Too School For Cool: My First Months in Germany

So... I realize that I kinda really suck at doing the whole "posting every two weeks" thing, but I swear that I will get better. :) Today marks the 3 month anniversary since I have said goodbye to my family in America. Tomorrow marks the 3 month anniversary since I left America, and the next day marks the 3 month anniversary that I have been in Germany. Of those three months, two months and 3 days of them have been spent with my host family living in Heilbad Heiligenstadt (which, if you translate it, means Holy City which I think is pretty schnazzy). :P These past two months have been a combination of excitement, sadness, homesickness, loneliness, happiness, and pretty much any other kind of emotion it is possible for a human to feel. :) Most of these emotions have been caused by one thing: School.
I came into town on the 7th of September, and I started school on the 9th. I found out that my school was a Catholic school... I'm not Catholic... This would be weird.... Oh well... The first day was just setting up my schedule and introducing me to my school and showing me where my classes were going to be held. Because I was already graduated from high school in America, it really didn't matter what grade I was put in, so naturally I got put in the 11th grade (I couldn't be put in 12th because that is the year they take the Abitur (which means "high school graduation, but is actually a week of all day long tests), so thank goodness for that :P). I was terrified when on my schedule it said that I would be in German 2, Math 11, Spanish, History and Physics. I knew that I would not be able to get straight 1's (Germans use 1-6 instead of A-F... Weird, I know) in all of my classes even though I was a great student in America, but I also knew that they wouldn't be too strict with me. :D
The next day (Tuesday) was my official first day of school and I had Math, English, History, and German. I just knew that this was going to be a crappy day overall, because I would be diving in feet first, without even getting to catch my breath, but then I found the silver lining: my first period teacher (Math) was not there!

Ha! And in Germany, if you have a teacher that isn't there, you don't have to go to class! Yes! But trouble struck in the form of my councilor. She noticed that our first class was free, so she told one of the other math teachers, and he volunteered to take us for the day... Gross. So now, me and the other exchange student from my group were not only in unfamiliar territory, but we weren't even in the RIGHT unfamiliar territory. Perfect way to start the day. So we are sitting in math, and we can't understand a word that the teacher is saying. Plus, German school is harder than American school, so they were doing Calculus crap and I had no idea what was happening even though I had already taken Calculus. Just as I was sitting there thinking that I hate my life and that I wanna go home, the bell rings!! I was never so happy to hear a bell in my entire life!! Oh! But wait! I forgot that I had 2 hours of Math! NNNNnnnnooooooOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!! I was so upset I wanted to burst out in tears in the middle of class, but I knew that that would only hurt my future reputation, so I kept my cool which I was pretty happy with. :) So I suffered in silence for the next hour of Math, and then I was happy again because I had an hour of English to look forward to. :) I knew that I was going to love English, well, because it was English and I could actually understand. :P

So I walk into my English class, and I have to stand awkwardly off to the side of the classroom (all alone because the other exchange student was in English 4 while I was in English 2... stupid, I know) until EVERYONE ELSE SITS DOWN so that I can find an empty seat... That was probably the worst part of my day because everyone stared at me awkwardly and then turned and started talking to the people next to them. Perfect. I now know what it feels like to be an animal at the zoo. Its not a pleasant feeling. You feel like everyone is staring at you and judging you (which they probably were, even though I hadn't even done anything yet), and even though I had tried to look super cute for my first day of school (I had even gotten up early enough so that I could straighten my hair, which, for those of you who know me, know that it is rare for me to do that), they still managed to make me feel like I was wearing nothing but my underwear (sorry for the graphic image everyone). So I wait awkwardly until the teacher comes in, and when she sees me standing there, she does a double-take. That was another thing that I "loved". The school had accepted us as students, but had apparently "forgot" to tell all the teachers that we were coming. So now we get the fun job of explaining that we are exchange students from America, that we will be attending their class for the

remainder of the year, yadda yadda yadda and so on. So when my English teacher asks me (in German, how ironic) who I am and why I am there, and I explain it to her, she gets so excited!! She is so happy to have a native English speaker in her class, yadda yadda yadda and so on. So I take my seat in the very back corner of the class, and she says, "Okay kids! Let's take a quiz!" Oh good Gandhi! Could this day possibly get any worse? And the best part was... It was from German to English. Perfect. So I have a quiz in English translating from a language that I have no idea how to speak?! Perfect... So I take a wild stab at one of them, and then I just sit there. She collected the tests and I felt completely miserable. She went on to talk about the lesson and she went on, and I understood everything, but I was still miserable about everything that had happened thus far, that I just sat in the back corner and sulked. :P
After English, I looked down, and my heart dropped to the floor: I had a double block of German next. I groaned inwardly because I was so miserable, and I knew that being in German would not be good for my self-esteem or for my self-intelligence or for anything about myself. It would just make me feel more pathetic than ever. Well, at least the other student was in my class this time. So she came in, and we awkwardly

stood off to the side until everyone was seated, and we introduced ourselves to the teacher and the class, and then we went and sat down (once again, I sat in the very back corner of the room, while the other girl sat in the front). I sat there miserably and told myself how I would be perfectly justified in going home right about then, but that it would be worth it to stick it out, and I sat there with this internal dilemma and I was possibly literally fuming. It was horrible. I then had a lunch break for 40 minutes, and I sat in the tower (yes, my school has a tower. Proceed to be jealous) and I fumed. I was so upset, and I couldn't focus on anything. I went to History and went through the exact same process, and I was finally done. The first day was at least over.
I went home, and I immediately got online to drown my sorrows in movies/tv shows just like a normal person. :P I went back the next day, and it was pretty much the same, except for the fact that I had 2 free hours during the day because my Math teacher was once again gone, and you wanna know what I did with that time? I slept. :) I didn't go to sleep late the night before, but I think the emotional, physical and mental exhaustion of diving in to school like that wasn't good for my body. So I sat on the bench in the hallway and I passed out. :) So did the other girl. So it was like a mini slumber party... on the benches... in the school... in the middle of the day... but whatever. We woke up and went to our two separate English classes, and after my English class ended, my teacher asked me if I would present something about me, America, my school, and free-time activities. Its not like I could say no, so I said that I would be glad to. She told me to have it ready by the next Wednesday, so I said that worked. After that little

meeting, I had 3 free periods before I had to be back for Spanish, so I went up and sat in the tower again and I worked on my presentation for English. I really didn't have to work that hard at what I wanted to say, so I got the whole thing done in 10 minutes. I then decided to sleep until Spanish. So I closed my eyes, and then the next thing I remember is I hear a bell ringing, so I jolt awake. I look at the clock, and only one hour had gone by. So I fall back asleep. The next time I wake up, I look down at the clock and I see that it is 2:15. Unfortunately for me, my Spanish class started at 1:50... I had slept through my Spanish class on the first day. Fantastic. I felt totally great about myself now. I decided that I would just go home because there was no point in going at that point. So I went home, and can you guess what I did? If you guessed that I drowned my sorrows in movies and tv shows, that would be right. :)
The rest of the week was pretty much that same way, and honestly, in most of my classes, I sat in my seat (usually in the back left corner of the class) and just tried to understand at least a little bit of what was going on. It was brutal. There were several times where I wanted to just throw in the towel and give up, but then I would tell myself that quitters never win and that I wanted to be able to have bragging rights over all of my friends, which I won't get if I go home early. :/ oh the woes of being an exchange student... :P So that is what my life has been like for the past 2 months and 3 days since I have gotten to my host family. School, school, school, school, school. But that's just a day in the life. :)

Sleeping Not Dead: Update on Life in Germany

This may come as a shock to some people that are reading this, but I am actually not dead or kidnapped; I have just been otherwise engaged with the whole BEING IN GERMANY thing. So this post is going to be an update on how my life has been in the past month since I last posted (again, sorry about that) and it is not going to be organized in anyway just so you know. I may go into detail on somethings and barely talk about others. Just a heads up. :)
We left off in the Great Adventure That Is And Will Be My Life when I was in Washington D.C. with my family (mom, aunt, grandma). Well, on Saturday the 10th of August, my family and I went to check in at the hotel where my group was. We were about half an hour early, and the best part was that I couldn't even go to my room and drop off my TWO MASSIVE SUITCASES, MY CARRY-ON AND MY 40 LB BACKPACK because they were in the process of cleaning it. Lovely... so all that was left to do was sit in the lobby... and wait. For those who know me well (and even those who don't), you know that I am not a very patient person and waiting is not my style... But luckily I had my family there. If I was alone, I know that I would have released the crazy on everyone in my sights... starting with the front desk people. Moving on... We waited until people from my group started showing up. I went to the front desk, and they told me that my room was finished. I got all of my stuff (by myself... with no help from anyone) and I started heading to my room. I looked for my room, but all I could find was a sketchy looking restaurant and a pool room. I was starting to freak out because I really didn't want to lug all my stuff up the stairs, but then I see my family standing in front of a hallway. They were laughing at me... Real mature guys. Don't help or anything. Sheesh. Anyways... I get to my room, and I realize that my roommate for the night is one of the ones that I had at the orientation! Sweet! I loved all of those girls!
Now came the hard part... Saying goodbye. I knew that I would have a hard time with it, but honestly, it wasn't that bad. I hugged everyone goodbye, and I gave my mom a kiss, and then I left. I honestly had no problem with it... At the time (but more on that later).
I slept soundly that night, and then the next morning we woke up bright and early at 5 IN THE MORNING so that we would make it to the airport by 7 because our flight left at 10 and we had 50 students to check in. So we took 2 shuttle buses to the airport and unloaded everything. Now the FLAG organization made us all wear our T-shirts so that we would be able to find each other, so there was a giant sea of blue T-shirts for awhile. :) I knew that I would have to pay extra for my second suitcase, so I had my wallet out, but the lady just let it through! I didn't have to spend $100 on a suitcase! Score! So I have my 50 lb carry-on and my 40 lb backpack to carry. But it was significantly better.
We headed to our terminal. Now we had a 3 hour flight to Dallas and from there, we were going to fly into Frankfurt: an additional 11 hours. So in total, I would spend 15 hours travelling, not including the 3 hour layover in Dallas. And I had never traveled by myself or overseas, but overseas by myself was giving me a panic attack. But luckily, I had others who were in the same boat as I was. :) So we had this ridiculously long flight ahead of us... What to do now? Luckily they had different movies that we could watch so several people did that. Several people fell asleep before the plane even took off. I personally couldn't fall asleep if I wanted to. I was so excited to be finally going and doing something with my life, and I was feeling the rush of adrenaline that only a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity gives you. :)
I was peacefully minding my business and watching my movie when one of the girls in my program comes up to me (I was in the second seat from the aisle) and asks me to switch her seats because she wanted to sit next to the kid that I was sitting next to. Now me (being the nice, sweet, caring, and sensitive person that you all know and love), I let her take my seat and I graciously walked back to take her aisle seat. I actually preferred this seat because I liked more of the people that I was sitting next to back here, so that was good for me. :) This part is kind of boring because... Well, it was an 11 hour flight and it was pitch black outside, so its not like I could say that I saw the Atlantic Ocean for the first time. Nope... all I got to see was blackness. Yay me. But during the flight, I watched a couple of movies, I slept, I ate, I talked, I was FREEZING, etc. All the standard things you would expect on an 11 hour flight (can I say that enough? 11 HOURS IS A LONG TIME! Especially to be trapped in an enclosed metal cylinder that is hurtling through the air). One of the highlights of the 11 HOUR PLANE RIDE was that I got to see the sunrise over Ireland. :) not many people that I know get to say that so HA! Bragging rights! :P
Anyway... Long story short, we make it to the Frankfurt Airport in one piece and we are all so ridiculously tired that no one can even function like a normal human. And I can't even when I've had a good nights sleep and am fully fed and watered! I'm even worse when I'm running on 2 hours of sleep that I got during an 11 HOUR PLANE RIDE (sorry, I can't tell you how bad it was! But that's the last time). We then had to wait for another 4 HOURS for the buses to get to the airport... Several people fell asleep on the floor of the airport and I was seriously tempted to do just that, but I just couldn't bring myself to do it. I was surrounded by people sleeping, people eating, people playing games, and what about me? I sit there and play Solitaire, the ultimate lonely person's game. :)
The bus finally shows up, but it is still about a 4 hour bus ride to Hedersleben, where we will live for a month for language camp. When I sit down, I realize that the seats are probably the most comfortable things that I have ever felt in my life. I tell myself that I would not fall asleep, and that I would take pictures of the picturesque German landscape, and for the first 10 minutes, I actually succeed in not falling asleep. I read a little bit, and then I start dozing off. I jolt awake and I look around at the other students. All but about 10 of them are conked out. I then gave up on trying to stay awake any longer. I laid my head on the window and within 30 seconds, I was gone.

The next thing I woke up to was everyone waking up because the bus finally stopped. But we quickly realize that we are not stopped because we have reached our final destination. No, we stopped because we were out of gas and only halfway there. We all fell back asleep for the last hour of our trip. We finally arrive at our destination, a kloster (monastery) that we will be living in. They have us put our big luggage in a separate room because the rooms are not big enough to have them in there. I go up to my room and I find out who my roommates are: Abby and Savannah. Now Abby and I are both from Utah, so we both knew each other kinda well already, but I thought that Savannah was one of those stuck-up snobby people and I was so not excited about being her roommate (Savannah, if you are reading this, I am sincerely sorry for jumping to that conclusion about you. It was way wrong. :) ).
Anyways... The first day was kind of a re cooperation day so that we wouldn't be completely dead. But the next day, we jumped in feet first. And because we are teenage girls, my roommates and I stayed up really late talking and joking and laughing. Curfew was at 10:30, and I thought that that was way to early to have a curfew for a group of teenagers, but most people were out early, at least on that first night. We had to get up for breakfast at 8 every day, and classes started at 9. We were in class (and since I was in the highest level out of all of them, we only spoke German) and we jumped right in and started learning things immediately. It was brutal. We were in class until 12 and then we had lunch break. Homework/Study time started at 1 and free time was at 2. By 3 we were back in class and we were there until dinner at 6. After dinner, we watched the news at 7, and when that was over, we had free time. That was the same routine everyday except for Saturday and Sunday. On Saturday, we had morning classes and that was all. We had no class on Sunday, which was so nice. Most people slept on Sunday and Saturday. I know that me and my roommates did that. :) That was basically my life for the first month, and since the town we were living in was so ridiculously small (it only had 1700 people living there, and the entire time I lived there, I only saw like 20 people), there was really not much to do there. I spent most of my month being antisocial in my room watching my movies. :)

That pretty much is all you need to know about Hedersleben. That takes us all the way up until The Big Day: Saturday, September 7th: The Departure Day. The day had come, and we were all having a mix of emotions: happiness to be leaving Hedersleben, sadness to be separating, and excitement to be going to our host families. We rode on 2 buses to the train station in Magdeburg (about an hour away from Hedersleben) and then we were going to have to wait until our departure time. My departure time wasn't until 10:30, so I would be on the last train leaving the station... which meant that I would have to go through everyone that I had come to know leaving. That was so hard... I cried harder for these people than I did for my family. I was lucky that Abby and Savannah were on the train right before mine, so I wouldn't look like a complete wreck in front of a ton of people. When I said goodbye to Abby, I started tearing up, and I promised myself that I wouldn't cry... but then when I hugged Savannah, I completely lost it. We said goodbye and then they were gone... It was just me and Adrielle left. We had 2 trains, and then we would be with our host families... Yikes! We got on our train, said goodbye to our teacher, and then we were off.
Adrielle slept on the train, and I could only sleep for about 10 minutes. Our first train was an hour long, and then we had to transfer to another hour long train. We got on the next train and I was freaking out!! I was only an hour away from meeting my host family!! That was exciting, but also nerve wracking! I heard the announcer say that we were approaching our stop, and my heart leapt into my throat. I could barely breathe, and I was shaking. The train slowed to a stop, and when the door opened, I got the first glimpse of the place that would be my home for the next 9 months. I hopped out of the train to help Adrielle with her bags, and I see people running towards us, and I think "This is not my host family...". The woman comes up and asks if we have everything. Adrielle and I both nodded our heads, and the woman introduces herself as Adrielle's host mom. Behind her, I see a really tall man coming towards us. I think that it is her host dad, but then he extends his hand to me and introduces himself... it was my host dad. His wife, my host mom, runs up behind him and she gives me a big hug. There young 5 year old son stands shyly behind them. I am so overwhelmed by everything, that I can't say anything for the first few minutes. We walk with Adrielle's family until we reach the cars, and then we say our goodbyes. She is going to the other school in my town, so I don't know when I will see her next. I go with my host family and I get into the car (an Audi A8, a SUPER SEXY CAR) and they give me a quick tour of the town, including my school, and then we head to the house.
The house is a duplex and it is plain white. I walk in, and I am breathless. It is gorgeous! It isn't massive, but it is so pretty!! When you first walk in, you are in a mud room, and then you walk into a little mini foyer.

From the foyer, they have a set of stairs going up, and down, a kitchen, a dining room and family room combined, and then it leads into a "winter garten" or a winter garden. From there, you can go out into the actual garden. When you go upstairs, there are the three bedrooms (including mine, and the picture are taken in my bedroom :) ), and downstairs they have a sauna (yes, you read that right! A sauna in the house!) and they gave me my own party room. Yes indeedy: a room that has a big flat screen TV and they gave it to me to have parties in. Be jealous. :) I believe that I am finished with the update. I will try to post more often, so I should post every week/every other week. I love you all and I am excited that you stayed with me. :)

Thursday, August 8, 2013--Lions, and Tigers, and Bears, Oh My!!

I woke up this morning at 8:30 to a sharp pain in my hip bone. Sleeping on the floor on a tiny foam mat was a less than ideal situation, but there was nothing I could do about that. I got up and showered to wash off the smell and feel of travel from the day before. While we all were working on getting ready to go, we tried to decide what we were going to do with our day. My aunt, Leigh-Ann, put out the suggestion that we should go to the zoo. We all decided that that was a good idea, and since I had never been to a zoo before, I emphatically agreed. We all finished getting ready and we headed off into our next big adventure: the National Zoo.

We head towards the National Zoo, and my mom was driving. We were trying to figure out where we were supposed to go (because the signs and the GPS were unclear), and we realized that we had missed the turn to enter into the zoo parking lot. We went up the road a little ways and we flipped around. We arrived at the zoo parking lot, and we payed for parking. We drove into the lot and we realized... there were absolutely no parking places available! We kept looking around for some, but there were not any available.We got down to the end of that lot and we found a couple of available spots, so we backed into one, and we were in. We gathered our belongings and we were off.

We got up to the entrance of the zoo, and we decided that we should purchase a few maps of the park so that we could know where we were going. We talk to the park attendant about the shuttle service that is offered, and she told us that there was a shuttle that would take us up to the top of the hill, right next to the giant pandas. We decided that that would be the best option for us since we were lazy and tired and Leigh-Ann couldn't walk up the hill. We waited at the sidewalk where the shuttle would pick us up, and when the shuttle arrived, we hopped on and rode it to the top of the hill.

The first two exhibits that we visited were completely devoid of animals. The female panda was on pregnancy watch, so she was not able to come out, and the male was no where to be found. The next exhibit we attended was the wolf exhibit. There was no wolf to be seen, so we assumed that it had taken cover under the shade of the den that was created for it. We were beginning to become discouraged because we were 0 for 2 in the animal department. But we started getting lucky. After that, there were only a few exhibits in which there were no animals to be seen. Because of that, we got to see so many exotic animals, and we spent the entire day at the zoo. We were slightly upset because there were barely any available at the big cat exhibit. We did see 2 female lions in their pen, and there was a tiger asleep in its den, but those were the only cats that we got to see.

My favorite part was the small mammal house and the great ape house. I made a new friend at the big ape house and I got to see some big and small monkeys, which are my favorite animals. After we were finished at the zoo, we went home and went to dinner at this tex mex restaurant which was actually not bad. We went home and we all had a quiet evening. Tomorrow will be a busy day, but it will be fantastic as well.

Wednesday, August 7, 2013--Turbulent Travels

I woke up this morning at 6:30 in a cold sweat. I realized that I would leave the home that I had grown up in my whole life, and I would embark on the journey of my life and leave for 10 months. I looked over and I saw my best friend, Kara, still asleep after our long night of playing cards and watching movies and having our last sleepover for the next year. I got up and finished packing some last minute items before I headed up to the airport. When I got to the airport, I waited for Kara to come up and say our last goodbyes. When she got there, we laughed and joked and had a good time until it was time for me to go through security. We then hugged and cried and she went her way and I went mine. It's hard to know that I will not see her again for the next year, but I also know that this year will fly by so fast that I'll be home before I know it. I made it through security, and I knew that my adventure was about to begin.
Excitement, sadness, nervousness and anticipation overwhelmed me as I waited to depart. My mom and I were getting a little hungry, so we decided to stop and get some food from one of the kiosks. We saw a smash burger shop and thought that would be good to eat. We placed our order, and they told us that it was a 7 minute wait. I started freaking out because our flight was going to begin boarding at any minute, and we were priority boarding members, so we were some of the first people to board. I thought that we weren't going to make it, but my mom was cool and collected and told me to relax. I realized that we were going to board after we got our food, so that helped me calm down. :) We boarded our plane, got to our seats, and when we took off, I looked down at the place that I had spent my whole life and I felt a pang of longing. I wanted to stay, but I also knew that I had the opportunity of a lifetime and I wasn't going to waste it.
The pilot told us that we were slightly delayed, but the flight would take about 3.5 hours (and I thought that I would die of boredom before we landed), but they would play a movie to pass the time. They announced the movie, and it was Iron Man 3 (one of my favorite movies), so I knew that I would actually enjoy the flight. :) My mom (who is blatantly against super hero movies) agreed to watch the movie with me. We shared a set of ear buds and she honestly enjoyed it. We had a pretty good flight because we were watching the movie. :)
When we landed in the Detroit airport, we looked at our boarding passes, and we realized that we had 40 minutes before our next flight took off. That meant that our connecting flight started boarding 10 minutes after we landed. We hurried off the plane, and we saw that our connection was in another terminal on the other side of the airport. We had to book it all the way across the airport. I was freaking out and talking about how we would miss our flight, but my mom was as calm as ever and kept talking to me and trying to calm me down. We finally reached our gate, and we see that our flight had been delayed by an hour. Well now we felt stupid because we booked it all that way just to have to sit there and wait.
We boarded our plane (again priority boarding) and it was a TINY plane! My mom and I were both tired after our frantic quest to get to our gate on time, so we decided that we were going to take a power nap. We slept for about ten minutes, and we woke up when the flight attendant was coming around with food and drinks. We got our snacks and drinks and we decided that we would play a card game together. We played a few rounds of Casino (the best game in the world) until we were getting headaches from the air pressure changes. We watched the landscape of West Virginia roll past and change into Virginia. It was breathtaking how much green there was. I could have watched the greenery fly by all day, but, of course, all things must come to an end.
We landed in the Dulles International Airport at 8:30 local time. We had to take a train to get to the correct terminal, and it was so cool! It looked more like a train station than an actual airport. We went to our baggage claim and had to wait for my massive bags to come around the carousel. We got my bags, went outside and waited for my family. They came up, completely embarrassing me and my mom, and we got in the car to leave. This is when I got my first view of the outside of the airport. It was magnificent! My mom and I got to the house and we snacked and chatted and got ready for bed. We had a pretty full day, and we have several days left ahead of us.

Packing Anxiety

I look down at the 27 piles of clothes around me. I have sorted and resorted all of the clothes that I own. I have decided what I'm taking with me, what I'm keeping but not taking with me, and what I'm giving away. But I keep changing my mind. I know its not that big of a deal what I take with me, but I feel like it's a life or death decision and maybe it is...for my wardrobe. I have 2 younger sisters who will take possession of anything left behind before I get on the plane for Germany. :)

My mom bought me 2 of the biggest suitcases that I have ever seen in my life. But the cost and the inconvience of taking 2 big suit
cases weighs on my mind. I think about putting all my winter clothes in one and then putting it in storage until I need it. But then I look at the clothes that I'm taking with me, and I realize...I barely have any winter clothes to take with me! I start stressing out because most of the time I will be over there, it will be winter! I go back to resort my clothes yet again and try and pull out any more warm outfits.

Now that I have figured out what I am taking with me, I have to decide how to pack them. Do I use space bags, or do I try and jam everything in? I look at how many things I am taking and I decide that using space bags will be more practical. I keep saying that I need to pack, and yet I keep putting it off. I have barely packed anything and I have so little time remaining that it is starting to take its toll on me. I try to tell myself that I have so much time, but I really don't. I have less than 2 weeks before I leave, and I keep procrastinating. At the rate I'm going, I won't be packed until the day before I'm supposed to board the plane. :)

Who am I, where did I come from, and where am I going?

The title of this post seems very existential, but this post is going to be more of an introduction to my current situation.

My name is Madison Connell. I graduated in May 2013 from Timpanogos High School in Orem, Utah, and I loved every minute of my high school experience. During the last half of my senior year, however, I decided to branch out a little bit and take the road less traveled. I decided that I would apply to the Congress-Bundestag Youth Exchange (CBYX) program, which exchanges US and German students for a full school year. The first 2 weeks of February were spent vigorously filling out the application and getting the documentation I needed. Finally, the day came when I finished the application and hit the "Send" button. Then came the hard part: the waiting.

I went about my daily life, keeping the program off my mind so I could focus on school. Then one day, the inevitable happened: I got an email from the director of the program. I read the subject line which said "Congress-Bundestag Youth Exchange Scholarship - FINALIST NOTIFICATION". I was at school when I saw this and I almost had a seizure because I was so excited. I had applied just to see if I could do it, but I never expected that it would actually come to something!

I had to go in for face-to-face interviews with the director of FLAG (which covers the southwest quadrant of the US) Tim, the inbound specialist Connie, the outbound specialist Luke, and a few other people. I completed my interview and left there feeling pretty good about myself. About a week later, I checked my email and I found that I had an email from Luke. The subject line said "CBYX Scholarship Recipient Notification". This was it. I was accepted and I was going to do something that I had always dreamed of doing in my life. It was just sooner than expected. I was heading to Germany.

Since then, we have had an orientation at the FLAG headquarters in Michigan, where I met other students that had been accepted. We have also had several online orientations preparing us for our year abroad. And that brings us to today, 24 days from takeoff. I will keep posting about all of my adventures and I hope you enjoy reading about them. :)