My City

So the city I'll be living in is Weingarten, Baden-Württemberg. It's a "small" city near Karlsruhe, with about 10,000 people. From what I can find on Google, there's a vineyard, lots of restaurants, a few hotels and markets, a small river, a lake, and a train station. I found a ton of pictures, which are under the cut (all of them are from here)! I can't believe there's only two weeks till I leave, and four weeks till I'm actually in Weingarten! I can't wait to see everything in real life!!

Skyping

On Sunday I was finally able to skype with my family! Magda and Johannes weren't there, but they don't live at home (I think). So my parents and I skyped with Clara, Susanne, and Andreas. The first thing they did was ask me how tall I am, which I tried to say in German but the more I think about it, the more I think I said the wrong height. From then on we spoke English, because my parents wanted to talk too. They're going to have a bike for me, but I think the parts are still in the mail. Andreas showed me all his instruments and played the guitar for me, and he's really good at it! Besides the guitar, he plays flute and the drums. Somebody plays the piano, but I don't know who. He also tried to tell me about his job, but I don't understand at all. Something about preparing for the future?

Clara showed me my room, which is basically the attic. It used to be Magda's room, and then their Chinese student's, and soon it will be mine! It doesn't seem too large, and you have to go through Clara's room to get to it, but I think it'll be nice. I thought I was going to share a room, but technically I get my own. We talked a little bit about school, and she said my geography teacher is also the math teacher. She said he's really strict, but geography is ~his passion~, so it won't be that bad.

My family is so nice, and I think they're really perfect for me! I really like Andreas so far; he's cute (not in a weird way) and seems very excited about music and his job. Apparently Clara and Susanne are both vegetarians, so he was happy to hear that I like meat.

I got a few more presents for my families (and future friends), but I'm having trouble thinking of more personal gifts. What I have so far is:
-A Michigan cutting board
-A Michigan cookbook and measuring cups (for Kristina)
-5 Centreville magnets
-8 Michigan postcards
-A Michigan picturebook
-Petoskey stone playing cards (for Kristina)
-Centreville t-shirts
-3 Centreville water bottles
-A photo album with pictures from home
I also want to bring pancake/biscuit mix, some American candy, food from my town's Amish store, and graham crackers for s'mores. Altogether it seems like a lot, and I guess it kind of is. I really want to bring personal gifts though, and I don't know my family well enough to do that. Clara might like a shirt from my judo dojo, and I want to get Andreas something from the music store, but I've barely talked to Susanne, and I've never spoken to Madga or Johannes. Hopefully they'll be there if we skype again.

I have 29 days left in America, and things are starting to piece together. I got my suitcase this weekend, and I need to start packing soon. Tomorrow I'm going to Alexis' going away party, and she's leaving for Japan on August 1! My birthday is also in 5 days! I wish I could have my birthday in Germany, but I can't really do anything about that. It's too late in July to stay, and there's no way I could leave this early. Time is going by really quickly now, and I feel like I'm wasting what I have left. This update turned out a lot longer than I thought it would be.

Bis später,
Sarah

37 Days

Today I finally got my flight information! I'm leaving from Chicago on August 15th...at 10:30 pm. It's a three hour drive from my house to Chicago, so since my family is driving me there, they won't get home till 2 or 3 in the morning. But that also means I'll get to Frankfurt around 2 pm. After that I'm taking another plane to Hamburg for my orientation. My flights total to 4584 miles and over 9 hours! It'll be really weird to go forward in time. My tentative return date is July 8th. Which means I'd be back home exactly one year from now...that's surreal. It'd be awesome if I could stay a few days longer, because my best friend's birthday is July 11th!

I can't believe I have less than 40 days left in America. I'm getting kind of scared, but I'm so excited at the same time. I feel really unprepared though; I don't even have a suitcase yet! I've been talking to my host family a lot, and we're getting along really well. Today is Andreas' birthday, so we talked while he was on the train home at 4 am here. He's so nice!! He called me "liebe Sarah" (which I think is for people you're close to) and sent me a bunch of pictures, because I said I've never been on a train. I'm planning to Skype with them on Sunday afternoon!

Bis später,
Sarah