Week in the Black Forest

WOW! I had pretty much the best week ever!

Well it all started out last Thursday. My host mom took me to the train station and I left around 2:00pm. I rode the train for about 20 minutes and then we stopped in Ehingen where Courtney and two other exchange students got on. I was in the last car of the train and i jumped off real quick so that Courtney and the others could come sit by me. But they were all the way in the front of the train and didnt have time to get all the way to the back by me. But they saw me, so they just got on in the front and tried to come to the back once they got on. But in the middle of the train there was a car that you could not walk through. I also tried to go to the front but it didnt work. So at the next stop I got all my stuff and jumped off the train again and ran as fast as I could to the front. Courtney, Micheal, and Julia saw me running with my luggage so Micheal came to the door and helped me carry everything to my seat. I didnt know what to say to them at first because I didnt know what country they were from. So I just said, "Hey do you guys speak English?" They tried to trick me and they replied, "only a little." But then they all started laughing and I found out they were both from the United States. The whole ride we were talking about our families and our experiances here so far. We were all soooo excited for our week in Schwarzwald! When we arrived at the youth hostel we met all the other exchange students in Baden Wurttemburg. It was confusing at first because no one knew each other and we didnt know what language to speak to each other. Luckily I had Courtney with me like my wing woman. It turns out that 9 out of the 15 exchange students were from all over the USA. The others were from Canada, Australia, Mexico, Chile, and Japan. The other people from the USA were from Kentucky, Arizona, California, Idaho, Michigan, Colorado, Conneticut, and Texas. After 1 hour together we were already bonding. Japan and Mexico dont speak English so we had to communicate in German, but everyone else spoke English the whole week. All of the kids are so awesome. After one week of knowing them I feel like I have known them forever. Courtney and I became really close with another girl named Erika from California. They are my best friends here in Germany and I feel like they are better friends to me then some people from home. I have only known Courtney for about a month and Erika for only a week... All the other girls are also really really cool. We had so much to talk about, because we are all going through the same thing. I dont think we went 10 waking minutes without laughing. We talk mostly English with some random German words placed into sentances. The first two days we had to go hiking all over the Black forest. It was so hard and tiring but we made it fun. The other days we went ice skating, sight seeing, we went to museums, we went swimming, and some of us did a ropes course. We had to climb things and walk across thin ropes and stuff and I chickened out... I went across one rope and started balling and I turned around. It was so high and scary even though we were connected and safe. We ate alot of ice cream and junk food all day long, it was ridiculous! In the youth hostel there was a "party room" with a poker table and a ping pong table. We all stayed up really late everynight and just hung out. The couple that chaperoned us has a son named Max that speaks really good English. He was really cool and hung out with us alot during the week. You can ask any questions about my week if you want, because I just dont know what else to say. I just think it is amazing how close we all got in only one week. I seriously consider Erika and Courtney 2 of the best friends I have ever had. Leona and Katelyn of course are my number one best friends in the whole world, but Erika and Courtney can just relate to what I am going through right now. I think that this week has given me more confidence because most of the kids came here speaking no German and they are doing fine. I realized I just need to stop being so nervous and shy to speak because the Germans dont care, they can understand really good even when you make no sense. Now that I have more than just one friend in my time zone, I think things will run more smooth.

By the way, my host brother Daniel is out of the hosptal and he is doing good. I am not sure of the details but I just know he had a very high fever for a while...

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Miss you all!
love, Megan