Sunday update.

Since I will be pretty busy these following days I will be doing a major update, as in a weekly recap on Sundays. So here we go:
We got here on Monday the 2nd we met our host families, they are awesome. My Oma gives me so much food, is one of the nicest people in the world! They live in a small neighborhood in Bremen, which is a town with viel Gemütlichkeit, which is a German word that is kind of a mix of hominess or comfort. This being said it is a gorgeous town with many attractions and many things to do and a population of over 500,000. So Monday we went home with our families had dinner and then went to sleep. Tuesday included our first day of classes that went extremely well with our teacher named Andre and the meeting of our new classmates. We had a equal balance of us 6 American students to 6 students from all over, Italy, France, and Spain. It was pretty interesting dynamic for a while but it has since then settled down and everyone has become used to each other. After classes we went on a School sponsored Kneipenbummel, which is a pub crawl. I just love the fact that drinking is not seen as this evil thing but something that should be fun and friendly but under control. On Wednesday we had classes again and then set about getting details cleared, up like bank accounts, cell phones, work visas and the like. Our day usually consist of two one and a half hour sessions in the morning and then a more cultural and historical lesson for another hour and a half. Pretty much a standard week with much friend making and beer drinking and then came the weekend. We went to Hamburg and toured the city seeing many of the famous sites, including the St Nikolai tower and the Rathaus. It was pretty cool and there was many things to see, unfortunately we had to catch and early train back, so only limited sightseeing was available. There really is too much to see, and I just need to remember to keep that in perspective. After that weekend this week has consisted of many things, from a international party on Monday and Becks Brewery tour, which is the local brewery here so everyone drinks becks or hakke becks the regional beer. The tour was great, much beer drinking again and a little insight into the liquid of the gods. After this we had a trip to Norderney this weekend which is a island to the north of Bremen on the north sea. It was a very nice day so much swimming and sunbathing was taken in. After this I had my first Germany disko club experience and I have to say I was not impressed, it was just the same american songs and the same meat market feeling. But still a lot of fun to witness at least once. One thing I will say is different is how long they stay going, the place got packed at about 2 am and was still going at 5am?! It was pretty nuts but no more for me. For tomorrow I will be looking forward to breakfast with my Oma, like every morning with orange juice, coffee, schinken, which is a German cured ham and nutella, which if you have never had it before you do not know what you are missing! I will then ride my bike to class, of which I bought my bike last weekend and it is super sweet having wheels here everything is so connected and bikes are given the right of way and paths everywhere! I love it and wish I had my bike here for some training rides, as my Oma's good cooking and the amazing Beer have definitely filled in a few flat spots, yikes I better watch out. Anyways this weekend is Amsterdam and the next weekend somewhere new and exciting! If you would like to see the photo's accompanying these events they are on my picasa web album. Guten nacht to all of you who got through this horrible post, thank you for reading it and I promise I will not try and fit two weeks of amazingness into a couple paragraphs!

2010-08-04

Oma und Opa

So I am in my first of two placements, Bremen. Just a quick note here before I am off to bed. I am so excited, my host parents are a grandpa and grandma and they are so sweet. Everything has gone so smooth to this point. Tomorrow I begin language school and I could not be more excited! So far I love Germany, it is just like Western Washington but more old and efficiency, so for that I am really happy. I have uploaded more pictures to the picasa web album if you would like to see what I have got so far and there will be only more to come! soon some video and other stuff as well! From Bremen Germany I bid you all gut nacht und schlaf gut!

DC day 2

Well it has been two days since I landed in DC and what can I say, other than it is hot and humid. Other than that it is a pretty sweet place. I was able to see quite a bit yesterday, namely a few of the Smithsonian buildings and the Washington Monument and the White House and Capitol buildings. After all that walking I was already drenched in sweat so I thought, ah what the hell I will go for a run. I now know what the people who sweat a lot normally feel like, and I have to say I did not like it at all. Lets just hope that Bremen will be significantly less humid. Next on the agenda is the welcome BBQ in Georgetown U and after which we shall be in conferences for the next couple of days.

So begins my longest day of the year.

I am sitting here at 6:14am and in exactly 24 hrs I will be on my flight to DC. I am tired, a little sun burnt, and definitely the most excited I have ever been in my life. I just got back from a beautiful weekend with the most important people in my life, besides my family of course and it could not have been any better. The weather was perfect, the company perfect, the cabin, you guessed it, also perfect. Now all I need to do is pack which as of right now is not going great, but I will soldier on. Pictures and video to come from the weekend when I get a few spare moments.

Baden-Württemberg

This is the district where I will be spending my ten month stay after my initial language school stage of two months in Bremen. It is ideal, and I could not have asked for anything better! Not only will I be close to the best skiing in the world, but the auto center of Stüttgart is in this district state as well. I really cannot believe this time is only  27 days away but I am definitely feeling the crunch, as I am trying to sell my big stuff and minimize the possessions that I will need to store when I am gone. I am still planning what I want to see when I am in DC for the three days and would love suggestions from anyone that has been there. Up to this point there really is not else to say, other than excitement is building and Germany is going to win the world cup if they can get past Argentina.
Bis später,

Brent

Bremen.

Is the place I will be staying for the first couple months of my year long stay in Deutschland! I have to admit it was not my first choice but I am still really excited as it is just a jump and a skip to Denmark, Berlin, and of course Amsterdam. I also found out that plane tickets to the London or Edinburgh is really cheap, like 20 euro round trip. Oh the adventures I will have! As of this point though I still have one more pesky paper to finish up and a 8am final tomorrow and then I will finally be done with school for the year.  So until then I will solider on. Goodbye blogsss.