Washington D.C. - On My Way

After a couple of days of hurried packing and making final preparations, I finally was ready to leave!  I said my last goodbyes (I hate them. They are like the hardest things in the world.) and headed off to stay at my cousins house for the night.  The next morning after like 2 hours of sleep I woke up at 3:30 and got ready to leave.  Leaving my family was impossibly hard.  I love them so much.  I will miss them but I am also so excited to go see another part of the world.  Yes, I bawled like a baby.  But after that I made it through security and onto the plane.  I had a short layover in Los Angeles then flew to the Washington Dulles airport.  There I met my director and he took me to the hotel, where I met up with all the other CBYX students!  It was quite a long and boring day, but I have a longer one planned for tomorrow! We wake up early again and then get on a 2 hour flight to Dallas, stay there for a couple hour layover, fly on a 9 1/2 hour flight to Germany, then have a 4 hour bus ride to Hedersleben, where all of us will be staying until September 7.  Its very boring, but necessary! I'll try to post more when I arrive in Germany!

Preparations... Less Than 2 Weeks Left!

Almost every conversation I have had lately goes like this:

Other Person: "I didn't know you were going to Germany!"

Me: "Yep I am!"

"For how long?"

"Ten months"

"Oh my goodness that is a long time! What is your mom going to do without you?" (it's seriously what people always ask me... I think they are more concerned for her than for me)

"I don't know...."

"So when do you leave?"

"August 10th"

"Where will you be staying?"

"I don't know yet. I will hopefully get a host family anytime now, but I don't necessarily have to have one until September 7th, which is when we meet our host families."

"Do you speak any German?"

"Well I took it a couple years ago in school, but now I don't remember much of it. I have been doing a language program over the summer, and they will have a language camp for me for the first month I am there."

"Are you packed yet?"

"Ummmmm..... I've thought about starting?"

"You're so brave!!"

"yeah...." (I never ever know what to say to this)

And that's about it. This whole time I've known I got the scholarship (about 4 months), it has seemed like it was far away.  Up until last Saturday when I hit the 2 week mark.  Now all the sudden it feels like I am practically leaving tomorrow, and I'm not ready AT ALL. I have a huge bucket list that I made at the beginning of the summer that is only like half completed.  And I realized the other day that it looks like a bucket list to do before you die, not before you leave for only 10 months.  I mean, I honestly can go see the Great Salt Lake when I get back right? I never realized how much I haven't done in this area until I wanted to do everything.  Here are the important things that I must get done before I go:

1. Pack! The most I've done is take my suitcase out of storage.  And set it in the corner of my room.  Oh and I made a packing list. So basically, I haven't even started.  That's a problem. This happens every. single. time. I go on a trip.  Honestly.  Even two years ago when I went to Germany for a month.  I packed the night before, and thank goodness Walmart is open at 1 o'clock in the morning or else I wouldn't have had everything.  I hope this time I don't repeat that situation, however.

2. Get Host Family Gifts. Since I don't know what my host family is like yet, it is really hard to get them gifts.  I have a couple general ones and that may be as far as it's going to go.  I might not find out until I'm already in Germany (at language camp), and that will be too hard to buy them gifts then... and kind of pointless because it wouldn't be anything from my area/representing me.

3. Figure Out Banking Information. I think I am just going to have a bank card that I can take cash out of every week or something, but I'm not sure yet.  I really need to work on that.

4. Figure Out Phone. My phone company won't let me unlock my phone, which means that I won't be able to use it with a different service in Germany.  So basically I will have to buy a new one.  Which is really expensive if I want a smartphone again. I'm sorry but I won't give you my phone number once I get a new one over there.  That is just for people in Germany and my immediate family. If you would like to contact me, feel free to send me a message on Facebook or email me or something similar. Or old-fashioned letters are always awesome :)

5. Shopping! Making my packing list made me realize how many things I need to buy before I leave. I think I finally got all the clothes taken care of, but there are many other simple things I will need that I don't have. Speaking of clothes, I realized that I don't really have a decent winter coat to pack.  I live in UTAH (where it was like -15 degrees last winter), and I don't have a coat! Hopefully I will be able to survive because the weather in Germany is similar to it is here, and I've survived this long without a coat. This is the one time that I am grateful for the cold weather in Utah.  Now I'm not all worried about the cold like the people in my region from Texas or California. 

6. Saying Goodbye. This is the worst thing on my list.  I don't know what it is going to be like when I get back (Will my dog have died? Will my friends still live around here? Will my brother still live here? so on and so forth). So basically I am saying goodbye to everyone like I will never see them again.  Which is horrible. Now is the time when I realize how much I absolutely love how much my brother teases me.  Yes, he gets on my nerves fairly often, but I am so grateful that I have an older brother in my life who would do anything for me.  It will be so hard to say goodbye to him and my parents. And my dog. And my grandma. And... okay I better stop before I start bawling (like I am going to do at the airport).

Honestly, I am super super excited for this new adventure.  I could make a never-ending list of why this is going to be amazing.  But obviously that would take too long. You'll just have to see for yourself why it is amazing!  A couple months ago I was so excited. Then for the next little while I started to get really nervous.  Now I'm back to the excited stage. I am so ready to go to Germany!! (mentally, not physically)

Well I hope I haven't bored you to death with my rambling... for now,

Tschüss! (I know, my German is fantastic)

Abbie :)

p.s. T minus 294 hours before I leave!

Orientation

Last weekend all of the FLAG CBYX scholarship winners had an orientation in Bridgman, Michigan. There were 54 of us (including alternates) and it was so much fun! Basically they just gave us a lot of information about the program but there was a lot of time to interact with each other and we got to know everyone pretty well. For the first month that we are in Germany, we will have a language camp. All 50 of us will stay together in a monastery in a town called Hedersleben. I'm so glad that I have such a wonderful group to go over with and I'm excited to spend this time with them! We leave for Washington D.C. on August 10th and leave for Germany on August 11th. That's 2 1/2 months! I have so much to get done before I leave and before I know it I will be in Germany... I'm so excited!

Beginnings

So basically, I'm in love. With Germany. And I get to go back in August! I got the Congress-Bundestag Youth Exchange (CBYX) scholarship and all I have to pay for is a flight to D.C. and spending money! I highly recommend this program to anyone who is considering an exchange. I will be spending my entire senior year over there living with a German family. I will leave Washington D.C. on August 11 after a short orientation with all the scholarship winners from my region.
I don't have a host family yet but I'm excited to find out who I will be living with for ten months! And since I know you're wondering: no, I don't really speak German. A couple years ago I could understand it, but that was a couple of years ago and I can't anymore. I'll be taking online courses and some other things before I leave, but I won't actually know it until I've lived there for a little while.
It's crazy to think that I only have one month left of American high school. I don't think I'll miss it very much though to tell you the truth. I never imagined I wouldn't graduate like a normal person, but here I am: preparing to go on an adventure that could take me who-knows-where.

And I'm so excited! :)

I started this blog so everyone can keep up with what I'm doing easily... I hope I remember update it often enough! If you have any questions, feel free to ask me! :)