Welkommen to Deutschland!

Wow, so I’m here! Finally! After a travel for a day and a half (time change) I finally reached my destination in Hamburg. Getting out of Bloomington,  many of us had to leave the hotel at 6am to catch the bus back to the O’Hare Airport in Chicago. I think at some point each one of us slept a little. As we came to each terminal we starting saying goodbye to one another and best wishes for our trips. Although Lana and I are both in Germany, we had different flights. I think it may have something to do with her going to Greece after Germany….but I don’t know. Anyway, Annie, Klaire, and I traveled to Dublin, Ireland together and I split off to go to Germany while they go to Austria. Customs in Dublin was slightly nerve-wracking-not because its customs but because I only had about an hour to get through before my flight would begin boarding! But it all worked out and I even had time to buy a water (they took my empty one at security! ) I was pleasantly surprised by customs at Germany. The officer said hello, I said hello back, he scanned my passport, stamped it, and sent me on my way. That was probably the easiest and fastest that I have ever come through customs-and there was no security scans either to go through. As soon as I got my luggage I met Neele (IFYE to USA  Alum), Lana (Colorado) , and Esteban (Costa Rica). We were all very tired, and I think the three of us fell asleep in the car ride even though we tried to stay awake, lol. We got to Gesche’s house (IFYE to USA Alum) for orientation and had free time for the afternoon. Later we went for a walk and for ice cream-and I even got some! I was surprised to learn that in Germany they make fruit ice cream using water which means I can have it! Yay! Later that evening the other inbounds arrived-Oystein (Norway) and Laura (Finland). There will be another girl from Finland coming later that I will meet at debriefing in August. Charlotte (IFYE to USA Alum) brought the others by train from the airport that evening.

                On Wednesday, we started orientation when Bettina arrived (German Cooridinator/IFYE to USA Alum). At first we went over our host families, where we would be going in Germany, and our packets of information. After Edith (retired coordinator/IFYE Alum), Marten (Germany to USA), and Felix (Germany to USA) arrived we went over information regarding living with another host family/country. We were asked to give presentations about our home countries, so I kinda threw mine together on the spot (yay for spontaneity!), and then later at the party we gave brief presentations and I was asked to play my clarinet. That was fun, and should have been expected but I wasn’t thinking about it either. That evening we stayed up and played Spoons, listened to music, talked about various things, and then Marten showed me how the German’s typically dance (similar to swing style) and then I taught him a couple stunts, so it was fun.

                Probably the best day of orientation week was going to The North Sea. We got to walk on the much where the tide goes out from each day and find worms, crabs, and feel sea shells. It is interesting if you don’t keep moving you will be stuck in the mud and may not be able to get back out again. Sometimes the tide is so low that you can walk to an island from Germany-craziness! Apparently, this is the only sea that you can do this with. As we walked in the mud, a couple people were trying to throw mud, which was funny in some ways I suppose, but I had my camera at the time, so that wasn’t cool then. We took group photos, and also an “IFYE” pose. Some of us then went to the water on the other side to wash of the mud, but when we started splashing water I quickly went down to just my swimsuit. It was quite fun. Finally we ate lunch, and then layed in the sun for a couple hours-during which time even with sunscreen some of us burned.

 

Observations of a Kansan to Germany:

·         Most of the autos(cars) driven here are manual cars. It is hard to find an automatic car in Germany.

·         Farms are often within the villages. The fields are the country land, but within the villages are the livestock. In the USA this would not even be a possibility!

·         Germany is so GREEN!!!!

·         In the USA-teachers only need a bachelor’s degree and typically teach only one subject area. In Germany, teachers must have a master’s degree and they teach two subjects.

·         In Northern Germany-people speak Polkduestch which is a dialect. Germany is full of various dialects, but in general people can speak High German (which is universal and what I learned)

·         Speed limits-very fast compared to the USA and in some places the people get to choose their own speed

 

USA Welcomes IFYES- 28 total!

So on Friday morning June 14, bright and early, I left with my parents for the airport in Wichita. Flew to Chicago and met up with Annie (also from Kansas), and then we had to figure out how to get to Terminal 5 from the baggage claim. We walked, asked questions, searched for the train, and finally another traveler directed us to the elevator to the train. The fun part then was getting from the main level of Terminal 5 to the baggage claim-you would think this would be easy and all you should have to do is go done a flight of escalators. Not so-it was a little bit more confusing than that but made perfect sense when we finally found an information desk. Anyway, we got there, met Carolyn, and she found our other three international IFYE’s who would be riding the bus with us to Bloomington-Gillian (Scotland, Florian (Germany), and Rachel (Ireland). We talked a little bit off and on for the three two hours we had left in the airport. Then we were on the bus for three hours due to traffic, ugh. Finally we get to Bloomington in time for the get to know you games and to eat a couple pieces of pizza.
On Saturday morning, we had a lot of information about being abroad given to us, visited the Funk Seed Farm, went to a church, and supper at a Chinese Restaurant. I am not related to the Funk Seed Farm, although the guide tried to convince that I am, but if it was even remotely possible-it is so far down the line from me that it would not make a difference. Saturday evening, I got to know one of my roommates-Tone (Norway). Later we went down to meeting room where a movie was playing, but more importantly IFYEs were just hanging out and talking.
 

Sunday was probably my favorite day of the orientation. Again in the morning we had lectures and information, and that all gets very boring after a while, but it is useful information if you haven’t heard it before. For lunch we ate Famous Dave’s BBQ Chicken-yum! Then we went to the university’s garden-which may not sound all that cool-but in reality it gave us all a chance to relax, take random photos, and talk for one last day. I tried my best to rotate around the different groups and get pictures and spend time with all the IFYEs-some I missed but I was able to see a lot of them.  Same thing with the baseball field-not the most exciting thing in the world, but a great time to talk. Lastly we went to Ross’s Dairy Farm, where they make cheese, and they are also IFYE Alumni.  We had a fire, roasted hot dogs over the fire, which for some of the inbound IFYEs that was a first, we also made smores-another first for most of the inbound IFYEs .We then had to give presentations about our home country/state. It was so neat to see/participate in that-most people gave a few facts about their country/state and did a participatory activity. There was a lot of singing and a lot of dancing. I participated in learning several dances. After this we went back to the hotel to complete surveys, pack snacks, eat ice cream sundaes, take final pictures, and say goodnight/goodbye/until next time.

 So many wonderful nice volunteers here for the weekend, and wonderful IFYE reps here to meet, connect with, and form new friendships! So far this has been an unforgettable experience.

Friday-It's quickly approaching!

Well, the trip to Germany is quickly approaching. Only two more days after today in Almena, then two days in Salina, and I board the plane on Friday! As to be expected, I am excited and nervous all at the same time. I am excited to go and meet our coordinators in Germany, see IFYE people at the orientation prior to leaving the States, and really excited to meet my host families! Since my last post I have learned many new details about my upcoming trip and host families.

Over Memorial Day weekend, my family hosted a Benefit Garage Sale in Salina. As with any garage sales, they take a lot of work, and so I went back early to help set up. The garage sale was a huge success with help from many donations from Willing Workers and friends. For the Garage Sale I created a poster with information about IFYE and my trip for people who were interested in learning more.

About a week later, on June 1st, I woke up to find and email from Bettina saying that my first host family is confirmed and gave me an information sheet from my host family. The information sheet was in German, and I had a lot of fun trying to decipher the information that I could between my limited knowledge of German, my phrasebook, and the a translation site. Anyway my first host family will be the Hollenbach Family from Southwest Germany not to far from Stuttgard. It is a family of five, with one boy and two girls. Very similar to the size of family I grew up with. My host brother/sisters are in their teens, and the boy is close to my younger sister's age.

At this point, I thought to myself, I need to write a blog to update everyone on what is going on, but I thought to wait a few more days to see if I learned about my second host family.-that was a good bet. My second host family the Heineman Family is near Bremen. It is a family of four, with a 4 year old daughter and 1 year old son.

As different as these two families may seem, I am very excited to experience to different lifestyles between the families, as well as experience the cultural difference between North and South Germany. As far as gifts for my host families go, I am still working on getting a few things, but I have my photo books ready, recipes, working on a couple other things, and of course I have my big gifts for them already (but I'm not saying what they are).

There are only a few days left and I am quickly working to get everything ready in time. It has been crazy busy, but I am also making time to hang out with friends, talk to people, or just to read a book for an hour. Please keep me and others traveling this summer for safe travels, good health, and good experiences. Look for my next post in about a week! (it will probably be from Germany by then!)