Arrival!!

Hey Everyone,

At 4:30 AM Central Time Zone, I arrived in Frankfurt, Germany for the first leg of my day’s travel.  Having left at 7 PM the day before, I was exhausted upon landing because I couldn’t sleep on the plane, yet my day of travelling was not quite done. Just to let you know, I am 7 hours ahead of CST.

After my two-hour wait in the beautiful Frankfurt Airport, I hopped on a small Lufthansa flight and made it to my final destination, Munich. I got my bags from the luggage pick up in record time; it only took two minutes. From there I breezed through customs and met my former exchange partner, Max, and his mom.

We drove back to their Gemeinde (village) named Olching. On the way, we stopped to buy a few pieces of raspberry almond cake for us to have. When we got home I had to unload my entire luggage. I brought two huge bags, completely full duffel and a backpack. It was a chore getting everything upstairs, but I got some help.

We ate the delicious cake and talked for a while. I noticed how out of practice I have become with my German. I can’t pick up everything like I used to, and I am meek in conversation. I want to be idiomatically correct, but if I spend so much time with that, I won’t get a single word in. Obviously, it is my goal to learn German while I am here, so seeing where I am worries me heavily. It’s a good thing I have 10 months to perfect it.

After I did a few things with the intent of unpacking, I went with Max into the main part of Olching to run a few errands. The driving age in Germany is 18 and Max just happens to finally be 18. I got to ride shotgun in his beautiful new BMW convertible that he just happened to get. Any 18 year old would KILL to have that car. When we got back, I hit the hay until dinner.

After dinner, I took a second nap (yet, I still feel dead) and am now watching FC Bayern vs. TSG Hoffenheim play soccer on my computer. Bayern, my favorite team, are performing awfully, down 1-0 in the 50^th minute.

That was the extent of my day. I am glad that I finally made it. Tomorrow I will try and get a cell phone.

Adam