Finally Here!

Guten Morgen! For those of you that don't know any German, like myself, it means 'Good Morning.' I am happy to say that I arrived in Germany on Friday morning. The weather here is great, even though the temperature is pretty low, I think it feels great, and they think I'm kind of crazy for loving it so much.

I flew out of BWI (Baltimore Washington International) airport, and that wasn't so much fun. I had some problems checking in at the Delta desk... I only bought a one-way ticket to Germany because there didn't seem to be any reason to buy a round-trip ticket since plans could change. The attendant told me I wouldn't be able to fly without a return ticket, so my mom and I almost had a panic attack, but the attendant checked again and she was wrong, so I was able to go still. I went through security fine too. I really don't know why people complain so much, I mean you take your shoes off, big deal. It was kind of funny and weird, on my first flight from Baltimore to Atlanta, I sat by the window and I had 2 carry on bags, one went up in the overhead compartment, one by my feet, well the woman sitting next to me moved my bag down to fit hers in, so she moved my laptop to the front of the plane, which then freaked me out because I was nervous about someone taking it. That flight was miserable just because of the stress, I didn't know if I would be hasseled in Germany because of the whole return ticket deal, and then I had the laptop situation piled on. We arrived in Atlanta about 2 hours later and my laptop was still there and I just over-panicked. I had a couple of hours to kill before my plane to Germany departed, so I tried to find a seat near an outlet, but people already snatched them up and used both plugs, so I was out of luck for using my laptop. Thankfully, the time passed quickly. I had a window seat on that flight too, which was nice, but the man next to me was odd. He was german and for those of you who have seen the movie Heavyweights, he looked exactly like one of the characters, I'll post a link. Man on the tree is the guy .All he did was take up the leg room and even the armrest, and he drank a TON of beer and burped a lot... lovely. I did catch some sleep on the flight which was great. I woke up a few times through out the night. On the overhead screens, they would show a map of the plane and where we were. I woke up and saw we were over Nova Scotia, and then a few hours later near Greenland and then later Iceland before I fell asleep again. When I woke up for good, we were over Ireland, so we didn't have too much time to go before we reached Stuttgart. At that time, I started thinking.. oh my God, what am I thinking? What gave me this brilliant idea to come do this? Why am I so stupid? blah blah blah! I don't really feel that way, it was just nerves, I'm actually very happy it is working out! We landed and surpringsly, I kept my cool, went through passport control with no problems! The woman asked how long I planned on staying and what my reason for being in Germany was, so I told her I was visiting friends in Tübingen and I wasn't sure how long I planned on staying. Our plan was for me to come to Germany on a tourist visa, which is valid for 90 days, and then get a work permit and visa within those 90 days. So I went through customs with no problems and and everything was good. I only had a little problem then, I didn't have a chance to get a cell phone number for Graziella so I was a little worried. They also knew about the situation with my ticket, so I am sure they were just as worried. I got all of my bags and waited outside the baggage area and looked around for Graziella, I thought I saw her but then again I wasn't sure. I kind of pondered if I should have gone up to her and asked or not, so I decided to. If I embarrassed myself, oh well I would never see them again, right? Well I was right and we were both relieved, so we went to the car and stopped by a bakery on the way home. It is such a beautiful little town, I love all of the fall colors and all of the building look so cool compared to what we are used to back at home in the U.S. I will post some pictures soon, but most likely after Christmas, hopefully I'll get a new digital camera from mom or dad.. hint hint.

The family has been very kind and patient with me, which is great. I still don't know much German at all, but I have been picking up on smaller things. I start taking a Beginner's German class in the beginning of January, so that will be great. I did bring along a couple of German Language books, one is a guide called, 'German Phrases for Dummies.' It has actually been great. It helps with memorizing the words and with pronunciation, which is pretty difficult for me, but I am getting there. There are many words in both languages that are similar and alike, so that is nice. In a section of the book, they have a list of words that are very similar, almost the same as American words, but are pretty different. For example, 'After' in English and 'After' in German are two very different words. In German, 'After' means 'anus' so I hope I never get that mixed up, it would be pretty embarrassing if I used it in a conversation with someone. It's like in Spanish, 'Embarrassed' and 'Embarazado' look alike and even sound similar, but they don't mean the same thing. My Dad told me that when he was on his church mission in Buenos Aires, Argentina, a sister missionary was speaking in church and said 'Soy Embarazada, Soy Embarazada.' She felt embarrassed because her pronunciation and vocabulary was poor, so she thought she was saying she was embarrassed. Well she should have been because in Spanish, 'Embarazada' means pregnant. So she was basically telling everyone in the church that she was so pregnant.

The kids in the family, Nicholas who is 8 and Charlotte, turning 3 tomorrow, are very fun. Nicholas was a little shy at first but now he was warmed up to me and plays with me. Charlotte is hilarious. She kind of runs things around the house. We have a decent way of communicating since they don't know English and I don't know much German. They probably think I'm crazy with all these silly gestures I make. I always ask what something is in German so I know the word and Nicholas has been nice about it and tells me, I hope he doesn't get annoyed by it soon. On my second day here, Nicholas and I watched 'Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.' It was really nice. The movie was dubbed over in German, but we put on some English subtitles so I could read along. It's kind of weird not hearing Harrison Ford's voice in German but who cares, he's still nice to look at :) I learned a few words in the movie. Nicholas was a little scared by the skeletons that would pop out at times, so skeleton in German is: Skelett, kind of pronounced like skillet, but more of an 'eh' sound than the 'i'. I also learned that snake in German is Schlange, pronounced shlong-uh. I thought it was kind of funny because I realized that must be where we got the nickname for an area of the male anatomy haha.

Well I think this is all I have to say for now, I'll update a few times a week. I hope all of you are well and keep in touch! Tchüß (tshuuss) Goodbye!


-Jess