Ready or Not, Here I Come

        I keep writing up posts that go along the lines of "OMG I leave in XX days!!!! I'm so ExCiTeD wait I'm really nervous but can I just be in Germany already wahhh I love this make it stop!"  Each one is promptly deleted because the tone at the beginning never matches that at the end and the middle bit just makes me sound violently bipolar.
        I've come to realize though that this is just the way I feel right now.  Depending on the day and even on the hour I feel different emotions about leaving and going.  I need to make it clear that these are two very different things.  Going always has good emotions even if there is some anxiety.  Leaving on the other hand slips through my fingers every time I try to pick up on the exact emotion it excites.  I have definitely left any indifference far behind. I am sad to be leaving my friends, but I have their assurance that I won't be forgotten and I know that they'll be here for me when I return as well as emotionally supportive even while I'm away.  My family will be just fine without me no matter what some of them seem to think and there will probably be so many letters home the only difference will be all the extra time available in the shower.  But leaving still isn't all bad because in doing so, I will be discarding any labels that I have accumulated over the years and arriving in Germany with a clean foundation to build myself on.  Though as I write this, I wonder if that really should be labeled as a "going" feeling. You see what I mean by the blog changing directions?

       Well no matter, that doesn't change the fact that I am leaving in a mere 13 days!  That's right, I have my ticket all set for 10 pm on July 31st.  From there I fly to Amsterdam, have a two hour lay over and then an hour flight to Bremen where I will be greeted by my host family at 2:30 in the afternoon on August 1st.  I don't actually fly well truth be told and it just so happens that flying between Detroit and Amsterdam was the first time that I threw up on a plane.

*Skip this story if you are of feint heart or queasy stomach* (okay it's not that bad and you will miss some laughs but skip if you must)

To start with, I get motion sick pathetically easily.  Like say I ride in a particularly fast elevator.  Afterwards I have to sit down for a minute to stop walking in crooked lines. Yeah, it's bad.  So of course there wasn't a single barf bag on my first transatlantic 7 hour flight.  I hardly thought about it though because I'd felt fine the entire time, fully enjoying all that the awesome built in TV had to offer, as well as the new delicacy of "Plane Food" .  Unfortunately, as we started to descend and the pressure changed, so did my brand new opinion on in flight meals.  After about infinity plus 1 hours I felt the longed for bump of wheels hitting the tarmac and I thought to myself, "I'm saved!".  Alas, I rejoiced too soon for I still could not run to the bathroom because the captain hadn't turned off the seat belt sign.  Now you may be thinking that my needs outranked the little glowing light above my head and in this thinking, you would be wrong.  12-year-old Mary had had the authority of seat belt signs drilled into her since the early age of 2.  I knew in no uncertain terms that walking while the light was on would cause the spontaneous combustion and immediate drop of the plane from the sky along with the death of every person on-board.  It didn't matter that the plane was driving around already ON the ground, I was not about to be responsible for the deaths of all those people.  Now I'm not trying to sound like a hero, I only did what any wonderful self-sacrificing person would do.  I leaned over the side of my chair and threw up all over the isle that half a Boeing 747 needed to walk down to get out of the plane.  Within seconds the suddenly attentive Lufthansa flight attendant swooped down from behind and nabbed my blanket from me.  I watched her deftly fold it up and gracefully lay it across the isle were it magically blended into the blue/grey carpeting.  The large man across from me never even looked up from the computer he had just turned back on.  I then sat there and watched the whole back of the plane exit unknowingly over my first in flight meal.

*End story*

So if you read that paragraph, you now understand why I'm not thrilled to be returning to Amsterdam.  For those of you who heeded my warning and skipped it, just know that it involved the red light district, high speed trams, a missing passport, and an uncomfortably large amount of Swiss cheese.  I trust your imagination can fill in the rest for you and now you also know why I'm not thrilled to be returning to Amsterdam.  Luckily, I already found a few other exchange students who I will meet up with for the flight to Bremen so even if I am a little out of it in the airport, I should make it all the way to Bremen.  Less than two weeks seems so soon, next time I post here, I very well might be in Germany!  Crazy ehh?

~M

Central States Conference

       2 weeks until Germany and it still feels utterly surreal.  This past weekend was the Central States Rotary Youth Exchange weekend (CSRYE).  The days were filled with meetings that were decently informative though rather repetitive.  But I'd rather have a rotary that over prepares me rather than under prepares me so I'm not complaining.  Both nights we had dance parties which were wicked fun.  Now I only wish I was headed for Latin America so they could teach me to dance!  I also fell in love with all the Spanish and Portuguese songs by the end of Saturday night, they're just so much more fun to dance to even if I don't know what in the world is being said...

       There was also the traditional "Brasil against The World" soccer game one afternoon.  I was able to play for a few minutes but I had to really fight the boys to let me on.  They'd grown tired of being out played by the all boys Brazilian team so when I swapped on, an athletic inbound ran up and told me to get off the field.  Why he thought that would work, I have no idea.  The next play came down to my end of the field, I carried it straight down the middle for half the field and laid it off in an easy pass to a girl standing wide open at the corner of the 18.  She proceeded to fall over in her attempt to kick the ball.  (Okay so maybe that was the reason why "The World" boys were trying to keep us girls off the pitch.)  Anyways, after that I got high fives from most of the boys on both teams and an almost apology from the kid who had tried to sub me out.  Hopefully they won't count out the girls quite so quickly next time.  I gave up my spot to the next person who wanted to sub in and keeping with tradition, Brasil won the game.  After the game we set up a game of 8v8 that was a lot of fun because everyone was relaxed and just out to have a good time.  This did however make me late and sweaty for the pin exchange.

       I'm afraid I'll never have a super covered blazer just because I'm a big believer in collecting memories and experiences rather than souvenirs and things (being perpetually late might also inhibit my pin collecting abilities, but let's just chalk it up to principles instead) I don't have souvenirs from anything because I always end up asking myself if shopping is really what I want to do while I'm traveling and the answer is always no.  Of course pins are a little different, and some people may argue that a pin is a memory and that trading is an experience to remember but in a mass trade where I don't even know someones name I just don't get as excited as the rest of the exchange students.  I did still trade a fair amount and will be flying with a half full blazer so I will scream Rotary Exchange Student just as loudly as the next blazer clad kid, don't worry!

       I must warn any future exchange students going to CSRYE, there was very little sleep to be had all weekend.  I slept all of 4 hours the first night and then did not sleep again until the car ride home at 10am on Sunday.  There is a strict curfew of course, but only for being inside your dorm building.  I spent all of Saturday night with a fun bunch of outbound, inbound, and rebound students who have all become very good friends of mine. There's something about exchange students, even those of us who haven't left yet that binds us all together.  Maybe it's that we've all had the courage to leave our homes to enter into these great adventures.  What ever it is, exchange students really are the most universally fun group of people you will ever meet.

Basically if you are going to CSRYE get ready for a fun time, and keep in mind that nobody ever remembers the nights that they get enough sleep (;

Tschuess!

~M

Bremerhaven

       My first post after the original host family email was rather brief, so this post will serve as a sort of supplement on the city of Bremerhaven.  I meant to put this up sooner but better late then never!  This information all came off google though so maybe I'll make a comparison post once I actually reach Bremerhaven.

                                                           Tour of Bremerhaven:

This picture comes from a boat festival held annually in Bremerhaven.  Hopefully I'll stay late enough next year to see it!

Boat Parade

This is the main terminal building of Bremerhaven's port.  The city is supposed to be very modern and most of the architecture is post war.

Sunset over the harbor

This is the "Zoo by the Sea" (literally that's what Zoo am Meer translates to) and it's an aquarium plus other animals found near the sea.  I'll definitely check it out

Lloyd Gymnasium This is one of the buildings of my school!

Here's a picture from inside another one of my high school's buildings.  I could get used to this!

A German beach on the North Sea.  It looks just like Lake Michigan to me!

On a rare sunny day, everyone flocks to the beach

Bremerhaven even has it's own beautiful town Christmas tree!