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. :)