Deutschland!

So it has been a very long last two days. Yesterday, well two days ago, my travel began. I boarded a flight at 5:55 p.m. in Washington D.C. At 7:00 A.m. I arrived in Frankfurt, DE. In Frankfurt airport I had a 10 hour layover. 10 hours!! I sat and listened to my zune and took small naps. I was too paranoid to really sleep though because I had to worry about my bags. Too make it even better I was now a foreigner in a foreign country. After the 10 boring hours I finally boarded my transfer flight to Bremen. When I arrived in Bremen I didn't know what would happen after I received my bags. I just knew that somehow I would get to the Krey's house. Once i grabbed the bags I walked out of the gate and saw Thomas and Jannes holding a sign saying "Willkomen Robert". I was finally at my new home. An hour later on the autobahn and I was home in Cuxhaven. Their house is amazing. Wood floors throughout and with a really modern look. My parents and siblings are awesome, I could ask for no better. I stayed awake for another hour and then finally crashed. I was awake for 28 hours without sleep. Ahhh how a nice bed felt. The next morning, which is today, I awoke bright and early at 8:00 to go see Hark Weidling in Hamburg. The train ride was about 1:45 minutes, and I must say, Germans really have public transit figured out. The train ride when pretty quickly and soon enough we were in Central Station in Hamburg. The place was packed with trains coming and going very quickly. We started walking towards the stairs when suddenly someone said " hallo, you must be Robert" It was Hark and he scared the piss out of me. He came from literally behind a wall like in a movie. From there on out Hark gave me and the Krey's a historical tour of the city. I confess I only took like 10 pictures of the whole day, mainly because my mouth was hanging open in awe for a majority of the time. It was like a Chicago that I could actually enjoy. The atmosphere was nice and the people weren't pushy pushy. It was even quiet unlike every other big city i've been too. For lunch we ate Italian. I had a Hawai Pizza. Thomas and Matthis ate pizzas as well. To be honest I like the pizza better back home. I think Chicago'ans perfected the pizza. It wasnt bad though. After that me and Hark split up from the Kreys. I went with hark by car to his house which is in the outskirts of Hamburg, and the Kreys toured the city on their own. Eventually I arrived at Harks house which is in the perfect spot. It is such a farcry from the city i was just in. In fact it is actually peaceful. At his house I met one of his sons and one of his daughters. They were both really nice, but I could only communicate with the son because he had taken some Englisch, the daughter had not. Hark showed me his illustrations he had made as a graphic designer. They were really cool and unique. He is an artist. After that we exchanged genealogical information and ate fruit out in his garten. I tried yellow plums for the first time. They were quite tasty. After a few hours it was time for me to go. So I walked with hark and his son and daughter to the bahnhof ( train station ). On the way we grabbed ice cream. Whoah, talk about amazing ice cream! At the train station Hark bought my ticket and waved good bye to me as I boarded. There was some slight confusion between me and Hark and my destination. So i kinda missed my stop by about 5 or so :( ahhaaha. Luckly Thomas called my cell or I would have kept riding until the end of the line!! They came and met me at my stop and we road the metro back to the central station. There we road all the way back to Cuxhaven and then drove to Nordholz. I slept the whole train ride and don't remember much. When we got home we watched Harry Potter in Deutsch with Englisch subtitles. Now its 00:12 in German time. I.E. its time to get to bed! Guten Nacht.

D.C.!

Hey i'm typing this from my (dorm like) room in some 4-H place in Washington D.C. I seriously lucked out when it came to room and board. The usual rooms were the size of a closet with four people crammed into them with bunk-beds. My room happens to be the handicap room. It is easily 5 times larger than regular rooms. I share the room with two other guys. They're cool kinda, but they make me feel like I dont know shit. Which i really dont. They sit here and ramble in German and discuss things that I dont even understand. I honestly feel like im a little child again. Food sucked today. I'm still hungry. Tomorrow's going to be another long day. Waking up around 6 to shower in time and eat. By 7:30 we're on the road to capitol hill. The real kicker is we have to be in our suits and dress shoes all day in the 90 degree 75% humidity weather. Oh the joy! Well it's getting semi-sorta late. Good night world!

Permanent Host family

Good news! I finally know where and who my permanent host family is. The Ruth's live in a small town of Brachttal, Germany. Brachttal is about an hour to the East of the major city Frankfurt.
Its good to finally know where i'll be living. They seem extremely nice as well.

The family members are as follows:

Alexandra.... Mother
Kai................ Father
Jan............... 10yr old Son
Rebekka...... 14yr old Daughter

Here's my flight info as well:

Jul 20, Ar Washington Dulles
Jul 22, Lv Washington Dulles
Jul 23, Ar Frankfurt, Germany

My trip starts off with me in Washington D.C. for the first two days. I'll be meeting with congress on the 21st of July and maybe even a white-house tour. Hopefully the president doesn't "spook" me.

12 days until i leave baby!!