The Month Mark (and school)

Four weeks ago today, I arrived in Wedel at the Kless's house. Since then, I have seen and heard and misunderstood many things. Its very surreal thinking about how its been a month. While it seems like a long time, its really flown by, but still in a slow like manner. I can't even describe to you how weird time passes by, maybe its just a German thing ;)

But I'm extremely happy, I feel very at home with the Kless's and I look very forward to the ten months ahead of us. 

Culture shock has set in oddly. It took me awhile to get used to being in public, the train system, and table manners, but I'm finally feeling a bit more integrated than before. 

Ten more months to go now! My set home date is June 20th for those of you who are curious, but we have all the time in the world to think about that. 

In terms of school!

I started school this week, and while frustrating and asldkfjas;ldfkjaw;co in the beginning, now that things have settled down a bit, I think I've got a hand on it. 

English class is a nice breath of fresh air :) My schedule is looking pretty good, and the only issue now is understanding everything else being said. 

Whoof. Its frustrating, but my brains aworkin' :)

In terms of the language!

Conversationally, I'm understanding almost everything. It's become a lot easier to string sentences together, and I have no trouble getting the gist of a conversation. 

Speaking wise, I am slowly inching my way towards improving. At first I was really shy to speak with natives, but now that school has started, I've been speaking more. I think by the end of these next few months, I'll be conversationally fluent. 

School wise, I'm having a harder time understanding whats being said because there are many words that I simply don't know due to the context of the class. Hopefully, this will start to becoming easier, but until then, I'll sit through and try my best. 

Greeting to all y'all in Idaho :) I miss you! Hope the school year got off to a good start! 

And again, many billions of happy thank-you's to my family and Armin and Julie :)

Fußball!

My first soccer game! My mom, Katja, is the doctor/physical therapist for the local men's team, and today we won 4-2!
Yay Wedel TSV!

Agent K on duty!!!!

 :)

The weather here is changing, always changing. From wind, to warm, to rain. Unpredictable and awesome :D

Last days of camp...

Tomorrow marks the ending of language camp. This Monday I start at my local school and all my American buds are moving out of Hamburg. 

While I'm really excited/nervous/anxious to start school, I am going to miss these guys I guuuuuueeeesss ;)

I thought I would throw in a few fun photos for the heck of it because camp has been fun (to an extent) and I've made some fantastical friends so far. 

 probably the best picture ever.

I love Wedel! I love the clouds, I love the sun, the beach, the people. I'm so excited for school (Ahh! So nervous!)

Hamburg Rahthaus!

The Hamburg Rahthaus (city hall) is an absolutely gorgeous building that I visited today with other exchange kids. Its not as old as you would expect, only 115 years old. It was built after a huge fire to symbolize that Hamburg was back up on its feet and hardly got damaged during the Allie bombings. Its an absolutely wonderful building :)

 Dina :D

 James and Bennnn

 A whole view of the outside of the Rahthaus.

 Random Budha in the center....(my awesome pigtails)

 Tons of amazing iron work on the gates and even inside as well

 Me, being a dork and taking pictures of the ceiling

 Some awesome paintings in the rooms. I'm still a horrible photographer, especially on guided tours, so forgive me for my random pictures of little things that I liked.
But hey, thats what blogs are meant for right?

 This and the doors below were hand crafted by small children in school (apparently not child labor because some of the kids got paid and its educational?)

 THE PHOENIX ROOM. Very cool :)

 A center chamber in which we weren't aloud to enter.......but still an excellent photo :)

 Idaho babes!!!!

And the fountain outside! Yay!

Torey's Funky Traveler's Guide to Germany (part 1)

1. The most important thing to bring to Germany is your umbrella. Under any circumstance, any season, its essential that your umbrella is with you at all times. Did you get onto the train and it was sunshiney? Well. You may get off the train and its a hurricane outside. 

2. Stay off the bike path! Here in Hamburg and Wedel, on the side walks are differently paved paths, on the left side of the side walk that are designated for bikers. Make sure you are completely aware of this at all times and do not wander off into the bike path only to be yelled at. 
3. Transportation looks really confusing and terrible, but its not. There will always be another train and there will always be another bus. Due to the much larger amount of people, transportation is constant. Trains run about every ten minutes and buses usually go from ten to twenty minutes. Its so amazing. 
4. Germany is certainly not as dirty as your regular old country. And there's a reason for that. A big difference I've noticed between USA and Germany is that people can actually work together as a community. Litter isn't a huge issue. Everyone cleans up their own space and makes sure to throw stuff away. Drop a bit of cookie on the floor in the train? Pick it up, there's a garbage can five feet away from you. IT MAKES SO MUCH SENSE RIGHT?
5. Public restrooms and water fountains are scarce. And even if you do find a public restroom, you're probably going to have to pay for it. Always have a water bottle with you. 
6. KEEP YOUR CHANGE. Whenever I got change in America, it would be thrown into my change jar so I could later bribe my siblings with quarters to wash my dishes. Here, 2 € and 1 € only come in coins, bills start at 5 €. So, you'll go shopping two or three times and end up with 13 € in change and not even know it. Its highly convenient once you get used to it. 
7. Everyone dresses really well. Its rare that you see a girl with sweatpants and no make up on. And even if they don't have make up on or look like they're having a frumpy day (yes we've all had them) they still dress really well to make up for it! Its interesting, and it's forcing me to organize my mornings a bit better so I have time to at least appear decent. 
8. Public eye contact is weird. What I'm used to if I accidently make that awkward "too long" eye contact with someone in public, I give a quick smile and keep going on with my day. Here, you just deal with the awkward eye contact, skip the smile, and try not to do that again. If you smile, it may be taken as a flirty hint and that's a bit more awkward than the latter.
9. When you eat at the table, both hands are always on the table. Go ahead, break out a bowl of cereal and try this. Keep one hand on the table, not really doing anything, and the other one does its regular job. Its different right? Usually, you're used to letting your hand sit in your lap and chill out, while your other one does all the work. Its different, but cool, and hard to get used to!
10. Bread and cheese is the essential meal for any time of the day and its awesome.
11. Peanut butter is scarce. Normally, you won't find it in super markets. I'm not sure whether they don't like the taste, or they've just decided that Nutella is way better (because it it is) and have wiped it out. Nutella basically is peanut butter here and I'm certainly not complaining. (but your trainer might) Oh! And make sure to bring Reese's Peanut butter cups with you because anything similar to than piece of heaven is nonexistent here </3
12. Mineral water is the bomb here and is often the substitute for water.
13. Girls, stock up on scarfs, because its the highest fashion. Its so common, its like wearing shoes. Everyone has at least 10-20 and its insane. I only brought two, so my journey to having a full German collection started yesterday with my first German scarf. Yay!

There will probably be a lot more to my Funky Travel Guide, but this is most all of the stuff I have learned within this first week.
Speaking of which, today is the marker of my first week here and it feels like its already been three months. I love it, its beautiful, its wonderful, and I'm looking forward to my year here :) Thank you to Mat, Katja, and Julie for all your help so far!

Wedel Marsh

A short bike ride from my house gets you to the marshes where the Elbe runs with the land and the farms, its so beautiful!

 My brother Tommy!

 Mattias, my host father!

 Arthos and Katja :) (arty party stinky)