This is Happening

My journey started with painstaking hours typing up applications and since then It became a waiting game , waiting to here back from CIEE , waiting to get a host family, waiting to finally leave . How is it then that I can describe to you the feelings I experiencted upon hearing the roar of the jet engines that to me signified a year away from everything Id ever known or loved but also promised to bring with it new things to learn and love. Looking back it should have been overwhelming but It wasnt . Two weeks into having left home the relization that I am now, and will for a year remain in a country diffrent from my own has only hit me in bits and peices . It hit me when jogging in the morning and looking over to find a sunrise over the peaks of mountains it hit me when I didnt understand the lady at the supermarket it hit me when I least expected it . I comment on how surreal this whole experience is almost daily and still the confirmation of my peers does not help me understand what Ive gotten in to. Often I feel like a baby looking out in wonder at everything thats new and wanting to explore but also seeking out the things that are familiar .
Right now im still in a little American bubble sorrounded by 48 other Americans from the south eastern part of the US . We are in a language and immersion camp in the little town of Bad Laasphe, the "campus" we are staying in is usually a Gymnasium/Realschulen during the year and consist of a dorm building with several classrooms on the first (second ) floor and a castle where we eat our meals and occasionally meet as a group . The town itself is very quant and the Germans there are very friendly most people know about the program and so are even more helpful . The town really is very accepting of us since weve been here we have attended a meeting wth their mayor played an interchanging game in town trading things with shopkeepers for an apple and an egg, and attended the local Bosche beer fest . Wehnever we have more than a couple minutes of free-time we often go to town even though it requires walking back up a big hill which my roomate affectionately calls Mt.Kilimanjaro to get back up to the Schloss .
During the week we have classes and activities set up by teachers and what we call teamers . Together they franticallly try to prepare us for our year in Germany and that goes from knowing the language to introducing us to "German trash music" . Im definetly leaving a lot more prepared than I came in and for that I hank them , they are really a great group of fun young dynamic people. Where else can you go dancing and have a beer with your teacher on a friday night as you sing to old cheesy american music ? I have about a week left in camp and a lot of exiting things are surely waiting for me , the next task shall be seeing how i feel once the safety net of being sorrounded by Americans is taken from me and I am truly fully immersed in German culture .

Going down Mt.Kilimanjaro 

The Schloss

Bad Laasphe 

Beer Fest at the Bosch Brewery