Fürstenwalde

I'm in Germany! It hasn't really hit me yet that I'm actually living in Germany :) Traveling went well. I read on one of my many documents that I should get to the airport at least three hours before departure time. So, me and my parents had a good two and a half hours to kill before my plane took off.

My first plane went from Minneapolis/St. Paul, to New York/Newark Liberty New Jersey. The next terminal that I had to go to was very far away so the connecting people went and took a bus there. Since my plane was only about ten minutes late I had a few hours still to hang out before the next one left for Berlin. There were supposed to be five other exchangers on my plane but I couldn't seem to find them so I went ahead and ate my last american meal at McDonalds. The food court was full so I sat next to a nice young man who was returning to India after finishing law school in Ohio.

Right before they started calling boarding two other exchangers found me - Austin & Hannah. Two other exchangers got on the plane just a few minutes before they shut the doors. Their planes were late and they just barely made it on. The food on the plane was pretty uenappetizing (chicken teriyaki) so I decided to skip it. I couldn't sleep, even though I definately should of so I wouldn't have jet lag.. but instead I watched some movies (Arthur & Fargo, both very good). Eventually the plane landed in Berlin, at 1 am my time, 8 Berlin time. I was very nervous about customs but all they turned out to be was a man looking suspiciously at my passport and back to me and then back to his buddy and then nodding me forward.

When I was waiting for my bag I saw my host family :) They had a sign that said "Herzlich Willkommen Rose" it was all very cute. From the Berlin TXL airport it was about an hours drive. It didn't really hit me until I walked outside that I was in Germany. It was great. :)
Solveig had brought water and fruit for me to eat. Right away I spilled some of the water on myself because so far, all the bottled water in Germany I've had is sparkling water. Not bad, but I just wasn't used to it.

So here we are, driving down the autobahn, and all of a sudden I realized that we are going really fast. So I turn to my host sister (Laura) and I ask how fast we're going. She's all nonchalont like "Oh 160 kilometers". Thats like 120 mph! Haha honestly I felt a little freaked out after that. But it was really cool too. On the way to the house we stopped in Fürstenwalde to get bread for breakfast. There is something that sounds vaguely familiar, liverwurst, that they put on the bread. It tastes like meat flavored butter. At first I was like what, but after I tried it and it's alright. I had it on my bread this morning again. We also had Nutella, a chocolate spread (very very good). For the rest of the day I alternated between trying to unpack, and falling asleep as I was trying to unpack(: Later that night my hostparents brought Laura to the airport. She's in South Africa/Pretoria on exchange.

Today Solveig and I walked into the downtown Fürstenwalde. We went to the apotheke (pharmacy), window shopped, and went to the trainstation. Solvieg says I will get a pass for der bus, or I could also ride my bike to school, and after school I can take the train to Berlin if I want.

Tschüß!