Monday, September 20, 2010

Monday September 20, 2010

Hello my lovely readers! (hopefully you are out there somewhere)

So I feel like I have kind of dropped the ball in terms of getting my "story" out there considering the fact that I have officially been in Europe for over a month.  Which by the way is really weird to say considering the fact that my program technically started on August 30th.  I actually flew into Germany on August 17th to meet up with Jade, one of my best friends from home, who just happened to be finishing up a summer internship.  I still have no idea how that magically worked out, but we managed to have a sweet ass time bouncing around for almost two weeks.  We were not only in Berlin, but we also stopped in Stuttgart, Strasbourg, Florence, Rome, and Pisa (technically we also walked around Stockholm for a few hours in the middle of the night waiting for our next plane).  I still can't believe that we managed to make that work.  We almost never slept a full night (and when we did, it was usually on a train....which also led to us missing our stop on numerous occasions).  It was definitely the most surreal trip I think I had ever been on, and I loved it.  

On August 30th I left Jade and Berlin at 5:30am in order to catch 2 trains and a bus to the airport.  Unfortunately the bus was late, and I got to the airport at 7:10am.  My plane stopped boarding at 7:30am.  I should also mention that everyone and their mom was in line for security.  I think saying I was panicking was a serious understatement.  This also had to do with the fact that ,of course, when I got to the counter I found out that my bag was 4kg over weight, which meant I would have to pay 20 euros for EACH extra kg.  There was literally nothing I could have done other than to throw my clothes away.  The woman working there was less than understanding.  She made me go to the other side of the room to pay for the charges, and when I came back she was even meaner than the first time I encountered her.  Apparently I was "not her problem," so I was sent to get in the mammoth of a line when I had about 5 minutes to get to my terminal.  I looked absolutely pathetic as I tried to find someone to ask what I was suppose to do if my luggage got to Frankfurt without me.  I am pretty sure that the security guard did not want to have to deal with a sobbing American so she sent me in a separate short line, and I was able to just make my flight. 

When I got there I realized that I was going to have to take a 2 hour bus ride from Frankfurt-hahn airport to Frankfurt airport in order to get my train.  When I finally got there, I managed to find another worker who spoke english who was able to help me buy the right ticket to Freiburg.  That was another 2 hours, and one that one I ended up having to sit on my suitcase because all of the seats were reserved.  Then the last hurdle was getting a taxi and finding the building I was suppose to meet at.  

As I try to remember these details, I realize it really wasn't that long ago and yet I feel like it was months ago.  Since then we have had our "intensive" two weeks, which involved german and seminar classes everyday, day trip to parliament in Strasbourg, and a week long field trip to Berlin and Prague.  

This would theoretically would be the part where I would post an obnoxious amount of pictures of the landscape, friends from my program, all of the gelato I have been eating blah blah blah. Unfortunately I have misplaced the cord that connects my camera to my computer...I am still trying to find it.  But if worse comes to worse I am going to have to see if I can buy another one.  While in Berlin, I ended up having to buy a little plastic disposable camera. I felt like I was using a toy...especially when every other person had those sexy nikkon cameras...clicking away national geographic worthy pictures. Ok. That is clearly an exaggeration. But you get my point. (I clearly want one and am having trouble hiding my jealousy) But I do have a regular digital camera that works beautifully, so I can't complain about anything except my misplaced cord.  Just know that pictures will take over this blog soon enough.  

I promise to write more stories and "introduce" people soon, but I am just going to have to save that for next time.  

Love/Miss you all.  

(Skype me please!)