Gateway Orientation and First week of Language Camp!

Servus! Bodo here, 

  My first month in Germany was spent in an intensive German Language camp in Hamburg. I recognize that I am VERY late in posting about this incredible experience so thank you for your patience! I will try to gather my thoughts and photos from Language camp in a series of several posts in the next week or to before I move on to my current situation. I would like to have some sort of rhyme and reason in this endeavor. Please Enjoy!

Thursday, August 9th: Arrival at Orientation - Airport Hotel Washington D.C 

A short day filled with many goodbyes tons, of new people, a lot of information about Germany, and some very intense games of Egyptian War. 

Friday, August 10th: 

     The day started with a trip to the German Embassy. We got to listen to a German and an American diplomat share their stories. They told us how they became involved in diplomacy, about the highs and lows of their work, about the importance of youth exchange, and even shared a few personal opinions on current global politics that we were instructed not to repeat. As someone who is interested in pursuing a career in politics and plans on majoring in International Relations, it was a great opportunity to hear about my one of my possible future careers directly from people who have been doing it faithfully for years. 

AFS CBYX 18-19 

    Here we are with our program coordinator, a few alumni and the ambassadors in front of a piece of the Berlin wall at the embassy. Our cell phones were taken away upon entering the embassy so was not able to take any pictures.

    After leaving the embassy we made our way to Capitol Hill to meet with staffers from the offices of our representatives. Our bus was a little late and dropped us a good ways off from our buildings so those of us with early meetings had to sprint to get there on time. I´m sure it was a funny sight, fifty teenagers in business casual sprinting past the capitol buildings, it was definitely a funny experience even if we arrived at our meetings out of breath, a little sweaty, and despite our best efforts, late. 

     I had an early meeting and after talking up the program had a few hours to kill at the train station before heading back to the hotel for more workshops. Only the second day and I already really started making friends with the other AFS students! 

Saturday, August 11: International Departure!

    A very typical, very smooth travel day, the highlights including, an emergency exit row seat and lots of leg room on our first flight, a hilarious game of BS spanning the majority of a three-hour layover in North Carolina, finally leaving America, airplane food, and seven hours (I know I was shocked too) of blissful sleep over the Atlantic Ocean. 

Basic Exchange Student Passport Photo

Sunday, August 12th: Arrival. 

      Finally in Germany! After many applications, countless personal essays, fast approaching deadlines, nerve-wracking interviews, and frustrating rejections I am finally a State Department Exchange student! Walking through the Frankfurt airport with 50 new friends, being welcomed by actual Germans, hearing actual German... everything was a little overwhelming and I promptly went back to sleep on the floor of the airport lounge while waiting a few hours for our busses to arrive. 

Generic Airplane Window Photo

    Perhaps a five-hour bus trip immediately following a nine-hour flight doesn´t sound like your idea of fun, but, even though the toilet on the bus didn´t flush, and even though we only stopped twice for the bathroom- it was actually a great deal of fun. A group of overly exhausted, overly excited teenagers can cover an astonishing number of topics when trapped in a small space for five hours, and although we didn´t quite figure out the meaning of life, I think we got pretty close.

Arrival at AFS Language Camp!

Our Hostel

     For the four weeks of Language Camp we stayed in a youth hostel in Hamburg. The hostel was a pretty nondescript building in a pretty non-descript area outside the city but it didn´t take long to become home. I had five wonderful roommates (I miss you guys) and one of only three rooms that opened to the communal balcony. The balcony that soon became a center of AFS life (everyone else had to go through the ¨big room¨ to get to the balcony [as the weeks went on people would also just use my room but that is neither here nor there}). The hostel food was great even if it was a little monotonous. I am a huge fan of the German approach to breakfast and dinner (lunch being the primary meal of the day). We had salad and a selection of fresh rolls and slices of different meats and cheeses twice a day, sometimes accompanied by pretzels, croissants, or tomato soup.  

My Roommates and Our Balcony

Language School 

     The primary purpose of language camp was an intensive four-week language course in the center of Hamburg. The Language School we attended was about 45 minutes from our Hostel and we had to take a bus and two trains to get there in the morning (I will make a post about public transport here in the future, it´s wild). Our classes were on the sixth floor of a building that also houses the Botswana Consulate, and had a wonderful view of a canal, and the Hamburger Tanzen Türme. I was placed in the highest beginner level (A1.2) and had an incredible experience with a fantastic teacher every day. We had class from 8 am to 12 pm every weekday but my teacher kept everything fast-paced and interesting throughout our time with her. After class we would walk or take a short train to a different hostel for lunch. 

Far Away View of Language School

Hamburg: 

     Hamburg is one of the three German city-states (along with Bremen and Berlin), Germany's second largest city, and the third largest port in Europe (18th in the world). Every day on our way too and from Language Classes we had a gorgeous view of ships coming in and out and could watch work going on in the shipping district across the bay. On Thursday of our first week we walked through the Elbe tunnel. 1,398 ft long and 80 feet under water, the Elbe tunnel was opened in 1911 as a pedestrian and vehicle tunnel to get from one side of the bay to the other. 
     After resurfacing on the other side of the bay we had the opportunity to explore the waterfront and take pictures. One of my favorite things to see (and later visit) was the Elbphilharmonie (the large wavy building in the right of the first picture) one of the Largest concert halls in the world. The building caused a great deal of controversy while it was being built because it cost 600 million dollars more than its estimated 200 mil.  Hamburg is a beautiful city and my only regret from language camp is not seeing more of it, I suppose that means I will just have to go back one day...

Elbphilharmonie Building

                  


     

          The week of August 11th-17th was a week of firsts for me. Obviously the first week of language camp, my first time traveling without at least one member of my immediate family, my first German class, and my first time using a laundromat just to name a few. It was truly an incredible week and things only got better from there! Stay tuned for more language camp posts in the coming week.

Tschüss, 

Bodo 

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