Choices, choices…

I'm re-applying to college. Fun in theory (the fact that you're now about to do pretty much what you want to) and not so fun regarding the actual application process. All. Over. Again.

Last year, I was applying to colleges within the United States, except for when I was considering the American University of Paris. This year, I'm applying to colleges on both sides of the pond. Going to school in Europe doesn't seem like so much of a reach anymore, I'm seriously considering staying here and if application decisions allow me, I would go to college in France without much hesitation. I have to consider all my options. I know that. But the possibility of leaving Europe actually scares the crap out of me. Hello, irony.

Unbezahlbar

regiokarte: 34€

latte macchiato: 1,50€

freiburg postcard: 1€

scarf: 9€

comprehending that I'm incredibly lucky to be living here: priceless



And DeutscheBank does it all. ;)

Part Zwei

A continuation of our time in Bonn...

Our last excursion with AIB was a cruise on the Rhine. The day turned out to be perfect, just sunny enough to enjoy being on a boat. Sunny enough to make everyone sleepy, but no matter. Passing by, we got to see the Loreley and a bunch of castles. When we got to our destination, we had lunch and then began the hike up to Marksburg Castle. Niki and I had waited for Kelly to change shoes so we actually ended up taking a different (and probably the wrong) route to the forest. After realizing this, we called Cole, he walked down to come and get us and we proceeded to have a very rushed hike and first three quarters of the Marksburg tour. On our way out, there was a wedding party (certain guests only had to walk about half of the way that we did to get to the castle, but I wouldn't want to experience those steps in a dress and heels) taking photos and we got a group photo with the whole shebang: old school Volkswagen, the couple and all 24 of us. Just one of our fabulous shenanigans! But we never did get to walk around all dressed up with champagne bottles... Berlin in January, anyone?

Our last night in Bonn, AIB held a going away party for us just like they did when we arrived. All the host families were there and that was when I realized how much I had become a part of the Elschner family. We had some of the best entertainment, namely Ryan Knott, Lindsay, Huggs (Kelsey), Bree, Elena and Chris perform 'In The Jungle' from the Lion King (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6vl6slaJGhQ), us gifting Cole an iPod which was delivered to him back in the States (he thought the picture of the iPod in the card was just a joke, haha. We are so snazzy) and Joe finally played the doodlesack!
After the party was over, we sat in our traditional Biergarten, drank and talked. And then the goodbyes came... Depending on the region of Germany each of us was going to, we were taking trains at different times that next day so we would only be seeing the people that were going to the same region. It was hard to say goodbye but it was also exciting to finally be able to look forward to living with our permanent host families. At 11:14, Niki, Grace, Mason, Jake, Alex and I (along with our host families) were waiting for the train to Baden-Wurttemberg to come to the Bonn Hauptbahnhof.
At about 3:30 that afternoon, we arrived in the Freiburg Hauptbahnhof to find our host families and our area rep, Duncan Cummins waiting for us. I could see Adam, Anja and Leah right outside my window, they recognized me and then I realized it was them. I must have sounded like a little kid as I was going to get my luggage; you could tell they were excited to finally have me here and I was equally excited, resulting in my laughter and other people on the train giving me these heartwarming looks. It was actually really cute.

Needless to say, the Isbitsky's are simply amazing. I'm treated like family here and have gotten the chance to meet several family members and a ton of family friends. This is a completely serious household full of German discipline ... NOOOOT! I watched Borat with Adam a few weeks ago if that says anything. :)
Dance parties to Lady Gaga (especially the "Disco Stick song"), Cassandra Steen's "Stadt," (Ich baue 'ne Stadt fur diiiich...) and Katy Perry (you're hot then you're cold, you're yes then you're no!) are common. A Chucks-wearing, Lady Gaga-singing, "is this the end of the queueeee?", "Wir sind hier. Shatzy ist gefunden!", International Family, family is "Very niiice, I laaaik!"

Hallo aus Bahlingen!

Congratulate me. No, seriously. I’ve finally gotten around to keeping a blog to document my year as (and I love saying this) a government intern with Open Door International on the Congress Bundestag Vocational Youth Exchange, a $24,000 value scholarship. We are so VIP. Yay!

Short overview of my seven weeks in Bonn:

We arrived in Germany at around 9:00am in the Frankfurt Airport and from there took a two hour bus ride to Bonn. I remember everyone being really loud and excited but honestly, I. Was. Exhausted. I also recall Mike (I’m pretty sure it was Mike) and I falling asleep every five minutes and Elena warning us that we’d better stay awake because of the time difference, haha. Our first “meal” in Germany was one of those Hanuta biscuit things which was really good but as far as I can remember, I was starving…

My first host house was with an older single Greek woman who shared the house with a younger Polish guy living on the third floor. Her son was studying in Cologne so it was just her and me. My room was really nice and the house wasn’t bad either, and I really thought that after getting to know each other we’d get along well, but after a couple days of living there I started to get this weird feeling in the pit of my stomach and I don’t know why. Maybe it was the fact that she wouldn’t take phone calls from cell phones or other unknown numbers because it was “too expensive,” or that we had to lock our doors since she was afraid of the Polish guy stealing our things, or maybe (probably mostly) because she left me alone most of the time and it seemed like she was hosting a student because of the small stipend the Bonn host families get from AIB… anyway, whatever it was (misunderstanding or not) feeling terribly lonely when you’ve just arrived in Germany isn’t exactly the greatest feeling in the world. My point is that no matter how much I love(d) it here and no matter how little (a.k.a. not at all, really. I do miss my dogs way too much though) I’m homesick, I needed someone who cared. Like a puppy. Haha no, that was a terrible joke and I’m not a puppy but in the end, I decided to and managed to switch families. Good choice, because I ended up with the best family ever. The Elschners really saved my time in Bonn and made it AWESOME. So awesome in fact, that I got invited back for a real Karneval in February (huge thing here… major competition between the different provinces. Everyone says that their Karneval is the “real” one, but apparently it’s the best in the Rhineland). While I was with the Elschners, I had my birthday (I wish I had remembered to bring out my camera; we spent the entire day setting up for my birthday baking, cooking, etc. and then when it got dark my host dad put several candles in the garden, making it look really beautiful), my oldest host sister Elisa’s birthday (for which I made brownies, ohhh yes), went hiking once to the top of this mountain with a gorgeous panoramic view of the Rhine and the surrounding area, as well as the castle where presidents and other important people have come to stay when they come to Bonn (President Kennedy stayed there), and another time in the vineyards and a small nearby town with a Medieval festival where it was also so beautiful. It’s funny how in Europe you really don’t need to photoshop anything because everything looks exactly the same as in the pictures.

As for the social aspect of Bonn, we had our group of 25 minus two after two people went home (unfortunately. But at least I got lucky and was picked for the program) and we all got ridiculously close. Five days a week, Monday through Friday, 8:45am to 1:00pm we had our Deutsche Unterrichte. Kurz A, Kurz B and Kurz C were beginning, intermediate and advanced and I was placed in the intermediate class along with R. Kelly (Ryan with the Nutella ... not Knooooott!) from Florida, Elena the Tree Hugger from Rhode Island, James the car enthusiast with the cucumber pipe from Missouri, Hecko the Hollister model (Hector) from El Paso, Alex the Waldorf Kind also from Austin and our amazing teacher Anna Moussa originally from Dresden (dialect included when she tried. "Hey, Alte. Ich weiss wo dein Haus wohnt!") but married to Amro from Egypt. Definitely the funnest class at AIB and everyone knew it. :)

Daily activities included… getting 1.50 Euro Doners during Happy Hour, going on AIB excursions, sitting in the Biergarten (and that one night we played Never Have I Ever … let’s just say we learned A LOT about certain people. Very niiiice, I laaaik!), clubbing at Nacht Schicht (the crappiest club ever but we brought the party), making American cheesecake at Sarah’s with Philadelphia Cream Cheese and strawberries soaked in strawberry liquer from the Galeria Kaufhof, getting Hartwig to say “damnit!” as many times as possible and counting each one, sitting outside with our class and Anna and having really, really interesting conversations to say the least (auf Deutsch, naturlich! And that one time we saw nudists in the Uni Hofgarten…), getting ice cream and trying all the flavors and then having Mike get hit on by the male Eis dealer, that one party at Mason’s where “the dog, eet sheets. Do they know, the dog, eet sheets?” and Lindsay remarked that both she and Jake had especially spectacular looking legs that night after the party waiting for the train back to Bonn (“NO, I’m going to sit here, riiight here. Jake has nice legs.. I have nice legs, too!”), Cole chasing Alex around AIB trying to get him to make a decision, having entire conversations in Borat language with my favourite Gypsy Sczcerba (that was the first time I spelled your name right without referring to where it was already written out, Chris. I’m pretty proud of myself, not gonna lie. Eet make me feel better after I get disappointed dat woman has right to choose!) and of course…

Kellychen: “Is that like a brothel or something?”
Rainer (in strong German accent): “Kelly, whot ees brotel? Whot ees dees brotel?”
Kellychen: “You knowwww, like, a whoooorehooouse?”

To be continued… (I’m tired and empty after a very long day to be explained in my blog tomorrow, and this is already getting to be an enormously long post).

Guten Nacht, bonne nuit & לַיְלָה טוֹב. (Lilah Tov, pronounced: lye-lah tov. I'm teaching myself Hebrew :) )