Week 2!

I can't believe that I've already finished two out of my three weeks of language camp. I'm sad that after next week I won't see a lot of my ASSE CBYX friends for awhile, but I also think it'll be great to finally start real school in Germany and hopefully meet a lot of new people and start learning more German. This week was pretty much a normal week of language camp, with lessons/discussion in the morning, and free work time after lunch. On Monday I got to try my first gelato in Germany (I know, Italian, but still really amazing) with a bunch of friends after class. The gelato place is right across the street from the language camp, so it's kind of hard to resist! I had two flavors, Nutella and Biscotto, and both were absolutely great!

Wednesday's language class was a little different because they had us walk to the a few grocery stores to compare prices of some various food items. At the store called Kaiser's, we all bought a bunch of "Kinder Surprise" eggs and other chocolate. The Kinder eggs are such a novelty to us since they don't allow them in America due to a supposed "choking hazard". The main thing I got out of that price comparison is that very high quality chocolate is really cheap here. For example, those square Ritter Sport chocolate bars that come in all sorts of flavors are only 69 euro cents here (equivalent of 79 American cents). Also, there's so many types of Haribo gummies that are in the regular grocery stores here that do not exist in America. As far as I know, in the U.S. we just have the usual Haribo gummy bears. Well here, it's a completely different story. The hardest part is choosing what kind to get! I'm planning to try them all before the year's over. :)

The treasured kinder egg! 

After class on Wednesday, Ashley, Brianna, and I hopped on the U-Bahn and headed to the "Konigsallee" area to go shopping. We went to Primark and H&M (actually a few different H&M's...there's at least 4 in that immediate vicinity). I got a sweatshirt, a sweater, two long sleeved shirts, and some socks all for 25 euros, so I was pretty happy with that. We also looked for Spaghettieis, but unfortunately that wasn't meant to be.

On Thursday I went to swim club again with my host sister. This time we biked, so I felt like we did some sort of mini-duathlon or something. I think my swim skills might already have improved a bit...aka I can now to laps at a reasonable speed without stopping tons or swallowing a bunch of water. I'm so happy that I decided to branch out and give swimming thing a try! Maybe by the end of the year I'll even be a decent swimmer. :P
On Friday, the program coordinator for CBYX through GIVE/ASSE visited our language camp. Each of the 2 classes had divided into 2 groups the previous week to create a short welcome presentation for her. My group did a little skit, which turned out kind of funny because the room we were in was so small that there really wasn't enough space for that. I think she liked it anyway so it's fine. After that she talked to us for a while and answered all of our questions, which was super helpful! In the afternoon, Alida, Ashley and I walked all over Düsseldorf's Altstadt and even got some Spaghettieis! It was expensive, but oh so worth it! I definitely plan to have it again while the weather is still warm. :D We also went in a really fancy chocolate shop with a chocolate fountain. We just looked around and decided that chocolate from the grocery store would satisfy our cravings. Let's just say that you wouldn't be finding anything for .69 euro at that shop. :P

Spagettieis!

Before the first bite!

The fancy chocolate shop!

By the Rhine. :)

The River Rhine pt. 2

Königsallee

Today, Saturday, I took the train (well actually bike then train then another train then bus) with my host sister to go to her friend's American Football game. I did't really even know that American football existed in Germany.
So, I think that's about it for now!
Bis später! :)

Mein Geburtstag in Köln!

Yesterday (Saturday) I got to cook my first American food for my host family! My mom sent some amazing Dakin Farms pancake mix and maple syrup over from Vermont a couple of weeks ago, and my host family and I decided that my birthday would be the perfect occasion to have them on. I have to admit, I was a bit worried that I'd somehow manage to ruin them, but they actually turned out great! I enjoyed them very much, and I think everyone else did as well. :)

Also that morning, my host family surprised me with some wonderful gifts and a delicious cake!

After presents, we headed off to the train station to go to Cologne for the day! Once we arrived at the Cologne Hauptbahnhof, our first stop was the Kölner Dom (Cologne Cathedral). It was super busy, so we decided to save climbing to the top (500 + stairs) for another day). The architecture and size of the cathedral was absolutely amazing though. Being inside it made me feel absolutely tiny.

Next we went over to the Hohenzollern Bridge (known for the love locks) to search for a geocache that has been found over 8,000 times. We looked for quite some time, and were eventually joined by another geocacher who was also searching for it. After approximately 30-40 minutes, we found it!

Then we did sort of a walking tour of the city, checking out various sites and finding more geocaches along the way.

Overall, it was a fantastic day! I can't wait to go back to Cologne and explore more. I think I'm going to go again sometime in the next couple of weeks with my language camp. :)

Language Camp Day 3

The teacher of my class at language camp was still gone in London today, so it was a pretty open-ended day for the "intermediate/advanced" group. We had 3 assignments to complete, which we did pretty much on our own schedule. One of the assignments was for groups of two to create a video advertisement for a German product of our choice. My friend Alida and I got a couple of Kinder Bueno chocolate bars out of a vending machine and made our advertisement. We went outside and filmed it with the Rheinturm (Düsseldorf TV Tower) in the background. Not a bad day when one of your assignments involves eating German chocolate ;)
Our language camp is held in a meeting room at a youth hostel, so every day we eat lunch there in the cafeteria. For lunch today we had schnitzel. It was made with pork instead of beef, but it was surprisingly good. I have actually liked every German food that I've tried since I've been here. :D
Once our language class got out for the day, Alida and I decided to walk around the area a little bit and then eventually get to our train station on foot instead of by bus. We got a little lost, but it was totally worth it because we saw a lot of cool sights. And luckily we made it to the train station eventually. ;)

The first days here!

It's crazy to think that I've only been in Germany for less than a week. The last time I wrote I was at the Frankfurt Airport, eating a pretzel (eine Brezel) and chatting with some of the other ASSE CBYX students. Eventually our train did come (despite a 35 min. delay), and we were on our way to Düsseldorf! I had been looking forward to seeing the sights along the way during this train ride, but I ended up falling asleep within minutes of sitting down, even before the first stop. Just before we arrived at the Düsseldorf Hauptbahnhof, someone woke me up (thankfully!) and we all jumped (okay well not exactly jumped...we each had at least 50+ pounds of luggage to carry) off the train to meet our host families! My wonderful host mom and host sister were there to greet me. It was so fantastic to finally meet them in person after months of emailing and skyping. We quickly went on our way to the parking garage and drove home. Surprisingly, I believe I actually managed to stay awake for the rest of the evening. At about 8:00 I went to bed, and by the next morning I felt almost completely adjusted to the time! Over the weekend I biked around the area, went to see Paper Towns (in German) with my host sister and her friends, walked around downtown Neuss, baked currant/raspberry (Johannisbeeren/Himbeeren) crumble with my host sister, and found a bunch of geocaches with my host family.
Yesterday (Monday) was my first day of language camp! The three week language camp that I am attending in Düsseldorf has about 20 American students, all of whom are from the ASSE CBYX program. I am very happy about the language camp because one, It should be a big help to learn more German before I go to the Gymnasium (high school) for the first time. Two, I get to see many of my friends from the Washington D.C. Orientation a lot more, and three, I will get to see some of the city of Düsseldorf. Yesterday was kind of cold and rainy, so we mostly stayed inside and then we headed out in the afternoon for a short walk around the town. Yesterday evening I decided to go to swim club with my host sister. It was only an hour long, but I was absolutely exhausted by the end. I did enjoy it very much, so I think I'll keep going and hopefully improve by the end of the year. I don't have anything else to do at that time, so why not! Today, one of our language camp teachers wasn't there, and the weather was very nice, so we got to spend a good portion of the afternoon walking around doing a scavenger hunt (all in german of course). It involved reading interpretive signs/maps, locating various objects, and sometimes asking people questions in German. Below are some photos from Düsseldorf today. :)

Finally here!!

After a 6.5 hour flight across the Atlantic ocean, I've finally made it to Germany! Right now I'm in a little cafe at the Frankfurt airport waiting for the train to Düsseldorf. I'm so excited that in just a few hours I'll get to meet my host family!
The orientation in D.C. was a very fun and memorable, but also exhausting. We met with the representatives of our congressmen and senators, visited some of the monuments, toured a couple of the Smithsonian's, and visited the U.S. Department of State.

At the Lincoln Memorial