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)

A sweet little post

 My room!

 Arthos, who is now my new best friend! He is so cute and so lovable.

I am so happy to be here in the Kless house. I know for sure that I'll be taken care of here, Julie has taken excellent care of me and even the quick view of the city was wonderful. I'm loving the rain and the clouds. I know I'll get used to it quickly, but its so wonderful not to be in 100 degree weather all the time. Its so green and enjoyable here :) greetings to Boise from Wedel!!

D.C. Photos part TWO!

And I have left over photos from D.C. so here goes nothin!

 Once again, my Boise bud James.

Just cool stuff, we spent a bunch of time hanging around the capital, the building is really pretty, but it wasn't as exciting as being in Wedel to be honest ;)

 inside of the main dome in the capital

 These two are the fabulous Idaho friends that have been with me in Washington and now Hamburg. Its nice to be with natives :)

Yay Abraham Lincoln!
I didn't take too many pictures around D.C. because I felt way too touristy and I was a grumpy butt the whole time anyways because it was hot.
Now that I'm in Wedel, maybe I'll get around to more pictures :)

Here!

So today (today and yesterday and technically tomorrow) has been quite the rollercoaster. But finally, after three days in D.C., a five hour wait for our flight, an eight hour flight, a four wait in the Frankfurt airport, and one of the most stressful train rides on this planet earth (six hours), I finally arrived in Wedel in a snazzy awesome German Audi!
Julie and Armin are taking good care of me and I can't wait for the rest of my family to get here.
Yay! Julie is like a new sister and I'm so thankful she's here as well.
This is going to be an extraordinary experience, homesickness and missing my boyfriend will be part of it as well, but its all going to making me a stronger person.
DEUTSCHLAND!

Ugh Airport Internet is horrible.

Ohmygosh. So I'm sitting here by the gate, working with the slowestt to internet on earth. After a "invald reservation" and lots of waiting in line, I'm about to board my flight Frankfurt. From there on is a train ride to Hamburg, and a pick up from there to Wedel. Its been a weird last few days, but very fun. (yes mom I've been eating and sleeping enough)
So, in a few hours I shall be on an eight hour flight.
We're riding a double decker airplane (awesomeREALLYSCARY)

I'm ready to be there.
I was ready three days ago. :P