Deutschland!!

What a nightmare getting to Germany! I left Farmland at 4:40 (after about 2-3 hours of sleep. Ugh) and got to the airport around 6:20. Getting checked in was easy. And my suitcase was under 50 pounds…. 49.5! Dad told me if the Germans or the Army want me to stay, I’m not allowed. I think he was sad I was leaving. So, then we flew out of Indy at 8 a.m. Because of the time change, we landed in Chicago at 7:50 a.m. We weren’t supposed to fly out of Chicago until 2:36… there was a layover. The layover kept getting changed from 4 to 4:15 to 4:30 then back to 4:15.

Well finally it was 5 p.m. We didn’t actually fly out until 5:30. Oh my goodness!! Awful. So hardly any of us 11 BSU student teachers sat together. I sat by the window on this double-decker Boeing 747. The window rows have three seats each. I sat next to two guys. The one in the middle (who was sitting beside me) was a pretty big guy, like muscley and just big. He said he works for the military, but he’s not actually in the military. He’s some training kind of guy who teaches people how to kill people better. His friend who was also flying (sitting somewhere else on the plane) is the person who teachers how to blow things up. Interesting guy. Nice, very chatty. The plane wasn’t the nicest I’ve been on. But I was SO exhausted I slept relatively decently.

We arrived in Frankfurt at 8:30 a.m. I was feeling okay sleep-wise. We went through customs, bought train tickets to Neubrucke/Nahe. There were some hiccups getting the tickets, but it all got worked out just fine. That train left at 10:35 and got to our destination exactly two hours later. When we were about to get on the train, we called our supervisor, Terry, so she could “gather the troops” to pick us up. They didn’t get to the train station until 1.. so we had to wait in the cold for a while. However, I’d worn my big, new coat Mom got me for Christmas, so I felt fine.

When we got to base, we all started to feel REALLY exhausted and jet-lagged. It was miserable. We had to get our base passes issued… they took our pictures there, so we all looked like crap. And we did so much stuff, I can hardly remember the order of events. So much went on, we were all majorly dragging. We were miserable. We also went to our apartments, which we were told were furnished with linens, pots and pans…. We had nothing. Nothing. Nothing. Pam Johnson, our liaison, contacted the principal who sent out an e-mail to all teachers who donated stuff to us. We have assorted sheets, blankets, towels, plates, cups, silverware, etc. Let’s see, we also got our passes to get into the PX and Commissary. For that, we had to bring two passport photos. We also went to the post office and got our P.O. boxes.

My apartment is down on the first floor; I’m rooming with Jenna. Across the hall from us is Liz and Sallie’s apartment. I like them, so I like this little rooming situation. Both of our apartments have nothing at all. There are two apartments upstairs that 5 girls live in…. they have everything. The girls from last semester lived in those apartments and left them everything. They have lamps, cute bedspreads, food, pans, medicines, ALL kinds of stuff. It sucks.

I have a sleeping blanket as a comforter.. it worked.. I woke up very warm. I really don’t care. As long as I have some stuff, I’m okay. I don’t need it to be cute, I don’t need it to be matching. I just want to get by and have basic stuff.

We still don’t have Internet in our apartments. Hopefully we can get that taken care of. I think Jenna, Liz, Sallie, and I are going to get wireless and share it since we’re across the hall from each other. That will be cheaper.

Also, there is laundry in the basement: four washers and four dryers… or maybe five of each. Anyhow, they’re free, so that’s awesome. We all washed our blankets and stuff last night. We used soap that was already down there… shh.

Terry had already bought us some things, like enough toilet paper so we could have two rolls per apartment, some food to start us off, some plasticware and plates and cups. So that was really nice. Everyone has been really helpful. They’ve been really apologetic, too. Apparently, there is supposed to be stuff for us that is kept in a storage closet, but it was all stolen. We were told this is the third time stuff has been stolen…..

Finally took a shower last night… I was feeling SCRUNGY! After that, I wrote in my journal and listened to a cd a friend made for me. I fell asleep around 11 p.m. Because of the jet lag I was tired all day, then night rolled around and I felt awake. However, once I put the music on I fell asleep. I woke up at 10 or so this morning (Thursday the 6^th). I’m feeling pretty good. We were supposed to get picked up in shifts at noon to get taken to the PX and Commissary, but Terry called and she won’t be here until three. We all have some things wrong with our apartment; Jenna and I get ours taken care of today from 4-6. Everyone else is getting stuff fixed on Monday.

It is so pretty in Germany! Snow, lots of trees, just really pretty. Today it’s raining, though. Anyhow, I’m sure I’ll have more to write later.