Well, another week has passed and it has gone rather slowly. It is actually amazing to me what has happened in just one week, because it all feels like so long ago…even going to the library yesterday morning. One thing I have realized is how much my relationships mean to me. I wish I could say that I was one of those people who doesn't need anyone else to be happy, but I find life to be a bit boring without friends and family and while it is great that I am in Germany, without anyone to share it with, I may as well as be in America. I am sure that as time goes on, and with me beginning school, I will meet a lot more people and my experience will change a lot, but these first two or three weeks have been a bit lonely.

I have seen a good bit of Kiel now, but until my first paycheck, going to museums or traveling to other towns will be a bit tough. My life currently revolves around running errands or visiting my school during the day, and then reading, knitting, going to the gym, eating and sleeping in the evenings. I have been going to bed at 11pm or 11:30pm most nights -most of you who know me know that this is a bedtime I have not seen in years, but that is when I have been getting tired.

Concerning new developments during this week, I have taken two yoga classes in German, and I also had a personal training session in German. Tonight I will go to another yoga class. I have been working out a lot and it feels really good to be getting healthy again and making it a priority. I also bought a bus pass which makes my walk into town a lot easier - as in I can take a five minute bus now rather than walking thirty minutes haha, and I also got a library card which has been great. They have a wonderful selection of music CDs and they also have a lot of English books. This library is also neat because you can rent DVDs, borrow magazines, board games, computer games, video games haha. If you want to be entertained by it, they probably have it. I am currently reading two English books, The Plague by Camus and Teacher Man by Frank McCourt. I am also reading a book in German called Unterwegs by Jack Kerouac. It is actually my favorite English book translated, and I thought it would be fun to go through.

My school is very nice and all the teachers seem very supportive and happy to have me. My mentor has been very helpful as well, going through the Fulbright paperwork in German and making sure I understand it all. I attended a class of 13th graders on Friday where we discussed politics and it was a lot of fun. I also attended a class that I will be a student in, which is all about the history of Kiel and Istanbul. In the end, the students will take a nine day trip to Istanbul, but I think I will pass because I would like to save my money for some smaller trips to visit with friends around Europe and when family visits me here. I have been assigned to assist in several teacher's classes in addition to the 13th grade class, and I will be teaching my own class of fifth graders. It will be challenging because the fifth graders have never taken English before and my mentor and her colleagues would like me to only speak in English. While it will be tough, I think it will also be fun because the younger kids are very sweet and enthusiastic.

While overall I have not made any good friendships yet, I have met several people. The other night I had dinner a neighbor named Flo, from Berlin, down my hallway. We ate Kaese Spaetzle and most of our conversation was in German. He is a runner too so we talked about that, as well as school, and the constant rain that occurs here in Kiel. I did the math last night after looking at some weather records and found that it rains over 50% of the year here haha (in fact, it just began drizzling out as I type this.) He explained to me that a saying here is, "There is no wrong weather, only wrong clothing." After we ate dinner there was a going away party for one of the people who lives here in the Studentenheim. Her boyfriend made tiramasu, and I stuck around because Flo said I should. It was fun to meet more people and everyone was very friendly. Overall, conversations I have one on one go well, but in large groups I have a hard time following everything being said. The following day when I was in the kitchen, I had another long conversation with a guy who grew up in Germany since he was two, but whose family comes from Poland. He said he imagined that all guys in America are like Kevin James from King of Queens. I realized then that I have a lot of stereotypes to break down about Americans haha. He also told me that when I speak, it is very different from Germans because my voice is like a song. Finally, we talked about Maryland and he said "Cheddar is better." I said, "What?" and he asked if I had seen the movie Thank You for Smoking. I told him I had, but that I was pretty sure it took place in Wisconsin and that us Marylanders are proud of our crabs. He said that he was certain I was wrong. He was nice though, even if he does have our state agricultural products wrong.

I have had two frustrations this week. One is that I went to the Foreigner Registration Office. All is fine, except the passport photos I provided them with were not zoomed in close enough to my face. The guy told me to go get my photos retaken and he explained where I could do this. I get to the place and it is 12 Euros! 12 Euros is a lot of money to me, so I went across town to the train station to see if they had an automatic passport photo machine. They did indeed, and for only 5 Euros, but unfortunately the photos turned out terrible. I am off centered, washed out, my eyes are looking at something in the distance, and they are much worse than what I had provided the Foreigner Registration Office originally. Long story short, I will have to go to the expensive photo studio to get my photos taken and I am out 17 Euros haha.

My other frustration is that this week, my American ATM card stopped working for some reason. I have to pay the safety deposit here in my Studentenheim and I need some more spending money for the next month, so I was going to withdraw the rest of my money, and keep a couple hundred Euros in my German account for safe keeping. I have gone to seven ATMs and none of them work, but my bank in America claims that they have my card set to international status so it should work. This was frustrating especially because this all happened after 1pm on Friday when banks in Germany close. Luckily, when I got home, my German bank card arrived. I went to the bank to withdraw money from that account, and it said my pin was wrong. I only ever use one pin, so I am not sure what might have happened. I called the bank hotline, asked for an English speaker since the situation was complicated, and he said, "I am sorry, but you have called a German speaking hotline." I proceeded to speak in German, explaining my situation. He apologized, said there was nothing to he could do, but as a consolation, my German is good. Haha This was nice to hear, but I still only have 6 Euros in my wallet and I leave for Cologne early Monday morning.

Anyway, long story short I leave for Cologne tomorrow to attend the Fulbright Conference and meet a lot of other American Teaching Assistants. I have plans already to meet at 2pm to have coffee with another girl who will be teaching in my area. I think it will be good for my morale to meet a lot of other people who will be doing the same things as me, and I think it will get me pumped up for the year. For most of the Teaching Assistants, they will not have even arrived in their host city yet - the Fulbright Conference will be some of their first moments here in Germany. I think it will be like a fresh start for me. I have gotten a lot of the hard administrative things done, such as the bank account, the cell phone, the bus pass, the registration in the Rathaus. I can't imagine doing all that after work began, and after I return home on Wednesday, I begin work and I will have the chance to meet a lot of other people and to speak a lot more German and to be intellectually stimulated. These last two or three weeks have been a warm up to a great year here in Germany, and things will get easier as time goes on.

Don't forget to check out my photos and videos from this week with descriptions, located in the album, Second Week in Germany. A highlight: The Deutsche Bahn, the German train company, offered the red carpet service to travelers. They wore special uniforms and white gloves, offered to carry the bags of travelers, had a mock paparazzi set up to take photographs, and gave roses to the ladies. I had gone grocery shopping and did not have a bag for two of my items. The nice man, who you can see in the video instructing the girls how to pose for the cameras, handed me a beautiful red rose, got me a bag for my groceries, and told me to tell my friends in America about the great service offered in Germany haha.

The following entry may seem a bit boring and pessimistic, but I am happy to write it because I think it is good to record my state of mind and experiences so I can see how my experience changes and develops over time. I am optimistic that it will get a lot better, and I think this will be a good comparison for the future.

'Til next time readers…