Student Blogs

So I have had a very exciting last couple of days. My week began with a sports writer for the daily newspaper contacting me to ask if he cold write a story on me. I of course said yes! Matt Goul, from York Daily Record had called me for an interview and a few short hours later I was in an article! Somehow I ended up being on the front page of the sports section, and had a giant picture of me throwing javelin. 

Let me just start by saying this: I typed almost this entire entry using my Spanish  keyboard and kept wondering why the words continued to change to words that I had no idea the meaning was. That was why. The Spanish keyboard is helpful when you are typing in Spanish, not English. 

So somewhere along the way in this crazy process, I somehow convinced my parents that it would be a good idea to host while I'm away. I mean there will be an open bed so why not! My host sisters name is Momoka, and she is from Japan. She will be arriving here on August 15th, about 2 weeks before my departure. We have emailed and talked and I am SO excited to be able to meet her and hang out with her before I leave.

It’s been almost 2 weeks since my departure from Germany. So far I’ve been really busy with appointments, studying, watching the World Cup, and readjusting back to American life. Now that I have a little bit of time, I would like to tell you one of my favorite highlights in Germany.

One month ago, my host family and I took a trip to the capital of Germany-Berlin! We walked around the city for a bit, went to tour the dome at the Reichstag, took a city bus tour, and saw the one thing I wanted to see most-the Berlin Wall!

I find it amazing how fast time can go by. It just seems like yesterday that my host dad and two host brothers picked me up at the airport, and later falling asleep at the Biergarten after staying awake for 30 hours. And now after 10 months, I am finally back home in the US.

*Written in February

It’s been about a month since I last posted. Since then, I went to Bamberg and Forchheim for my HZC (Halbzeitcamp/Half stay camp). Unfortunately, I can’t post any of my own pictures from Bamberg or Forchheim, because my camera recently broke.

I can easily, without a doubt say that the visa process is the hardest, most stupid, and difficult for no reason thing that had to do with going to Spain. To everyone who will be reading this, thinking about studying abroad next year, I'm not going to make it out to be a stroll in the park. Because it's not. It's hard and annoying. 

Time has flown by since my last post a few months ago. As they say, “Time goes by when you’re having fun.” During the past four months, I’ve been able to experience a lot of new things, including experiencing more of the German culture and traveling around Europe. I personally find that the more someone immerses him-or-herself into a new country and culture, the more he or she forgets about his or her home country. So please forgive me for my lack of blog posts until now..

End of February-March

As I got my host family a couple days ago, I have been communicating with my host mom via email. At first we were speaking in English until she told me that she doesn't actually speak fluent English..... That's when I decided I might a well get a head start on my Spanish, and try my best to write by myself.... Although I have been using google translate for assistance (about 1/3 of every email) but hey, practice makes perfect right? So I learned that I will be living in a beautiful, small, red house and I fell in love the first time I saw it.... On google earth I might add.

Today was my lucky day!! After alllllllllll of the waiting that seemed like forever, I finally got my host family. While a lot of people have already gotten their host families, a lot are also still waiting. I feel very fortunate to have a family who chose me based on what they saw on my application..... Hopefully they can handle the Lilly.... Anyway, I was waiting for my friend to get out of class for lunch when I opened up my email on my iPod. I refreshed the page and there is was! "AFS: Your permanent host family placement". I literally started jumping up and down with excitement.