Life in the Wupper

Greetings from Germany! After many days of orientations, travel, and simply "setting-in," I´ve finally become acquainted with my surroundings and its happenings. I apologize for the time gap, much has truly passed since my last post and I will try to fill you in on everything (however long this post may turn out to be).

To begin, D.C. itself was really great (or at least the parts when we were able to see the city and bond with some of the other CBYX students). However, as day and night were spent at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Herndon, VA, I began to realize the magnitude and significance of this adventure! Traveling to the Washington Monument, Lincoln Memorial, Union Station, Library of Congress, Supreme Court, the Capitol, and so forth, the importance of this trip easily showed itself.

The plane trip also went well (however long it really was). We departed at 5:00pm and arrived at Frankfurt International Airport at 1:00am (or 7am in "German time"). We were even able to fly over Ireland, Great Britain, and the Netherlands before entering Germany itself. Once we arrived in Frankfurt, the next 8 hours were spent sitting in a lobby, quietly waiting for our train with the other AFS students studying this year from around the world in Germany. Finally, late that afternoon, we were able to catch a train to Wuppertal where 6 other CBYX students were headed (along with myself) for one month of language camp.

Upon my entrance into the city, I was kindly greeted by Hildegard and Janna Völpel (my host family for the first 4 weeks). Although Wuppertal itself doesn´t have quite the normal "German charm" to it, the suburb where I live (Cronenberg) certainly does. Built on the side of a hill, Cronenberg allows one to almost look down into the Wupper valley, but also be facing the countryside at the same time. It also has somewhat of a small town-like charm, and is still connected to a larger city. Anyways, now on to the events of these past few days in Germany.

September 9, 2007:
--Once I had settled down in Cronenberg, I was still greeted early in the morning by the smiling faces of Hildegard and Janna. After breakfast, Janna and I began the daz walking through the woods inbetween Wuppertal and Solingen (a small town). We also walked around Cronenberg itself for a bit and I even was treated to an amazing cone of Italian ice cream.

Later on, Hildegard and I went to the Wuppertal Bühnen and enjoyed the theatre festival there. I was also shown around the city and became better acquainted with the Sprachschule building and the bus stops.

September 10, 2007
--Another day, another experience. Once again I woke up to the faces of the Völpel family and Hildegard and I soon made our way towards the downtown of Wuppertal for another adventure. Although through some misunderstanding we arrived at the Hauptbahnhof (main train station) too late, we were eventually greeted and taken to the Sprachschule by AFS.

Our teacher in the Sprachschule (language school) is quite young, and after 3 hours every day, all 7 of us are ready to depart.

We also went to Schwelm, a small town in the area, and visited the home of Bettina Spitz (my AFS liaison).

September 11 and 12, 2007
--How amazingly confident the easiest achievements can make you feel! After my first day using the German transportation system alone, I felt as if I could take on the whole world!

The food here is wonderful and the people are actually quite friendly. I´ve had a few days to explore around the city in the afternoons, and it´s actually quite nice! Janna, my host sister, is unfortunately preparing for her Klausur...but hopefully we will be able to have some more adventures in the next week or so.

Everything is going to swell and I truly feel like I´ve finally gotten used to things here. Perhaps it was just Jet-lag, but even now I´m not making the mistakes I was just a few days ago.

I´ll also try to upload pictures of my adventures so that all of you can view them soon!


Bis dann,
Danny