My First 24 Hours in Deutschland

After several layovers and gate changes, I was ecstatic to board my 8-hour flight to Germany. About 4 hours in, I was less ecstatic. My legs begged to be stretched, and I couldn’t catch a wink of sleep. So I watched a movie, talked to the girl next to me, and edited a YouTube video. To say the least, it was a long flight.

Once we arrived at the Frankfurt airport, I was ecstatic once again, but then we found the customs line. The line wound through the entire basement, and it was hotter than Hades. So we found our spot at the end of the line and waited. After an hour of waiting in line, an official took my passport, vaccination card, and travel certificate. He looked it all over skeptically and then decided to allow me into Germany.

Once we were through customs, we had to find our baggage. We walked to the baggage claim easily enough, but we couldn’t seem to find our way out. All of us CBYX students had become separated after the flight, so we were in small groups. We started to walk through what we thought was the customs area when an employee started yelling at us in German. Thankfully, one of the students with us understood and got us to our host families.

From there, it was go, go, go. My host dad confirmed with YFU, and we left the airport. The drive home was overwhelming. My host family was trying to communicate, and everything was just so different. I am used to being the car-trip navigator in my family, but I couldn’t understand any of the German signs as we drove to Neustadt. On top of the language barrier, I was also running on no sleep.

Once I arrived at my host house, everything started to calm down. We had schnitzel for dinner, and then my host sister helped me unpack. We talked and listened to Taylor Swift while I made my new bedroom my own. My new bedroom is perfect. My host sister drew me a picture of Taylor Swift (!!!) and all the walls are pink. It captures my essence entirely. Also, my desk has a big sky roof you can pop open, and the view is to die for. Overall, I couldn’t have asked for anything better.

After unpacking, my host sisters and I played the game “Memory”, but all the pictures are of Neustadt. My younger host sister smoked us, it was quite embarrassing. Then we had a brilliant idea to make our own version. So we wrote German words and their English counterparts on paper to play. I have been so pleasantly surprised by how willing my family has been to help teach me German; they truly are the best. Then my entire host family and I played, and it was a challenge for all of us since most of them don’t speak much English. I am so grateful that they have been so accommodating to my lack of language skills.

For dinner, we had Schnitzel, french fries, and salad. It was delicious! I was so thankful for real food after only eating at the airport and on the plane. After dinner, we went for ice cream. I wasn’t very hungry (my stomach has not been reacting well to the travel), so I only got a small amount of Mokka in a cone. It was some of the best ice cream I have ever had. My host mom and younger sister got fancy sundays, and they looked phenomenal. My host dad and older sister both got several different ice creams in a cup, and they looked delicious as well. My sister’s must have been good because my host dad couldn’t stop stealing bites from her bowl!

After ice cream, we came home and I got ready for bed. After staying awake for over 30 hours, I figured going to bed at 8 PM was reasonable. I phoned my mom, finished editing my travel blog (watch out for it!!), and caught up on text messages. Then I finally went to bed in Deutschland (how crazy!!!).

The next day I woke up, got dressed, and my host mom and younger sister took me to the supermarket bakery. They explained that the bakeries are closed on Monday because they are open all weekend. The bakery was overwhelming, and so I just picked the first thing I saw, a schokoladencroissant. Despite my indecision, it was delicious.

After breakfast, we went to downtown Neustadt where there are shops, restaurants, public offices, and churches. It was beautiful. All of the streets are cobblestone, and the buildings are old. We went into TK Maxx when it started to rain, and I was surprised by how similar it is to the US’s TJ Maxx. I bought a white sweater and a pair of tights because I forgot mine. My older host sister helped me navigate the check-out, and then we continued to walk around town.

We also went into a recently restored church, and it was gorgeous. The murals were huge and beautiful, and there was ancient gold (I think). The man explaining everything was speaking German, so I couldn’t pick up a lot of the information.

Once we left the city, we went to a wine house to buy wine for my host parent’s party next weekend. Neither of my host parents drinks alcohol, so they had no idea what to buy. My host sisters and I also got to sample the red wine juice, and it was delicious. I can not wait to have it again.

Lastly, we went to the big grocery store. It was so similar yet so different than American supermarkets. My host family kept telling me to pick things out, but I honestly had no idea what I wanted! There were so many selections and everything was in German. Thankfully, my host sisters helped me out.

Now I am sitting outside writing this post, and I have to say, these past couple of days have been unreal. I am in awe of my strength, the kindness of my host family, and Neustadt, Germany. I am so grateful to everyone who made this experience possible, and I can wait to see what these next months bring!

XOXO,

Bookish Babble