Ohh Germany...

Well yesterday we arrived in Germany at 11:30am Dusseldorf time (that’s 4:30am your time) and boy was it an experience. I traveled with 3 other students from the program. Luckily we found our way to our luggage and got out of there without any problems. We were very relieved to find a student worker from AIB outside security holding a sign for us. And we where even more relieved when we found she spoke perfect English with barely any accent. She got us situated in a cab and sent us to the AIB headquarters where our host families where to pick us up.

Since we had a few hours to kill before the families arrived, they offered us snacks, drinks, and ping pong. I learned 3 things today:
First a golden brown crunchy breadstick covered in sugar will not provide for you with a sweet moment of goodness like you would expect, but one of very buttery sweet I think my arteries are now clogged nastiness. Second, apfel Schocle is not apple juice despite the beautifully pictured apple on the front. No, it is a little apple juice with a lot of carbonated water! Everything is as they say “bubbly.” And last I learned that apparently I stink at ping pong.

The host family I live with is actually just a single lady who is 62 and speaks very rough English. We basically just sit and laugh at each other because we can’t figure out how to communicate smoothly. I have to talk very slowly and in broken English a lot. What an adventure! =)

We live in a little apartment on the 4th floor. I do have my own room, but we share a bathroom. The colors are red, orange and black. So I am loving the decorations. As of now I cannot get wireless in the house because she forgot the password =) So be praying she can figure it out soon!!!

Today we had our welcome meeting and then went on a walking tour of the city. We walked around for 4 hours. The city is beautiful. Very quiet too! In the US things are always loud and rushed and people are always “going places.” In Dusseldorf there are people just strolling around, walking their dogs, and not really rushing. The roads are all stone and brick. The cars have no problem parking half on the sidewalk and half on the street. And yes there is a curb, but conveniently it is small so the cars can jump it with ease. In the center of the town I can’t figure out how people know where to drive. The streets are not marked, its just all beautiful stone patterns.

Anyway we are about to have a welcome dinner with all the students and their families so I will have to tell you more about this later. I hope everyone is having a wonderful day!