Guten Tag! Arriving in Deutschland.

Hi all! I haven't really had a chance to blog until right now, trying to get settled in and all. I left at 1:45 PM in Kelowna and got into Hamburg at like 5:00 PM the next day. IT WAS SO LONG. I had some problems keeping myself together on the flight to Calgary, as I had no one who was sitting beside me. 

The flight to Frankfurt was like 9.5 hours long or something ridiculous, and it was dark outside for most of it so I couldn't see anything! I sat beside this old Russian guy and he basically told me his life story and about his obsession with photography. Although I couldn't understand half the things he said because he was mumbling and my ears were refusing to pop. We pretty much had an airplane food potluck, with our combined efforts in bringing food from home. Let's see, I watched Thor and Bad Teacher (they were both pretty lame) and then half of Cars 2 (which was really lame so I couldn't even finish it). Didn't sleep at all, so I was really tired when I got into Hamburg.

My lovely buddy Svenja picked me up with her friend and took me to my dorm, which is actually called a flat here I guess. We explored some and I visited her flat, which was pretty cool. Then after we got back "home" I met my roomate Carolyn! She's from the state of Cali, let's just say we're relieved that we can speak "normal" slang English to each other. Every one of our other 5 roomates are all spectacular and nice! They all speak English very well, although we have yet to meet the one asian guy.... 

Anyroad, I got a bank account open and got a super ghetto flip phone that I don't know how to work. I also got my new student card, and let's just say, that I can't read ANY of my papers for anything. Because they're all in German. Derp. Oh yah, I had to teach "derp" to like 3 people here because they wanted to know what it meant. Wat. I got most of the stuff in my room set up. Although when I first got there I thought it was pretty much a dump, but now it's okay. 

Carolyn and I also took an experimental trip to Ikea, via the underground train (U Bahn) and the regular train (S Bahn). The transit here is so great, you never have to wait like more then 10 minutes for a train or bus. Of course, the cars here are super small and people drive like crazy bats out of hell. I'm glad I don't have to drive here actually. The streets are so narrow, I don't understand how there are two lanes in them half the time. Also, I have yet to see an actual house. They're all apartments on top of everything. Anyways, at Ikea we ordered swedish meatballs! Quite a feat, in German might I add. I would really really like to learn atleast SOME German, although APPARENTLY you don't need it to live here, but it's a very alienating feeling not being able to understand what anyone is saying.

We live on the top floor in the little corner on the side, and we're all from different schools for the most part here! The walls are paper thin and I can hear babies screaming in the middle of the night. :I Oh well, it's pretty good! We also went grocery shopping and I had a super hard time finding milk because I didn't know the word for it. But no worries. I got it guys.

Anyroad, below is my room, with all my stuff and some stuff that Marsha left behind for me (as it was her room before me). As you can see, I feel at home in a cluttery mess or something. There is also the view from my windows. Our bathroom is super small and super ghetto, it's lovely XD THE TOILET has like two buttons too! And the shower feels like it's throwing needles at you if you turn it on all the way. The hallways with the red floor is the main hallway that you need a key to get into and it leads to the spare room and the kitchen, as well as our other roomates' rooms. Our little section has a little hallway off the main hallway and then there's the bathroom and our two rooms, which you can lock with your key.

 

 

Okay and for the record, setting up pictures in a nice order is really hard on here, so excuse this retarded order for them. Basically it's like a super massive culture shock, as well as the first time away from home. So it's like a double whammy! I'm sure I'll feel at home more when school starts and I have something to procrastinate. My next post will probably be our Berlin trip that is on the 16th of March. Yay! Anyways, that's about it for now, let me tell you, five months seems like a REALLY long time, but everyone is saying that it will go by super fast. I'm excited to start school though! :D

Tschüss!

- Jena <3

PS: love and miss you all!~