Week 1

So we've been on this trip for almost an entire week now. I think it's time for an update.

First of all, Germany is awesome. The landscape, the food, the layout of the city, the people, THE BEER... everything is has exceeded my expectations (then again, I came to this country with no expectations so I suppose that wasn't too difficult). But all this may just seem really exciting because it's new. I'm sure if someone from Germany visited Texas and had some Rudy's BBQ, they'd flip their lid, while us native Texans are thinking "it's just Rudy's, there's better BBQ out there." I'm sure there is some excitement for the locals when they go out to the pubs and hang out with friends, but not quite on the same level as I've seen with out study abroad group so far. The excitement may also be due to the lower drinking age, which doesn't affect me at all. But I'm not going to sit here and try to analyze the behavior of our group as a whole. At least not until I get to know everyone more personally. That's what I get for being a psychology minor. It's also kind of weird being the oldest (minus Justin) on this trip. Although, my age says I'm 21, I feel like my behavior says I'm 8, only sometimes though. Justin has a lot of wisdom since he's been in our position before - a student on one of Wasser's study abroad trips. We could learn a lot from him.

My host family is amazing! Sophia is like a mother from another grandmother, and Harald is like a beer drinking Santa Claus. They've been extremely generous to Chase and I, and do everything in their power to make us feel at home. They even cooked hamburgers the other night! It feels authentically German in this household, mainly because we have beer every night with dinner, and Harald always comments "Gesund" or "it's healthy." Judging from his actions he literally thinks that beer is healthy for you and fruit is not. It's the coolest thing. We haven't met our host sisters yet, they're still in New Zealand. But I'm sure they will be cool.

Anyway, that's all for now. This is an extremely shortened, watered down version of what all happened this week. It seems like we've been here a month with all that's gone on.

Until next time.