Author: keelygoshia

Well, as you all might have seen on facebook today, I got lost.  

Today was the first day that I took the bus home from school.  The bus stop for the trip home is different than the bus stop for the ride in the morning – this I knew.  Also, my host-mother has showed me two times where the bus stop is and where I should go.  Note to everyone in the world: Curving to the left is different than TURNING left.  I walked down so many WRONG streets and it was freakin scary.  People were sitting outside (which is crazy cuz it’s cold) or were working construction and saw me walking back and forth and probably lost I was CRAZY!  Or perhaps they just knew I was a dumb American… L O L. 
Anyway, I walked past this bakery, like, 6 times and started to think it wouldn’t be a bad idea to go in to ask a worker if they knew where my street was.  Since it was starting to get dark, I finally did.  Oh boy!  Not helpful.  In German, I asked the lady if she knew where Hauserbronnerstraße was and she replied that she isn’t from Urbach, so she doesn’t know.  Super… She told me to go to a bar across the street to ask them, but I was already getting choked up in there, so I didn’t want to go ask another person.  Once I got outside, I broke into tears.  How embarrassing.  I don’t do well with not knowing where I am.  And I don’t do well with directions (thanks for that hereditary flaw, ma!) 

When I regained composure, I called my host-mom, which I felt SO BAD for because I knew she was at work today and I felt bad for bothering her.  She stayed on the phone with me as I walked to my house, which was soooo nice of her!  She asked me if I saw certain things, all of which I did and had seen a few times already walking back and forth.  My problem was that I was TURNING left down other streets instead of just following the road that CURVES left.  AH!!  If I had walked, like 500 feet further than I already had a couple times, I would have seen our house.  Oh golly, that’s good.

Thinking back, I think that the funniest part is that I was ON Hauserbronnerstraße the WHOLE TIME!!  My German must be pretty bad, or the lady at the bakery must not know where she works… (I’m guessing it’s that my German is bad.  Oh, and I was half crying which makes my German that much harder to understand).

Although this was super crazy stressful, I’m back and I’m OKAY!  And I now know how to get home from school.  I’m a big kid now.

Until next time…

ps I PROMISE I’ll add pictures to this blog sooooon.  🙂  LOVE YOU ALL!

Jan 12

We went to Stuttgart yesterday, the biggest city near us for “touristy stuff” and shopping. The architecture there was all incredible, although everything in the city was built AFTER 1945… Weird, eh? They built a castle after the war in old style, but it’s not old! I found this very interesting. It was also cool because there were some super-modern buildings and then the old style buildings all mixed together.
We were going to go into the castle, but it was super cold (and snowing!) and the line was very long, so our professor decided not to do it yesterday. So we went shopping!
Dogs were allowed in all of the shops! So cool!
We took the train back to Schorndorf and one of our classmate’s trains wasn’t going to come for 40 minutes, so a few of us went to a bar in our village to hang out for a little while. And, guess what? THERE WAS A DOG IN THE BAR! And not even on a leash. Just wondering on it’s own. I LOVED it!! That is the picture attached. 🙂

Jan 13
This morning my host father, Jürgen, went on a run with me and took me on a 5 or 6 kilometer loop. It was beautiful because it went through a forest. It was also difficult, because the whole first half was uphill (which I’d prefer over the second half!).

Something cultural I noticed today was hand-shaking.  I knew before I came that Germans always shake hands with one another when they come and leave.  However, I guess I didn’t realize how truly often this is expressed.  This afternoon, we went to a birthday party for Tanja’s friend and each time someone came or left, they shook hands with everyone else.  I did not find this surprising.  However, this evening, Tanja’s family (sister, brother and parents) came for dinner and when they got here AND when they left, they shook hands with one another.  I guess I didn’t realize that this was common practice even within families.  Interesting fact of the day!

Until next time…

Just wanted to say hi and let you know how my semester abroad is going so far. I wrote something on my iPad while on the plane, so I’m pasting that here and then I will write a little about once I arrived. Read as much or as little as you please (I know it’s long!) 🙂

DAY ONE
Currently on the plane sitting next to my dear friend Ella, I am experiencing many feelings, such as excitement, nerves, and headache. The headache comes from the fact that I am in an awful predicament with my seat. The only time I like the word coach is when it’s referring to my hand-bags. When I typically fly, I am able to sleep like a baby as I sit in United Airline Business Class (aka first class). However, flying with Delta is way different without all my dad’s rewards points moving me up to first. Coach is squishy and unsleepable. Ella and I have strived for comfort (even allowing each other to attempt comfort by laying on the other’s lap!), but seem to be failing. Oh well?

That being said, I anxiously await our arrival in Stuttgart, Germany, and then further, the meeting of my host family. As we venture over the wide Atlantic Ocean, these feelings of excitement and nervousness grow stronger. I’m excited about so many things, but am also oh-so-scared to have to start speaking German 24-7. What if I can’t think of the necessary words? I can only hope my host family will be patient with me.

A really cool feature of traveling over an ocean is the lack of lights – one word to describe the view: stunning. Even growing up in a small town with very few city lights, I have never seen so many stars. They just pepper the sky and are all that I can see. That’s pretty amazing! I even saw one falling star, believe it or not! It kind of gave me a heart attack a because, even though I know that star and I are in different atmospheres (or something…), I thought it was gonna git me. But no worries. It fell and disappeared like any falling star. Oh! I made a wish on it too. Maybe it’s even better luck since I’m 1200 feet closer to it. Eh?

With approximately 3.5 more hours of flight until we get to Amsterdam, I am trying to be patient. If you know me, you know i suck at that. We shall then proceed to GERMANY! From there we will venture to a banquet at which we shall all be united with our host families. I hope my two-year-old host sister enjoys my company as much as I once enjoyed an exchange student’s company. (Shout out to Rebecca, who I’ll hopefully be in contact with shortly!)
I know everything will be a-okay, so I’m not freaking as much as I can which is, well, I can get pretty freakin’ stressed. Go me for keepin’ my cool.
See you soon, Germany. Be ready for a good time!
Note: Delta’s gluten-free meal (pictured) was actually quite tasty! Who’da thought?

NOW FOR THE NEW STUFF!
Today was my first day of school! It was pretty good. We mostly discussed how our first evenings with our host families went and then we explored the town, Schorndorf, where our school is. We had a very delicious lunch at a little restaurant called “deutschehaus” (German House). They have two specials per day, and that is all you can choose from. Today the options were salmon and schnitzel! (pork). Seeing as I’m not a fish person, I order the schnitzel. This was a three course meal, however, so first we had watercrest salad and boy, was that good?! Then we had salads with a homemade dressing that was also super good. And finally we had our meals. The schnitzel came with noodles, and they actually had gluten free noodles! I was a happy camper. The sauce on the schnitzel was TO DIE FOR! Anyway, enough about food, yeah?
After school, my host-mother picked me up to go grocery shopping. I am living with probably the healthiest family in Germany. No joke, they eat the healthiest foods! So we went to a store that reminded me of a very little Whole Foods. Tanja, my host mother, let me pick out some food to have at the house, which was very nice and they had a lot of gluten-free foods.
After the grocery store, we went to a farm. Yes, a farm! Here we got fresh vegetables and juice. Then Tanja, Sophia (my 2-yr-old host sister) and I walked around to look at the animals. This was in a little town called Schornbach, which is easy for me to remember because the town I’m living in is called UrBACH and the town my school is in is called SCHORNdorf, so I can just combine the two! I attached a photo of the farm. It was interesting because I noticed that there were only women there. I did not see one man. I might ask questions about that in my culture class next week. The farm was very adorable, and they had a tidy little shop (not in the picture) where people go to buy fresh produce, eggs, juice, etc.

This evening I finally got to meet my host father, Jürgen. He is very nice and has been doing research on Iowa since I gave him an Iowa history photo-book! (In fact, he just started playing music live from an Iowa radio station) Too funny. We looked on google-earth together and I showed him where everybody lives, where I interned last semester, etc.
So this has been my trip so far. Tomorrow we are going to the nearest big city, Stuttgart. I think we are going to do touristy things and shop! I will attempt to keep you all updated as often as possible. I miss you all SO MUCH and hope all is well “nach Amerika” (in America).
ps – the other picture attached is of my host-sister and I. I gave my host-mother a lululemon headband and Sophia was wearing it around.