So, I am now located at my permanent host family. It’s weird to think about, but I believe I will be able to get used to it. I woke up at 7 this morning for some reason, so I figured “hey, why don’t I just write my blog.” I was going to attempt to get it done yesterday, but I was distracted by my host family playing Wii Tennis in the living room, and then when I finally came to my room and finished my journal, I was too tired. Plus, there was a marriage party going on at my neighbors house, so its not like I can concentrate with “So ein schöner Tag” und “Das Rote Pferd” (those of you that were in my German class know what I’m talking about. Yes, they really do play those songs.) blasting in the background. Instead I went up to my bed that lies precariously on top of the wall in this weird second story of my room.
School’s out for Summer!
It was my last week in Bonn, so naturally we had to wrap up school. We had an oral final on Tuesday and our written final was on Friday. Monday we had a day of review, I suppose. We played a game where people had to leave the room and come up with an alibi, so that they are not accused of murder. Me and my partner totally owned, because our alibi was what we actually did Sunday night, which was that we went bowling with friends and her host brother (I bowled a 189, I’m so proud of myself). Wednesday we even went to a Cafe as part of our class. It was awesome. After the final on Thursday (they were really not so bad. I think I did alright.) all I had to worry about was the Abschiedsparty.
Party every day!
Or just a couple days in the week. . . Wednesday our group went out to a bar for the last time (yeah, right before finals, I know, but it was the last chance to do so). It was fun; we made a big Prost to ourselves and each other, wishing everybody luck in our permanent home. However, it was not until Friday that I started realizing how much I’m going to miss everyone. Friday was the going away party that was provided by the AIB. It was just a grill out and some of us had things to present at the end of it. I was so focused on preparing my sketch and this collage I made for the teachers and Hartwig, that when the realization hit that I was moving permanently to a town for ten months, it hit pretty hard. Everything went well though. I spent the whole day that day preparing the collage on my computer and then attempting to get it printed out, which was quite the hassle, and then I had to practice the sketch we were going to do. We did “Who’s on first” by Abbot & Costello. It went pretty well and hopefully it thoroughly confused the Germans. Shout out to all you PPP people: Good luck, I hope you're adjusting well to your host families. If not just let me know and I'll give 'em a stern talking to.
Long Train Runnin’
Here comes the interesting part. I got home at a reasonable hour Friday night, but I was tired, so I figured “Hey, why don’t I just wake up early to finish packing (I had a good amount of stuff packed but not all of it) then I can be on my way.” Well, thanks to chaos theory, things did not go nearly as planned. Of course, my alarm was set for weekdays only; I had set it that way, but the day I had to leave was a Saturday, not a weekday. You all are smart cookies; you know by now what happened, but I’ll tell you anyway. I woke up at 8:30 by myself, instead of 6:00 with the alarm. My train came at 9:21. I had not even finished packing. Quickly I woke up, finished packing by about 8:50 or so and got all my stuff out of my room. Then I thought, “where the heck is my host mom?” She was supposed to take me to the train station and she was nowhere in the house. I gave her a ring and it turned out she was already in front of the house with the car ready to load, but I can’t say my heart didn’t skip a beat there. Soon, I realized that I had no idea where my set of keys to the apartment was, and I had to start looking for those. I had taken my lego keychain off of it that very morning, but for some reason put the keys somewhere else. I concluded that I must have packed them somewhere and I would have to send them by mail, and we were on the road by 9:00. While riding in the car I had a last minute moment of inspiration and I found my keys in the pocket of my backpack where I always put my keys, go figure. By the time I get to the train station I have five minutes to spare. I’m really stressed, hungry, and sweating like a pig, but I said goodbye to my host mom, man handled my two suitcases, French horn, and backpack down the stairs and up the escalator in time to see my train rolling it. Unfortunately I assumed that the person who I would traveling with would be waiting for me at the actual platform two minutes before the train leaves, but that wasn’t the case. I got on the train and held the door, telling the train workers that I was waiting on someone. Turns out she was waiting in the McDonalds and struggling to get her bags out onto the platform. Soon, we got all of the stuff on the to the train, and we were off to Köln.
But that’s not all. We had a little bit of time on the train to get our stuff organized and figure out the best way to carry it all. The problem was that she had a big bag with a broken handle, another suitcase, a small duffel bag, two purses, and some plastic bags with shoes in them that were hung precariously on the suitcase. I believe we ended up switching some bags around and using a belt to roll the broken suitcase, but we didn’t figure that arrangement out until the train change in Hannover. In Köln we had only six minutes to get off our train and on to the next one. Fortunately, the platform was simply on the other side of the platform we got off. Unfortunately, the train car was parked about ten miles down the platform. So, I went ahead to try to find the right train car (it was of course the furthest one) and by the time I found it, I had no idea what happened to my traveling partner. She called me and explained that her shoe had ended up underneath the train somehow, and that she is on some other train car, but we both indeed made it on the train. She made two trips to get her suitcases in our car, but eventually we got settled in. By settled in I mean we just put our suitcases in the area near the door and sat there instead of finding our seats and then figuring out what to do with our huge suitcases. It was just a lot simpler this way. The ride to Hannover was two hours, so I finally had time to relax. I went to get some breakfast, and even had time to brush my teeth and shave. The transition in Hannover was a lot more successful and we had a generous twelve minutes this time around, so it was overall just less stressful. By the time we got to Göttingen, I was able to enjoy the beautiful scenery and I got moved in without any problems.
Oh Little Town of Ebergötzen?
I know there aren’t any songs about it, but Ebergötzen is really a nice little town. Well built, good looking houses with gardens everywhere, plenty of greenery accompanied by a little creek, and the Hartz mountains on either side make it quite the picturesque place. Shortly after I got there I walked with my host mom to the soccer game that my host dad was coaching that afternoon. It was a fun game to watch, and I find it so strange that she knows almost everyone. I suppose I’ll have to get used to that. The house is really nice, and quite interesting. Basically there’s a house in which we live on the top floor over two other families, and attached to it is a barn, which is now partly a jewelry shop and the rest is used for storage. There’s some chickens in our back yard too. And there are two cats.
Let’s see. . . what else. . . My family is super awesome btw. The twins are living with us as well for two weeks. They pretty cool as well, and funny. They both enjoy soccer and computer things. I don’t know what, but they are on the computer a lot doing something. Also, Ebergötzen has a sister city in Hungary, where I might be able to travel in October. I’m pretty excited for that, but it’s not one hundred percent yet, because my host dad is going there with his soccer team and is going to see if I can tag along. I hope so.
Coda
It took me a while to get internet access because the Wifi was “unsichtbar” which I now know means invisible. That was an adventure. Eventually the nephew of my host mom came and helped us out, but it was worth it, because I have Wifi now and I don’t have to plug my computer into the wall anymore (it wasn’t that big of a deal before, but now I don’t have to worry about tying up the internet). So now my gaggles of fans don’t have to worry about me not being able to post this blog.
I had a delicious German breakfast this morning. It made me happy.
Skez
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