First Days

Warning, this post is a bit long. Please enjoy it all!

So, I've been here for four days already, and it's been amazing.up to this point. After arriving late Thursday night and a good night's rest, I woke up on Friday for my first real day.  It's only been a few days but it feels like it has been months and already a bit foggy as to what exactly we did.  But I know after a nice breakfast with my host family, Shannon and I went for a brief tour of Pfaffenweiler, Jasper's sister city and my home for the next year.  At the end of the tour, we stopped by someone's home to pick up a card for me to use as a bus pass to visit Freiburg the next day, because I hadn't received my own (I received it finally on Sunday).  The language up to this point was definitely a struggle.  Between the local dialect throwing me off, people speaking really quickly, and me just not being super good or comfortable at German, I just couldn't really function yet in German.

After finishing the tour, Shannon and I decided to begin putting a puzzle together.  We swap a bit between English and German in this conversation, and I gained a tiny bit of confidence in the language.  After awhile, Shannon's sister, Laura, arrived and she was really nice.  They were making plans for the night to go to a wine fest in a nearby village, Breisach. Of course they invited me and I decided to go.

We then got ready and headed to the fest, where at first just Shannon and I walked around and drank a couple of glasses of wine, which definitely was delicious.  We eventually met up with Laura (this time with several of her friends) for awhile.  This is when I began to realize, that when someone spoke directly to me, I could usually understand what they were saying.  When there was a group of people and the conversation flew by quickly, I simiply could not yet comprehend it.  After being at the wine fest for awhile, Shannon and I left and went home, speaking a mix of German and English again (but more German than before!)

The next day, Sunday, was the day Shannon and I went to Freiburg.  She took me on a good city tour, showing me where I can buy normal, necessary things for living and such.  For lunch, I had my first currywurst ever! It was so good! Also, something that is very common for Germans to do is eat their french fries with mayonnaise, instead of ketchup (though ketchup is still normal for them).  And let me say, from an American's point of few, french fries with mayo is totally delicious. I recommend it.

After lunch, Shannon and I headed over to a local brewery beer garden for an AMAZING beer.  It is called Inselhof Radler, and has a very present and tasty lemonade type flavor. Oh my, it's the best beer I've had in my life to date. I definitely recommend this as well.  After finishing a tasty beer, Shannon and I heed back to Pfaffenweiler for awhile.  I decided to watch a movie in German, and I chose The Devil Wears Prada, because it's one of my favorite movies of all time.  Halfway through the movie, my host mom decided to join and finished it with me.

Shortly after the movie, Shannon and I returned back to Freiburg (this time with her friend) where we had dinner.  We just hung out for awhile in Freiburg, drinking a little, then returned home. Originally the plan was to watch a movie, but I was tired and just returned to my bedroom.  It is really exhausting trying to constantly understand a foreign language, and communicate in it.

The next day was a super easy day, with not much to do other than go and show my face at the IES office and receive some information, then go to a welcome dinner for the IES students from the IU Customized Program.  It didn't last long and was nice to finally meet all of the other IU students.  The real fun began the next day (today).

So then today, the first real day of our program.  It began with an orientation session, which lasted about one and a half hours.  We mainly just talked about a few preliminary things and such.  We than began the city tour, where they showed us the important places that are necessary for life in Germany. I had seen most of the places a couple of days prior, but it was nice to see it again.

At the end of the tour, the six of us decided to stay together and have lunch.  It was nice because it was our first real time alone to just get to know each other.  During lunch, we spoke pretty much strictly German and it was super fun, relaxing, and low-stress.  I've discovered it is definitely easier to speak German with other Americans than with native German speakers. Weird.  After finishing dinner, none of us really wanted to venture off alone or go home, so we just went to Vauban, where most of the IU students are living.  We played some volleyball, switching between English and German when talking. After awhile, we stopped and just started talking, asking each other about our travels, thoughts so far, etc.  From here on out, it was all pretty much in English.  I think it was mutually agreed today was to form some bonds and get acquainted with one another, then tomorrow we will be back in all German.  This whole just hanging out and talking thing lasted several hours, when we finally returned back to busier parts of Freiburg to do some preliminary shopping, getting notebooks, folders, etc.  We enjoyed a nice dinner, where I personally had a nice cheese pizza, but different than what you think of in America.  It is really flat and just bread and cheese basically.  Tasted really good and really cheesy, just as I like it.

So yeah, that is my experience to this point, being probably more detailed and boring than necessary, but everything is currently new and I want to talk about it all! Please stay tuned!