Goodbye

With just a few hours before I leave, it is a three ring cirucus trying to get everything done. But, I just realized that when you say goodbye, its not a bad thing. Otherwise it would be called sadbye or a badbye. Instead, it is a goodbye. Here is my address in East Frisia...

c\o Familie xxxx
Münkenlander Weg 7
26427 Esens

I'll talk to ya all from the other side of the pond!

check list

its so disappointing that no one leaves me comments about my posts.

With only 2 days until I leave, I'm getting a little nervous. I thought I lost my guarentee forms... which took 5 months to get all the required signatures (in blue ink, not black, long story). I have a suspicion that my first host family does not have a computer in their home so my posts might be a little sparse at first, until I get to my original "first" host family. My "first" host family is currently hosting a Thai boy until early September, so I am staying with the Rotary Youth Exchange Officer. I hope everything works out. I have no idea what to expect, whether I will be hanging around the house for 3 weeks before school starts or will we see the local area (lots of beaches!!), or something else. Hopefully I can do some bike riding, pending that they lend me a bike for my brief stay.

Passport- check
Visa & Residency Forms- Check
phone cards-check
plane tix- check
gaurentee form- check!
noterized forms- check
permission slip (and I still need one... even tho I'm 18)- check
luggage- check
the details and everything in between- im working on it... that's what friday and saturday are for, PANIC!!! (and very little sleep)... hey, it's 1:30 in the morning and I'm just finnishing up my paperwork so I can try to sleep tonite, guten nacht!

5 days

The days are going fast! This weekend has been really busy... and i am all crispy now, lots o sun. I need it anyway if i'm gunna be on beaches. After going to ganodagon, the mill art gallery for an exhibit opening, and then niagra falls today, i'm exhausted. Thought you all would like some seanic pictures.

Amsterdam

I have a 5 hour layover in Amsterdam because flights to Bremen only fly in the afternoons. This afternoon while panicing over my digital camera (will it work right? over there... I can hardly get it to work in the US) I realized that Amsterdam is in the Netherlands, and they don't speak German or French or English (I'm sure they do speak english... but not the signs?!?!). So now what. If I had my layover in Paris (which is shorter), at least I could read the signs. But I don't know any Dutch! I know Deutsch, a little. So now what? Its a good thing that I am there for 5 hours, it'll take me that long to figure it all out. I only wish my phone plan (and card) would work right. Then at least I could call home. And because my flight plans got messed up, I'm flying alone. Ok, so it just hit me right now... i'm sooo @&*$. Why am I going to Germany again?

update

I got more news than usual. I guess my flight date got messed up, so i'm leaving saturday the 30th in the evening, around 5. It'll take me 18 real hours for the trip, exactly 24 if you take in account for the time change (and the fact that you are chasing the earth when going east). Hopefully this is my confirmed time.

Map's and stuff

Ok, so the town my school is in is called Esens. It is right in the middle near the coast. Sort of in the middle of nowhere. The towns I live in are too small to make it on any map I find. Stedesdorf is actually the village I live in. It is about halfway between Esens and Wittmund. Click on the map to make it bigger. On the map of the whole of Germany, I am going to be on the peninsula right next to the Neatherlands (which is cut off). The area is called Ostfriesland (East Frisia) and is actually one part of the ancient kingdom of Frisia. The "state" that Ostfriesland is located in is called Niedersachen (Lower Saxony). Ostfriesland is very low lying and is plagued by massive flooding (at it's worst in history, it was about to Wittmund). Today there are massive dikes. The islands and coast make East Frisia one of the most popular tourist locations in northern Germany for natives.

My school is called the NIGE, which is short for

Niedersächsisches Internatsgymnasium Esens.

Which is a mouth-full (and I still can not pronounce). I will be staying with 4 different host families. School for me starts on the 24th of August. My host family wants me to bike to school, which I think is cool, because I love to bike. I guess that is all my essential information. Let me know if there is something that I should add.

Pictures

ok, so i need to make sure that I can get all this picture business working. This is my trial. If you want to see all my albums, you need to ask me for an invite for www.ringo.com and sign up. Yippie! I leave the 29th of July. I wonder how many pictures I can upload? The flower I took when I was on a walk with Tim. The B&W is an art photo. And that is me... talking on the phone with Denis with Abbi. I'm wearing my College of Wooster shirt, but you can't really see it. It says COW GURL... the COW stands for college of wooster. It goes well with my cowboy hat! I guess I can move the pictures around, but I don't have enough to say to experiment.

There is this funny thing about the german language that I thought I would comment on... many of the words have an "e" on the end which essentially makes you feel like you are speaking babytalk... u know, when you always adding y's to the end of words to sound cute?!?!? If you have any experience with the German language, i recomend reading the widely popular essay by Mark Twain, "The Awful German Language". Well... I guess it all works! I'm ready!