Was heißt "Public Transportation" auf Deutsch??

 As many know, Germans care a lot about keeping the environment clean which means that cars are used less and many forms of public transportation are made available! I personally find the amount of trains and buses very convenient for one such as I who does not drive a car here in Germany. Each day I take a bus to school and most days I take the train home. I went from a small town Wisconsin girl who had no idea how to even buy a train ticket to helping other people find where they need to go and how they need to get there. I have, along the way however, had my share of experiences while using some of these forms of public transportation!


First time on the train alone: Started up a conversation with the person I was sitting next to after they helped me figure out what station I needed to get out at. Got up to leave once we got to my station. The door wasn't opening! The doors always open automatically don't they??? I've never had to press anything before... Person I was talking to casually asks, "Isn't this your stop?" and makes the motion of pressing a button. OHH there is a button!! I thank the person very kindly while walking out the door, trying to hide the embarrassment coloring my face.

Ticket Checkers: Comfortably sitting on the train on my way home from my German course. Man walks by and says something in German that I don't understand. Everyone starts to rummage in their bags. I have no idea whats going on but I decide to take out my ticket just in case. He comes to me, holds out his hand, so I give him my ticket. He looks at me, holds out his hand again, and says something in German. I look over at the man sitting across from me with giant panicky eyes and pray he speaks English! He tells me I need to show my ID. Great! I forgot my ID at home. The man explains to the guy checking the tickets and I get two frustrated looks. I get my ticket back and the guy moves on! I was so relieved and I thanked the man sitting across from me. He gave me another frustrated look. I just sat quietly after that ;)

 I have a hundred more experiences like these that I could share! For now, however, I must end by saying that I really do like taking buses and trains everywhere because it is experiences like these that add color into my day!

Wie Alt Bin Ich??

  I can honestly say that I have never been confused about what age I was before coming to Germany. I'm 18 now (!!!) super exciting but yet I never feel like I'm 18. When I go to school I feel very young since I'm in 10th grade. Everyone in my class and all my friends at school are either 15 or 16 and each day when I go to school I feel just as old as they are! I really don't mind them being younger because they all seem to be pretty mature for their age (well not all of the guys of course) but feeling like I am 16 all over again is quite odd. Soccer and church, however, are completely the opposite of school! The first time I went to the church here in Munich everyone kept telling me about all of the young single adult activities that I can go to and started introducing me to people who were like 20-25! I wasn't even old enough to go to YSA things at the time, I was just looking for the young women's room. There isn't anyone my age at church, however, so I go to the class for the women. Interestingly enough, though, I have made some pretty good friends at church so far! The only thing is that they happen to be around the age of 30. The same thing goes for soccer. Most of the women that I play soccer with are around the age of thirty and I have come to be pretty close with some of them, which I think is really nice. When I go to church or to soccer practice, I feel much older than I actually am. Making friends with people who are ten years older than me isn't such a foreign concept like it would have been three months ago. Now it's just something normal for me!
  Now since I've mentioned soccer I feel the need to expand on it just a little bit! I really love playing soccer here because there are so many people who love it just as much as I do. Since there aren't any school sports teams here, I play on a club team in the town I live in. The women on my team range in age from sixteen to thirty-six, which I think is really great because it gives the team more character! There is also just something about being on a soccer team that makes people act crazy no matter what age they are! We practice two times a week and then have games every weekend which I think is just about perfect because with so many things going on, it's not overwhelming to have soccer only three days out of the week.
  Things are going really great here and I am loving every minute! Blog posts will also be coming more often now since I finally have Wi-Fi! Grüße aus Deutschland, ciao!

First Impressions of Germany!

 I arrived in the wonderful country of Germany on Friday, July 22. The first day I was so exhausted I had no idea what was really going on. I met my host family (who are incredibly awesome!) at the train station and we had some lunch (mittagessen) when we got to their house. Later we went for a walk and I almost fell asleep in the middle of the street! I wasn't allowed to sleep until normal bedtime to avoid jet-leg. It was harder than you would think! I didn't sleep much on the plane ride over to begin with and then having the time be seven hours ahead in Germany really messed with my sleeping schedule. I'm used to the time now but I still accidentally fall asleep during the day sometimes.
 My first weekend in Germany was good, we didn't do a whole lot but it was nice to just relax after the long flight and the stressful few days I spent in Washington D.C. We had a typical German breakfast for the first three days I've been here, which is a million different kinds of breads and rolls most with seeds but some without. There are also big pretzels that taste amazing and giant croissants. There are a ton of different things to put on the bread like seven kinds of meat, different cheeses, tomatoes, spreads, jam, peanut butter and nutella. I usually have a roll with some salami and butter which we eat open-faced or I mix peanut butter and nutella and put that on a pretzel or a roll without seeds on it. The bread is amazing and even though we have it all the time, I'm still not sick of it! The food is a lot better than I thought it would be. Last night I had some Turkish pizza which was pretty good and they have fries or potato wedges a lot here too. The only problem is that they have a different kind of ketchup which I am not a fan of so far.. Although I do like tea (Tee) more now, fruit tea that is. We have tea time on the weekends and just skip lunch because at tea time we eat some type of cake or some ice cream instead! Also in my host family we usually have a little dessert after dinner which is usually chocolate and vanilla mousse with caramel and chocolate sauce and it may be the most delicious thing in the world!
 I'm working off all the good food (mostly the bread) by walking a lot. The sidewalks are all brick here and everything is so beautiful and clean! My language camp is in another city so I walk to the bus station every morning, ride the bus to the train station, ride the train to the city my school is in, and then walk to school. It takes me about an hour every morning to get to school but that's alright with me because it's fun to be out walking around and riding all the public transportation by myself. My first time riding on a train here was when on my way to my host family's from the airport. I was sitting against a window with two people in front of me and one next to me. They definitley weren't speaking German so I had no idea what was going on when the guy next to me (Andres) asked me a question. I just started laughing and told him in English that I had no idea what he was saying in what ever language he was speaking. He had just asked in Spanish if I was with the other girls in the seats to the right of us (people from my language camp) and so we ended up switching places. He spoke a little English so I talked to him a bit but half the time neither of us could understand each other, which was incredibly funny to me and the other girls I was with. The lack of sleep probably made us seem like we were crazy but we really didn't care at that point. We figured that Andres and all his friends (who were all nineteen and from Spain) were making fun of us "Americans" but we couldn't understand anything they said. It was just very ironic that the first people I meet in Germany are from Spain and don't speak any German!
  Everyday something interesting happens and there are a million situations in one day where communicating is next to impossible! My German is still nicht so gut, but that;s alright because I didn't really expect it to get much better in the five days I've been here. I have a long way to go to become fluent, but each day I learn so much! That's all for today, but please comment and I'll write more soon!

Hello from Wisconsin

 I'm still in Wisconsin, and I have two weeks until I leave for Germany! On the 19th of July I will be flying to Washington D.C. and meeting with the members of Congress from Wisconsin, since the scholarship I'm on, Congress-Bundestag, is funded by our Congress.  I also have my final orientation before actually leaving for Germany! There's 250 of us from the U.S. that received the scholarship so after our orientation we're all flying into Frankfurt together. After that we're split up and sent to our temporary host families. I'm living in Wegberg, which is about 30 minutes from the Netherlands border(!!!), for the first four weeks. So before school starts I have a month long orientation and language course that will hopefully get me prepared enough to get through the first week of school... Even though I'm super excited about leaving I'm also really nervous. In the pre-departure orientation I went to in May, they told us not to have any expectations so that we can experience everything with an open mind. I have absolutely NO idea what to expect so I think I'm on the right track to having an open mind!
I wanted to make this Blog so that people can follow me where I go over the next year.  So if you have questions, feel free to comment or even suggest places for me to visit : ) Wish me luck.  Auf Wiedersehn!