Eine ganze Woche ist schon vorbei

Wow, I can't believe my first week is already over. I was told before I got here that days seem to go by slowly, weeks run by, and the months fly but I had no concept of how true that is. Right now, school takes up a good portion of the day. I wake up at 6:30 (which is extremely early for me...) to make it to Orientierung und Sprachkurs at 8. My school schedule is as follows:

8-10: Sprachkurs
10-12: Orientierungskurs
12-1: Sprachkurs
1-2: Mittagsessen
2-3: Sprachkurs

With 5-10 minute breaks every hour or so.  I should explain that this isn't real school. It's just and orientation-y thing that comes with the CBYX scholarship, so I am not yet integrated into real German school. I mean, we are in a Gymnasium but my class is nine other Americans (from the Midwest-ish) and myself, who are all here for the CBYX scholarship. Although getting a ton of homework my first week in Germany was not fun, having a three week orientation with other Americans in the same, somewhat terrifying position as myself is really nice and we definitely have fun. I would say that the most shocking thing about going abroad is that, all of a sudden, you have nothing of your own to do. (I just wrote a whole other paragraph about this but cut it, deciding to write a separate post for that topic.) Everything you do is you tagging along on your host family's life, which is awesome, because they are awesome, but you can't be entirely dependent on them all the time. Anyways, what I'm trying to say is that you have to make friends to live a normal life but at this point my language isn't good enough to casually converse with any German on the street, so the language course allows me to have make friends in English. They are friends who can relate to your situations, help you with German, give you a break by speaking English, and tell you tons of funny Deutschland stories. I hung out with my own friends on Thursday and Friday and it was pretty great.

Another thing I must comment on is the public transportation here in Germany. Gott sei Dank for the public transportation in Germany. I take a bus and then the S-Bahn to school and back and it is fast, easy, and on time (most of the time). I can go wherever I want whenever I want even though I can't drive. That must be so hard for European exchange students in the US because they always have to ask for rides to go places. I can meet up with my friends from school without disturbing my host family. Once you figure it out, it is a truly amazing asset AND CBYX paid for my first month's pass, so that's pretty cool. A couple things you need to remember while using öffentliche Verkehrsmittel in Deutschland:

1) Have your pass ready to go when you get on the bus.
2) Buses going forward and backwards on routes have the same number so the only way to tell them apart is the side of the street you're on.
3) In the S-Bahn, the stop displayed on the little screen is the last stop in the line. Some trains do stop and then SWITCH DIRECTION and go back (which I discovered with some friends on Friday).
4) If you are going to try to stop the doors using some part of your body, you must be very committed.

Anyways, back to my schedule. After school, I come home, do something before dinner, eat Abendbrot, and sleep. In general, I am SO tired at the end of the day here but the level of totally exhausted that I am is mostly contingent on how much German I speak. The more I sleep, the more rested I am and the more rested I am, the better my German is. However, the better my German is the more I speak and the more I sleep the tireder I get. The result: sleeping a lot to keep up with all the things I get to do during the day.

Overall, my first week has been amazing and overwhelming. I can't explain all the change and growth and learning that has taken place around and in me in only this first week. It's been crazy, busy, exhausting, humbling, but mostly, intensely fun. It flew by and I pumped to continue here (especially as my German improves).