Hedersleben

Well I made it to Germany! And I haven’t posted at all yet, I’m so sorry. That isn’t a good start. For the first month that I am here, I stayed in a small town in Hedersleben. Partnership International is the CBYX FLAG partner in Germany. They are gave all the scholarship recipients from my region (the southwest region) a language camp.  We stayed in an old monastery. I felt like I was kind of in a boarding school because we all just stayed there and went to classes and stuff. The first day was when we found out which classes we are in, and it turns out that they put me in the top class. The one with the people who know German fluently. And I don’t know like any German. I guess they just take the information from the application, and they thought that I had taken 3 classes of German. But one of those classes (in 8^th grade) was half French, and then the one in 10^th grade was taught by a horrible teacher who didn’t know any German. So basically yeah I freaked out for the first couple days because I couldn’t understand anything that was going on in the class. I was going to try to switch down but I heard that the class below me was going really slow so I just decided to stay in the high class. I figured that I would learn more because it would make me push my limits. And it definitely did. I’m pretty sure my German improved a lot while I was there, although I still struggled A LOT. Oh well I hope I learn fast while I’m with my host family. Most of the students here haven’t had any German at all. There are six classes and 4 of them are starting German. So at least I’m a little bit better off with a little bit of background.

                Our schedule for every normal day was as follows: Breakfast at 8, Class from 9-12 with occasional breaks, Lunch at 12, Study time at 1, Free time at 2, Class from 3-6 with occasional breaks, Dinner at 6, News at 7, and then free time when that is over around 7:30. So yeah we kept pretty busy. But we also had some down time so that is really good. In our free time we didn’t have too much to do. Hedersleben is a super small town. It has like 1600 people in it or something like that. It is actually bigger than my town in America, but that is because mine only has like a few hundred people. And I live near other bigger cities too. But anyway this town has a Döner shop, a small grocery store, a town hall, and a sportzplatz (a couple soccer fields). It kind of reminds me of Richmond, if you live near me you’ll know what I’m talking about. And it has a lot of fields and areas without buildings. It has a creek thing running through it so sometimes when we didn’t have anything to do, we would walk to the creek. It is really pretty there and I enjoyed the scenery. In our free time we just hung around the monastery with the other students, got food, or went to the grocery store. Or played soccer or something. We are kind of running out of things to do by now. The walks were really nice but they usually ended up being like 3 hours so we could only do it in the evening, and then it gets dark fairly quickly. But it was pretty fun. We found things to do. Our curfew was at 10:30 but then we were allowed to stay up in our rooms as long as we wanted. Which was a problem because my roommates and I ended up talking until like midnight. And then sleeping in on accident. We got along really well and I am so glad because I have talked to some other people who had problems with their roommates. I am way lucky.

                Occasionally we did things as a group. For instance one night we went to the town hall and played Kegeln (German bowling). It was pretty fun. I like it way better than American bowling. A couple weeks ago some of us went to the fire station in the next town. It was so cool. I had the best time ever. You see, when I was in kindergarten my class went on a field trip to the fire station. And I was sick that day so I couldn’t go. It was the worst thing ever! So basically I have been waiting 12 years to go to a fire station. And I finally got to! And it was German, which made it even better. So I absolutely loved that.

Towards the beginning of our stay, some of us met this guy who works next to the monastery as a beekeeper. So one day I was able to go with him and some other people to gather (I don’t think that’s the correct term, but you know what I mean) the honey. It was so cool! We got beekeeper suits and we went in, smoked the bees, took the honeycomb, and shook the bees off. Then we went back and took the honey out of the honeycomb and filtered it. Then he was going to put it into jars to sell. We got samples and the honey was soooo good! That was awesome.

We have gone to 3 other cities during our stay in Hedersleben. We went to Leipzig, Magdeburg, and Quedlinburg. They were all really cool. In each one we went to different museums and castles and things like that. Then we always got free time to explore the city. They were all so much fun. I also went back to Quedlinburg during our free time on a Saturday. I love Germany. It is so amazing.

On the 25^th of August I went to the Catholic church here in Hedersleben. I was hoping that I would be able to go to my LDS church except the closest one was early in the morning and there wasn’t a bus running at the right time. In other words there wasn’t a way for me to get there. So instead, every Sunday night me and the other LDS people (there were 5 of us) would gather together in my room for a little study session. We would just share scriptural thoughts and try to strengthen each other. I am so so glad we did this. If there is anyone reading this who is going to go on the program who is LDS, MAKE SURE YOU DO THIS. It helped all of us so much. My testimony was strengthened every time. We all had a few struggles during the camp so it was nice to connect and share our experiences and difficulties. I really hope that next Sunday (the 15^th) I will be able to go to an LDS church in my area.  Anyway, so I went to the Catholic church. It was way interesting. I enjoyed seeing another religion. I was able to compare the two churches and it was cool. However, it did make me miss my church. While I was there all I could think about was and LDS church. I don’t even need my home ward. I just wanted an LDS church. It made me appreciate my church so much.

We have had two talent shows while we are here. They were both really cool. In the second one (which was yesterday), me and two other girls signed the song Love Story (by Taylor Swift) in ASL! We all took classes so we did that together and it was pretty cool. I’ll probably post the video on my Facebook sometime. We threw it together at the last minute and I am pleased that it turned out pretty well. There were a lot of different things that people did in the shows, they were all very fantastic.

I was able to Skype my family for the first time on the 5^th. That was pretty cool. Again, if anyone is reading this who will be on this program, don’t worry about Skyping very much. You don’t get as homesick if you don’t skype for the first little bit. And if you are having problems (like sickness or something), don’t tell your parents. They can’t (usually) do anything for you, and they will just worry anyway.  But I skyped with them and it was nice. I haven’t felt homesick at all yet, so that’s nice. I’m expecting it any day now.

As I am writing this, I am on my way to my host family. I won’t post it until later, but you get the point. I got them on Thursday and they are absolutely perfect! I was really nervous because I was one of the last people to get them. I guess they can’t give us the information until the school approves us, and sometimes it takes forever. But yeah. I finally got them. I have one older brother, one older sister, and two younger sisters. I have always wanted more siblings and especially younger ones. So I am way excited! And also, they said they have 20 YEARS of experience with gluten free food!!!! I’m not exactly sure how they do, but it is such a relief. I was super nervous about eating gluten free in Germany, but now I’m not at all. This family is seriously perfect for me. I have been praying for months that I will be able to get a good host family. I know that the Lord watched over me and handpicked this family for me. They will be absolutely wonderful. They said that they are going to have a barbeque after they pick me up with a bunch of people! So hopefully I won’t look like a complete idiot without knowing much German. And they are going to paint my room whatever I want them to! I’m super stoked (but also kind of nervous) about meeting them. I literally did a huge dance for like 5 minutes when I found out about them.

                Today was pretty hard leaving all the other exchange students. Luckily I don’t cry an exceedingly often, so I didn’t today. But honestly I gave everyone like 20 hugs. We all got pretty close. It was hard for a little while in the middle when I just wanted to get out of there when I was tired of everyone, but as we were leaving I realized how much I really do like our group as a whole. We have some great people and I am very glad that they are here with me. If I have problems I know I can talk to them about it and they will understand. I don’t feel alone over here even though I will be by myself with my family. Language camp was a wonderful idea.

                Every day I become more and more thankful for this wonderful opportunity. This is the experience of a lifetime. I know how special this is. I know there will be struggles, but I know that it will be good in the end. I will grow so much while I’m over here, I’m so excited for this year!

Tschüss!