Deutschland!

I made it to Germany unscathed and really tired. My journey started out early on Saturday, the 9th and ended with a 2 hour train ride from Frankfurt to Freiburg on the 10th. The whole journey lasted about 20+hours. I was exhausted! I was a little worried about finding the right train ride to my destination but I found the Deutsche Bahn office (Deutsche Bahn means German train--DB is the organization's name) and then I found the right track with no problem. But I still had a little anxiety so when I got to the track, I saw a nice looking girl about 18 years old and asked for confirmation that I had the right track and clarified information on my ticket. She was so helpful and then she and I just ended up being train buddies because she was actually headed to the same town as I. We sat together on the train and told each other about ourselves a little. Half in German, half in English. I found out she was just coming from Portland, Oregon from an exchange program. What are the odds that we were coming from pretty much the same area of the country? It was nice to have her there to help out. When we got to Freiburg, Silke and I went our separate ways and I headed to the guesthouse address that was provided for me. Once I got there, there were already a couple of people there who had been there since 11:00am. There was nobody there to give us room keys and we waited for about an hour and finally somebody showed and gave us our room key. The nice thing is we each have our own room with our own bathrooms and the rooms have a balcony door and window that open up all the way to let the fresh air into the room. That evening, a couple of women and I went into the city to get our bearings and look around. The city of Freiburg is a university town. The university is called Goethe (pronounced goo-teh) Institute and lots of people from all over the world come and take German language courses. We returned to the guesthouse and pretty much turned in for the night because we were so tired and knew we had a long day ahead of us. Monday, June 11th: Class day started and we began with introductions. There are about 16 people in our language group and they come from almost all corners of the world: 1 from Finnland, 3 from Russia, 2 from Poland, 1 from Czech Republic, 2 from Turkey, 1 from Macedonia, 1 from Nigeria, 1 from Taiwan, 1 from USA (me), 1 from Indonesia, and 2 from France. Very diverse group to say the least! We had instruction for the first part of the day and went to the bakery for a snack. I had almost forgotten how much a temptation the bakeries are here! The smells permeate the outside area as you walk down the street, and the baked goods are all laid out with care and eager advertisement. It draws you in every time. I have to watch myself. Fortunately, we walk everywhere! Lots of walking every day until our feet can't take it anymore...then we walk some more. The afternoon was spent on a city tour led by our instructor and then we did more walking in partners while we completed a scavenger hunt. By the end of the evening we were exhausted once again. The one thing that is the most intensively tiring thing about traveling abroad for language courses? Thinking, processing, speaking in the target language almost 100% of the time. German is the only way we all can communicate with each other. Tosin, the girl from Nigeria, knows English so every once in awhile, she and I will converse a little in English but quickly change back to German. Sometimes our conversations are half in German and half English! Haha! So far, I'm having a great time and I will have to write more about what we did on Tuesday and today but for now, I better head to bed. Tonight is the big soccer game between Germany and the Netherlands and there are for sure tons of people out in the bars and restaurants watching it but I'm so tired and lately it has been so chilly and rainy, several of us didn't feel like going out again after being out in the rain today and we decided to stay in and chill out in the common room with our computers and surf the Internet. We happened to also meet a guy who was watching the game on his laptop so we are watching it all together. I will write more later though.