saying goodbye to America...my family, my doggies..everything. But I know I made one of the best decisions in my life doing this. So many older adults tell me that they wish they had done something like this when they were a young adult. I'm happy God gave me an opportunity like going to be an au pair in Germany.

bye bye America!

Sunset somewhere over the Atlantic!

Good morning Europe!

Oh hey Germany!!

So then I arrived in Hamburg, where I went through passport control and customs easily with no problem. I even got all my luggage! Thank God! But when it came to finding where my host family would be was a bit of a problem... Continental Airlines normally go to a different Terminal than what I had arrived in, and so my host family didn't know this so we both spent some time looking for each other. But in the end we found one another. Just flying over Germany you can see the differences in the houses and there is sooooo much greenery!   My host families house is so adorable and cute! I love my room too, its cute and big:) We then left to go on a walk so they could show me some of Schenefeld. We went to the bakery, butcher, ALDI, and I was showed where the 2 bus stops are. It's a really cute town too!

Some things I noticed that is different from the US is the windows. here the windows open up differently than the US ones. I'll post a picture later of them. The house look different, along with the roofs. I love how much greenery there is around houses. Although the yards are not big, it's not that bad, because there are so many places to walk! I'll post pictures soon (it's dark outside as I am writing this). At the bakery and butcher I didn't understand anything anyone said...they talked way to fast. It's a little overwhelming and I definitely am getting a culture shock, I think a little more than I thought. Stephan and Svenja gave me a tour of their house in German and English too. At night we all sat down to watch the Eurovision contest and I also had taken a 5 hour nap during the day and now I'm not tired at all....dammit! haah. It's already 01:35 here, haha.

OH and I got a big surprise in the mail today! (yes I got mail my first day!) I received a really nice package from Hannes and his family. Thank you so much! It was really nice of you:)


So after all this I can't wait to go out an explore, meet friends, drink alcohol legally, and of course spend time with my new host family!!

Ciao!