Emily in Deutschland?

Guess what? I'm in Germany! :D Today is my third day here, but second full day. Orientation was boring at times, but I made some awesome friends, so it was okay. The flight was soo long, 8 hours to be exact. I only slept two hours on the plane from the time I woke up on Friday the day we left at 7am, until really late on Saturday (actually, it was sunday morning), when I got back from the concert with Eva (I think it was around 1am). But that might have helped adjust me to this time, I don't know though, I took a three hour nap when I got home today. 

I arrived at Ulm around 18 (6, but I'm trying to get used to the european clock). My host familie thought that it was supposed to be an hour later, so I was picked up late, but I didn't mind, plus I got to chat with the AFS people (it was fun, they were 17 and just got back from a year in China). Saturday night I went to someone's birthday party (Raymond, maybe?), but didn't stay long und then Eva und I went with her friends to a concert here in town (it was a small local band, but it was still fun), und I met her friends. Oh, and they did they hoedown throwdown, haha!!! (Not the band, Eva und her friends). Everybody speaks lots of englisch here, more than I should want, I have to stop letting them speak englisch to me. 

On Sunday I woke up before Christoph und Eva, they slept late. Later I rode bikes with Eva, Lisa, und Louisa to see the horses, and then we came back home and hung out. Miaka, und Sina were there too. I played soccer with Niki (my host brother, he's 12), Lisa, und Louisa, and I lost both times, but it was really fun.

Today was my first day of Schule (school). I'm in class 10c1, so a grade lower than I would be in the US, but thats okay. I really like the people in it so far so its good. I met Lara, Sara, und Sophia today (and some other people, but I can't remember their names), and they were SUPER nice. Lara's best friend is in San Diego right now, so we thought that was funny. The only classes I had today were Englisch (YES!), Mathe (but they teacher only showed up for the last 20 minutes), und Musik (Musik, like music theory, but in Deutsch, yes!). Normally on mondays I would have Deutsch und latin (but I'm only having latin this week, then they are going to put me in a fifth grade german class during that time, ja!) in the morning, but not today, I think because it was the first day. Everyone else has religion after musik, but I don't because I'm not religious. Normally if you aren't protestant or catholic (and I've never been protestant, and I haven't been catholic for years), then you would take ethics, but there are only a few people in class 10 that are like that, so we just don't have class.

After school I went to where my host dad works, he's a butcher, and had something to eat, it might have been schnitzel? And I bought a handy (cell phone) today, the cheapest one (but no one in the USA can call it, its for Deutschland only). When I got home I slept for three hours. 

Odd Things:

• Doors. The doors here are very weird, they don't go all the way into the door frame, I can't really explain.
• Wasser (water), its ALL carbonated. Everything is carbonated! Today I finally had some tap water to drink, I couldn't take all the bubbles. 
• Schule. its just SOOO different.
• THERE IS SO MUCH ENGLISCH. TOO MUCH. The radio sounds like I'm in America!

Tomorrow I'll take the train to schule.

Sorry there are no pictures, some people from the orienatation have put some up on facebook if you want a peek at that.

La Canción: I'll be there for you by The Remembrandts. I heard this coming from Christoph or Eva's room tonight, and I almost cracked up. 

PS. They all say my name with a really funny accent und its cute.

brain dead...

Orientations equal exhaustion. Not quite tiredness though, because I don't feel like sleeping, I just feel dead. Which is bad because I should probably get some sleep, because I don't think I'll sleep well on the plane tomorrow, and that'll be my good night's sleep.

tschüss,

em

DC = Orientations Day #2 (&1)

Okay, so I'm in Washington CD right now yayyyy! It's Wednesday night, so the night after the first full day here. I'M EXHAUSTED. It's definitely been busy.

Yesterday I woke up at 4am sharp (actually ten minutes of 4 because my clock is fast), and drove to the airport where I met Mira, whom I was flying into Baltimore with. We chatted before we got on the plane, and on the plane, and we have a ridiculous amount of things in common. And not just normal things like we play the same sport or something. Just a few of them are: we have the same piano belt, we both want to hike the appalachian trail at some point, we both sang "I'll make a man out of you" a lot this past summer, we both don't listen to mainstream music, and both our brothers are named after our fathers. (And there is normal stuff too, but the usual stuff is more fun, right?)

We got into DC and met her Uncle Darrel, who was really nice. He took us out to lunch at this cool Mongolian Barbeque restaurant where you pick all the food you want and put it in a bowl (raw meat included) and then they grill it for you right in front of you. Then he took us to the hotel where we ended spending from then until six hanging out in the restaurant there, the lobby, and one kid's room (ending up being a party that had to be broken up). Then we had dinner and talking (blah, blah, blah). And someone said that everyone smokes there, and was encouraging us to smoke, so we took polls on how many people smoked (even though we are all underage). But that's not anything I would ever do, legally or not. After that we did some crazy icebreaker thing where I ended up having to tell three people I had a crush on them, roll in the grass, sing the ABCs, and dance with someone. Then we watched Goodbye, Lenin, which was okay, but probably wouldn't have been my movie of choice. (Obviously after this came sleep because of exhaustion, and that is why this is all in one post.)

Today I got a wake up call at 6:30, yayyy, not. Oh, and my roommate is Tess and she's pretty nice. I thought they were going to try and cram us like four to a room, but, nope, there's only two to a room which is cool. Oh, and she's also a lifeguard which is neat. Anyways, we got all dressed up because today we have to go to all this governmental stuff. First was the Department of State, which became really repetitive (which Melvin and I were trying to figure out in Spanish but could not, so if you know, let me know!). And that was really long, so after that we had lunch at union station. I wandered around with a few other kids for a bit, then we were we like "let's go to this America place", but then we walked by at it looked expensive (we had a 7 dollar budget), so we walked down to the food court. After walking the longer way so we could take the escalator (because as everyone knows escalators are amazing) this guy offered us free tastes of this chicken salad sandwich and it was reallly good. So we got that and it came with free ice cream, yum! (Which reminds me, I owe um, Brittany?, a dollar because I didn't have a wallet, I'll have to give her that in the morning). 

After lunch we went to the German Embassy which was in this really cool building (that I didn't take any pictures of... whoops). We watched a video and got some free stuff (which is actually bad, seeming as our luggage has a weight limit). Once done with that we drove to Union Station again where we had from 4-6 (but not really because we got there after 4) to meet with our representatives (actually for most people, like me, interns for those representatives) and then to hang out in the mall (and I don't mean a shopping mall) for the rest of the time. My meeting was like 3 minutes long, and then I hung out with some kids at a garden in front of the botanical gardens for the majority of time (basically until we had to walk back). When we walked back to Union Station, we took our shoes off to walk through the grass like hippies because a few people's feet hurt and it was fun. 

We had dinner at the Café Mozart, which is a German restaurant, and I had a nice beef goulash. After dinner we came back to the hotel (which is really nice!), and I hung out in Mira and Silvia's room for a bit, and had tea (Silvia brought some nice mint tea that she shared). Then Mira and I went out and sat in front of the elevators and made friendship bracelets. Which afterwards I came back here and eventually started writing this. It is now 11:57pm. I get to get up at 7, yayyy. 

tschüss,

em

La Canción: I'll Make a Man Out of You from Mulan. For Mira and my weird connection of it, and even after that some of the guys singing it during dinner on the first day.

CPR & Scary Switches

I am officially recertified in CPR as of yesterday! Yay! But the guy who challenged me was SO mean. He was out to get me, and I'm certain he wanted me to fail. And by all means, I didn't pass with flying colors, but then again, I did pass. He was AWFUL. But, hey, now I'm completely certified as a life guard until the beginning of next september.

So I was just trying to backup my computer on one of the hard drive-y thingys. I plugged it into my computer and it didn't do anything so I looked at it to see if there was something to turn it on or whatever. I found a switch, on one side it didn't say anything and on the other side it said "NO". It was scary looking, so I didn't dare flip it. So then I went to check my email, and then looked at it again, and flipped it over. Now it said "ON". Woops. But it still isn't working so I don't know what's up with it.

I leave on Tuesday! Ahhhh, so exciting!

Adios,

Em

La Canción: Eye of the Tiger by Survivor. Just 'cause its been stuck in my head all morning.

Sprenchen Sie Deutsch? Nein.

So guess what? Even though I don't really know any German at all, I'm not going to a language camp! Yay, right? Well, the good thing is at least that I get to start out with my real host family and I get to start school at the same time as everyone else. 

At least I finally know what's happening travel-wise. I fly to DC on the 8th. Then I hang out in DC for a few days with the other CBYX kids, doing orientations and such. Then on the 11th we fly to Frankfurt. From Frankfurt I take a train to Ulm where my host family picks me up! :D I'm so excited!!!! Now I just need to pack...

So in the mean time, while I probably should have been getting ready for Germany (woops) 

I went on a three day canoe trip with Katie and her family AND a three day hiking trip with my dad. Which both turned out pretty awesome. I summitted three more four thousand footers,

 Jackson, Pierce (Clinton), and Eisenhower. The views were spectacular.  I'm going to take off a year between high school and college and hike the Appalachian Trail. It'll be amazing. 

In less than a week I'll be off on my way to Germany and to a new and exciting life! This will probably be my last post from home for a very long time.

Bis bald,

Em

La Canción: Fish Heads by Barnes & Barnes. Its been stuck in my head for the past fews days; at camp someone from waterfront sang it a bunch. 

Farnsworth Forever & Nervousness

H'okay so I was on Facebook and I saw this sweet note quoting something from Willow and I had to re-post it up somewhere:

"In the beginning there was a mountain and because there was a mountain, there was a valley biting deep and rooting its remote heaven into the earth's core. and between the mountain and the valley there was a lake. cradled depth. window to the earth and mirror to the white majesty above. and because there was the mountain and the valley and the lake, there was everything that ever was upon the earth and beneath the sky.

and in that valley by the lake was a girl's summer camp where the campfires burn and stories are learned. and in those stories memories and traditions are created. and that is where you will find the true meaning of farnsworth." - Willow

Currently I am still quite campsick, but it is going away faster than normal because of Germany. Basically it's either Camp or Germany that's on my mind nowadays. AFS still hasn't told me whether I'm going to the language camp or not, and I would really like to know! Hopefully I'll learn a bit more German before I go, just in case they don't put me in the language camp (which hopefully they won't do!). 

Tomorrow I leave for a canoe trip with my friend Katie (aka Loki, Rhett) for a few days, then on Friday I leave for a hiking trip for a few days. Tonight there was a little going away party for me, which was nice. I leave two weeks from Tuesday! So exciting! But I'm finally starting to get a bit nervous! It's mostly because I don't really know much of any German at all. Oh well, I'll just have to make do.

Ta Ta For Now,

Em

La Canción: Hoedown Throwdown by Miley Cyrus/Hannah Montana (I can't believe I'm actually putting this on here, but it's attached to sooo many memories! Even though I HATE Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus and always will.) Because it's been stuck in my head all week, reminds me of camp, and Elyse and I danced it quite a few times tonight. 

Reach for the Stars, Climb Every Mountain...

I've finally returned from camp. It was an awesome two weeks, at my favorite place on earth, Camp Farnsworth. Now that I'm home I'm already campsick, but hopefully that will pass soon because of my need to get ready for Germany! 

It's hard to summarize all the stuff we did in those two weeks (partly because my memory is awful). We did some not so fun cookouts, I was UL (Unit Leader) for the day - very stressful at times, taught surface dives, hung out with my shadow group - Tack & Trail (who were amazing!), visited another camp, went to a playground, rummaged at the Thetford Fair, volunteered at the Dragon Boat Festival in Burlington, ate amazing

vegetarian food (plus the best grilled cheese ever), ATE A VERMONSTER, had henna tattoos, went to a waterfall, did our hair in numerous ponytails for camp birthday, silk screened T-shirts, wrote and fulfilled goals, tie dyed, played lots of games, sat in the woods by ourselves, LBDs in my underwear with waterfront and AD staff, sang heartwarming songs (especially singing with Edge), innumerable inside jokes, and made some amazing friends. Oh, and lots and lots of friendship bracelets. And that doesn't even begin to cover it all.

H'okay so. Here are some pictures:

Fun birthday celebrations

Tack & Trail, my shadow unit <3

Closing Campfire (or pads on fire on a stick)

Clearing (except not really) the High Trail

Henna tattoos!

VERMONSTER

Before & After

Hopefully I'll be able to return next summer! Oh, and I leave for Germany in less than a month!

Love,

Em

La Canción: Fireflies by Lori McKenna (Maybe its more well known done by Faith Hill but she does it a bit differently, though I couldn't find the one I wanted on youtube). It was the staff song this summer.