DEUTSCHLAND!!!!!

Hey guys!

I'm in Amstadt, a little town outside of Darmstadt. It's SO beautiful here. Everything is very green and there are trees everywhere. Now, I thought Austin had a lot of greenery, but Germany completely blows us out of the water!!!!

(Disclaimer: You may see an oddly placed Z or Y, and that is because for some reason those keys are switched on German keyboards. Go figure.)

Anyway, it's great here. I went walking through the town yesterday, and today I took a tram to Darmstadt. Both are amazing! The houses are very old and lovely. Also, you know what's amazing? In Germany, you can buy a really good scoop of ice cream for less than one American dollar!!!! Crazy, huh?

I realized something very imporant and disturbing while going through customs yesterday...I do not speak German very well at all...The man checking my passport asked me how long I would be travelling in Germany and I found that I did not know the word for week!!! Fortunately, I've had a miraculous build up of vocabulary over the last 24 hours, and am now able to say that I will be in Germany for 'drei Wochen'. It's a good skill to have.

The school I am going to right now is incredible! It's a huge circle! Everyone is very friendly and not at all upset when I take a full minute trying to say something totally basic. :P

Honestly, I'm surprised by how quickly I am learning and remembering how to speak German. The human mind is an amazing thing.

However, the most difficult thing for me so far has not been the language...It has been the shower. I spent at least five minutes standing butt naked in the bathroom trying to figure out how to turn it on. I would have been horribly embaressed to ask for help so I just stood there trying everything I could think of. I even went and looked for a switch on the wall because I've heard stories of people needing to use a light switch to turn on the shower in Europe.

Tschüss!

Thing to be grateful for today: Kind and understanding people.