Day 1 - Arrival In Germany

Whelp, I've finally arrived in Germany and I can finally say: Howdy from Bonn!  After catching a few cat naps on the flight overseas and on the bus, my 36 hour day has come to an end.
After landing in Frankfurt, everyone on my flight made our way over to the official meeting point where we would join up with the AIB representatives who would be busing my group as well as two other schools to Bonn.

 Before the 9 and a half hour flight

After the 9 and a half hour flight

Once there, we had a small meeting where we received a package of important papers and information (mostly maps) had a quick snack, and waited for our host families to pick us up.  Unfortunately, I was unable to meet my host mom Annette right away as she was out at the time, but her neighbor Juliette was gracious enough to allow me to catch a ride with her and her host student to where I will be living for the next four months. The only one at the house was Sophie, Annette's second dughter.  She gave me a tour of their modest home, then showed me upstairs to an adorable little room.  As I finished unpacking, Annette's other two daughters came home and I met Marie - the youngest - and Sarah (Maus) - the oldest who lives near the Netherlands.  We had lunch, talked, and generally tried to get to know each other.  It probably helped when I revealed that I thought Sarah was her mother because I was not expecting her to be present when I first showed up.  After that, it was easy to talk to the three sisters.

I quickly discovered that although Sophie and Sarah can speak english rather well (Sarah was almost fluent) little Marie is still heavily dependent on her sisters for translating my English into German for her.  Of course, this means my desire to learn German has spiked as I want to hold at least a passable conversation with her before I leave, and though she will speak a little English to me (like when she offered me cake for my birthday) our conversations are generally conveyed through body language, short easy to understand exclamations, and giggles.

When the girls found out that I had arrived on my birthday, they all congratulated me and were a little upset that they didn't have a cake for me.  I tried to tell them that meeting them and having the opportunity to just BE in German was more than enough, but when they came back from dinner at their Grandmother's house (during which I took a much needed nap) the made a cake.  When I woke up and went downstairs, they were watching Willie Wonka (in German of course) so I settled down to watch the movie, eat some cake, and talk some more.

Eventually Sarah left to return home and about a half hour later Annette cam in.  After greetings, I ran up to my room to get the gifts from Austin I had brought as a thank you for allowing me to stay in their home.  After dinner, Sophie showed me to Juliette's house where I will need to show up at 8:45 to be shown where the central train station in, and then we turned back to finish the movie we had started.

I'm typing this now after my first day in Bonn, and I can already tell I'm going to love it here, especially once I found the helpful hints and notes that other students had left before me.  Even though the Hilberg's have wifi, I was unable to connect for some reason (I'll find out tomorrow...it's 11:30 right now!!).  And so, by the time I finally make a blog and post this, my first day will have already passed.  But it's OK. I have my trusty camera, a great host family, and a whole new culture to explore.

Mom, Dad, Matthew, if you guys are reading this (meaning I actually DO get this blog thing up and running) I love you guys and I can't wait to tell you all about this new adventure I'm experience.  Auf wiedersehen to all my friends back home.

Erin Z

*written Jan 12, 21014*