Germany: Week 1

Basically the first week was a whirlwind.  The day after I arrived, I had to hop on a train to Köln to take a bus to Wermelskirchen for orientation and to meet the other 139 Americans who have the same grant. For those of you not familiar with where Wermelskirchen is, don't be ashamed, I still don't rightly know where it is. I do know that it is beautiful there. And peaceful. Peaceful because of a lack of Wi-fi and reception and one would think goes hand in hand with a conference center. However; it gave us more bonding time.

Those four days were also spent wondering where my last piece of luggage was. They gave the usual "We have a a very booked flight today and we will probably have to check some carry-ons". I didn't want to carry my bag around...yeah that was a mistake. It had been straight up left in Newark and due to a phone issue they couldn't reach me when it arrived on the first...even though I left 2 other contact methods. One phone call later and it was in a car on it's way to my apartment.

 Back to being in nowhere.

I kept meeting people going to Berlin, Niedersachen, Sachen, etc - read everywhere but Hessen. I was being to get concerned that no one else had been placed it my state. Luckily I was proven wrong. I actually ran into the other girl living in Giessen while wandering around on a lazy Sunday. Knowing that a lot of us were in the same boat of no teaching experience and that a least a few people were a short train ride away gave me some peace of mind.

 After 4 days of bonding and info on how to fill out (what seems to be endless) paperwork - I made a dash back to Giessen to buy stuff for my room in enough time to catch a train to Wetzlar. There I met my coordinating teacher and saw the school for the first time. This school is like an art gallery. There are either famous works of art or really awesome graffiti on almost every wall. It's three schools connected together so there are around 5000 students on the whole campus.

I spent the weekend roaming around Giessen. I befriended some of the local wildlife and spent a lot of time in the botanical gardens and greenhouses, hence the wealth of plant pictures - trust me - there are many more.

My building