Sorry Not Sorry

Well guys, sorry to break it to you, but I'm giving up on this blog. Back when I started looking into this scholarship (almost a whole year ago, crazy), I read a bunch of blogs from people who were already on the exchange. And I got mad when someone didn't finish writing in their blog, they usually gave up in like November. I told myself that I would definitely never ever do that. Ha what a joke. Whenever I try to write something for the blog, I end up writing for forever and not getting everything written. And life continues to happen as I try to update it. I don't want to waste a lot of time writing about my whole life here. I am too busy living it :) Just know that this is one of the best decisions I have ever made. Even though at sometimes it is hard, I have learned and grown so much from this. I would definitely recommend it to anyone who is interested. Don't expect it to be a vacation, expect it to be hard, but expect to see results from it. Being an exchange student is one of the most hard and rewarding things that someone could do. If anyone has any questions, feel free to comment on this or contact me in anyway. I'll try to do my best to answer them!
As for now, I'm officially checking myself out of this business. I was never made for the blogger life. Sorry but not sorry.
Abigail Allen

New Town, New School, New Family... New Everything

So as it turns out… my host family really is perfect! I am so lucky to have them. We didn't end up having a barbecue when we got here because it was raining. But it was still great. I have a huge room, my own bathroom, and my own kitchen (although I never use it). Where I’m staying was supposed to be a guest room but they actually never got around to furnishing it. And now it’s my room. And we are furnishing it bit by bit. I got my bed last week (since I got here I have just been sleeping in my little sisters room) so that is pretty exciting. And they are going to get new decorations and everything for me for my room!

                And now… school. Oh goodness. It is pretty stressful because I don’t know what is going on or what anybody is saying. Luckily I have a host sister who is one year younger than me so for the first week I just followed her around to her classes. She has helped me get registered and get a schedule and everything. I have most of my classes with her (they put me in the 11^th grade with her) but some of them I have by myself. So in Germany, if a teacher is sick or can’t teach for whatever reason, they don’t get a substitute. They just cancel class. So when you get to school you immediately have to check the list to see if you don’t have to go to some of your classes that day. It is really pretty nice and so far it has happened more than would be expected. Some days I only have like 2 classes. School starts at 7:45 and can go as late as 3:50 so that isn't as great when I have a full schedule because then it is really long. Oh and also there are free periods in your schedule. I have like maybe 4 or 5 during the week. If it is at the beginning of school then you can go to school late. Or if not you can just hang around the school. Or whatever. No one cares what you do. Last Friday I didn't have to go to school until like 11:30 and then I only had one class then I went home. It was absolutely wonderful.  A lot of times in class I can’t understand what is going on so I do one of two things: 1) If the class is just discussing something, I look at the worksheets and try to translate the words. Or 2) If there are notes on the board, I translate those. So basically I use my little German to English dictionary A LOT. Sometimes people try to translate for me but it is really hard for them to keep up with the work and translate at the same time. So I feel really bad when they do that and I just try to convince them to let me just translate. And usually it works pretty well. It is especially hard in my religion class because the words that they use aren't common words so I don’t know hardly any of them. Oh and we are reading “Kabale und Liebe” (it’s like an old famous play if you didn't know) in my German class, and that is hard because all the words are old German.  It’s kind of like reading Shakespeare in English.  I just end up going home and reading it in English off of the internet. Then I translate the notes on the board in class.

                P.I. told us that we should have at least one extracurricular activity per week, but I have no idea what to do. I went with Laurina to her handball practice on Wednesday and that was pretty fun.  I had never played handball before, so that was kind of interesting. But I learned a lot and had fun with the other girls. I think I’m going to keep doing that with her every week. Obviously I can’t play the games with her or anything but I can keep going to practices.  Last week I went to the town hall in Engelskirchen and registered as living there. So now (I think) I am an official citizen. While I was there they gave me a couple different coupons in the town. One of them is for free tennis lessons for like 3 times or something. Maybe I’ll try that. Who knows. Most days I come home and don’t really do anything. I really need to find stuff to do because I don’t want to get homesick or anything. Oh, and I’ve been trying to teach myself the piano too because I have a piano in my room. So far I can play Mary Had a Little Lamb. And Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. I’m obviously fantastic. I looked into taking piano lessons, except they cost 51 euros per month! So that’s out of the question. It’s hard because I am always so exhausted by the time school is over. I am constantly trying to translate things in my head and I have so much new information coming in every day, so it is really tiring. For now I think I will just stick with handball.

                So last week I went to church for the first time. I was so so happy! I haven’t gone since August 4^th and it has been really hard for me to not have it. My church is in Köln, which is like an hour away from my house in Engelskirchen. My parents contacted the bishop and he was able to refer us to someone who could take me to church with him.  So yeah he picked me up early Sunday morning and took me with him. We got there a little bit early because he is the organist and he had to practice. In the meantime I sat and listened to the choir sing. There were four missionaries in the choir and afterwards they all came up to talk to me. There is elder missionaries and sister missionaries. It turns out that one of the sister missionaries is from Tremonton! The other is from Canada. One of the elder missionaries is from Las Vegas, but the other one is from a town near Provo! Then get this, later two other guys came up and started talking to me in English. As it turns out, one of them is from Burley, Idaho and the other is from Sandy, Utah. It is crazy how small this world really is.  I talked to the sister missionaries and they said that they would love it if I would go teaching with them sometime! I guess there is an investigator that is my age and they would like me to come help teach her. I would absolutely love that! I sure hope it works out and I can go with them. Sadly I would have to go all the way into Köln, but luckily my school is going to give me a school bus pass thing. It basically lets me ride any bus, train, or U-bahn within a certain radius for free. Any time. And the radius is big. It reaches at least to Köln and I think Bonn too. So that is wonderful and then I won’t have to pay every time. Anyway, church was wonderful. There is only one other Young Woman so that is interesting. But of course still really good. Then after church they had a baptism. It was a lot different than in Utah. Practically the entire ward stayed for the baptism, which started an hour after church ended. It was really cool because I can tell the whole ward is really close. They just stay and talk to each other for a long time. Anyway, it was wonderful. And they have a seminary class too! We meet every morning over Skype from 6-6:45 (it is super early for me), and then on Fridays we meet at the church in Köln.  So that is wonderful.  Oh and the first day that I went to the church (the 15^th), I found out that they went to the temple in Frankfurt as a ward the day before! So I was really kind of bummed that I missed out on that by just one day but oh well life goes on. I talked to another sister in the ward and she said that she and her husband try to go at least once a month and that I might be able to go with them sometime! So hopefully I’ll be able to go soon.

                My German has improved SO MUCH since I’ve been with my host family! Oh my goodness I can’t believe how much I’ve learned. I’m pretty sure that it is more than I ever learned in school. I’m so glad it’s coming fast, but I still have a long way to go. I can’t understand what people are saying unless they say it really slowly and sometimes I still can’t understand then. In my host family we always talk in German unless I absolutely can’t understand, then my host mom translates. So that really helps. I feel like some days I can understand so much more than other days. Some days I feel like I don’t know any German at all, but then other days I can tell how much I’m improving.

                Okay I’m sorry this was really rambling but I've been trying to write this for like over a week, and I never have the patience to finish it. So the timing might be wrong, but you get the idea. I’ll try to post more often from now on.

Hedersleben

Well I made it to Germany! And I haven’t posted at all yet, I’m so sorry. That isn’t a good start. For the first month that I am here, I stayed in a small town in Hedersleben. Partnership International is the CBYX FLAG partner in Germany. They are gave all the scholarship recipients from my region (the southwest region) a language camp.  We stayed in an old monastery. I felt like I was kind of in a boarding school because we all just stayed there and went to classes and stuff. The first day was when we found out which classes we are in, and it turns out that they put me in the top class. The one with the people who know German fluently. And I don’t know like any German. I guess they just take the information from the application, and they thought that I had taken 3 classes of German. But one of those classes (in 8^th grade) was half French, and then the one in 10^th grade was taught by a horrible teacher who didn’t know any German. So basically yeah I freaked out for the first couple days because I couldn’t understand anything that was going on in the class. I was going to try to switch down but I heard that the class below me was going really slow so I just decided to stay in the high class. I figured that I would learn more because it would make me push my limits. And it definitely did. I’m pretty sure my German improved a lot while I was there, although I still struggled A LOT. Oh well I hope I learn fast while I’m with my host family. Most of the students here haven’t had any German at all. There are six classes and 4 of them are starting German. So at least I’m a little bit better off with a little bit of background.

                Our schedule for every normal day was as follows: Breakfast at 8, Class from 9-12 with occasional breaks, Lunch at 12, Study time at 1, Free time at 2, Class from 3-6 with occasional breaks, Dinner at 6, News at 7, and then free time when that is over around 7:30. So yeah we kept pretty busy. But we also had some down time so that is really good. In our free time we didn’t have too much to do. Hedersleben is a super small town. It has like 1600 people in it or something like that. It is actually bigger than my town in America, but that is because mine only has like a few hundred people. And I live near other bigger cities too. But anyway this town has a Döner shop, a small grocery store, a town hall, and a sportzplatz (a couple soccer fields). It kind of reminds me of Richmond, if you live near me you’ll know what I’m talking about. And it has a lot of fields and areas without buildings. It has a creek thing running through it so sometimes when we didn’t have anything to do, we would walk to the creek. It is really pretty there and I enjoyed the scenery. In our free time we just hung around the monastery with the other students, got food, or went to the grocery store. Or played soccer or something. We are kind of running out of things to do by now. The walks were really nice but they usually ended up being like 3 hours so we could only do it in the evening, and then it gets dark fairly quickly. But it was pretty fun. We found things to do. Our curfew was at 10:30 but then we were allowed to stay up in our rooms as long as we wanted. Which was a problem because my roommates and I ended up talking until like midnight. And then sleeping in on accident. We got along really well and I am so glad because I have talked to some other people who had problems with their roommates. I am way lucky.

                Occasionally we did things as a group. For instance one night we went to the town hall and played Kegeln (German bowling). It was pretty fun. I like it way better than American bowling. A couple weeks ago some of us went to the fire station in the next town. It was so cool. I had the best time ever. You see, when I was in kindergarten my class went on a field trip to the fire station. And I was sick that day so I couldn’t go. It was the worst thing ever! So basically I have been waiting 12 years to go to a fire station. And I finally got to! And it was German, which made it even better. So I absolutely loved that.

Towards the beginning of our stay, some of us met this guy who works next to the monastery as a beekeeper. So one day I was able to go with him and some other people to gather (I don’t think that’s the correct term, but you know what I mean) the honey. It was so cool! We got beekeeper suits and we went in, smoked the bees, took the honeycomb, and shook the bees off. Then we went back and took the honey out of the honeycomb and filtered it. Then he was going to put it into jars to sell. We got samples and the honey was soooo good! That was awesome.

We have gone to 3 other cities during our stay in Hedersleben. We went to Leipzig, Magdeburg, and Quedlinburg. They were all really cool. In each one we went to different museums and castles and things like that. Then we always got free time to explore the city. They were all so much fun. I also went back to Quedlinburg during our free time on a Saturday. I love Germany. It is so amazing.

On the 25^th of August I went to the Catholic church here in Hedersleben. I was hoping that I would be able to go to my LDS church except the closest one was early in the morning and there wasn’t a bus running at the right time. In other words there wasn’t a way for me to get there. So instead, every Sunday night me and the other LDS people (there were 5 of us) would gather together in my room for a little study session. We would just share scriptural thoughts and try to strengthen each other. I am so so glad we did this. If there is anyone reading this who is going to go on the program who is LDS, MAKE SURE YOU DO THIS. It helped all of us so much. My testimony was strengthened every time. We all had a few struggles during the camp so it was nice to connect and share our experiences and difficulties. I really hope that next Sunday (the 15^th) I will be able to go to an LDS church in my area.  Anyway, so I went to the Catholic church. It was way interesting. I enjoyed seeing another religion. I was able to compare the two churches and it was cool. However, it did make me miss my church. While I was there all I could think about was and LDS church. I don’t even need my home ward. I just wanted an LDS church. It made me appreciate my church so much.

We have had two talent shows while we are here. They were both really cool. In the second one (which was yesterday), me and two other girls signed the song Love Story (by Taylor Swift) in ASL! We all took classes so we did that together and it was pretty cool. I’ll probably post the video on my Facebook sometime. We threw it together at the last minute and I am pleased that it turned out pretty well. There were a lot of different things that people did in the shows, they were all very fantastic.

I was able to Skype my family for the first time on the 5^th. That was pretty cool. Again, if anyone is reading this who will be on this program, don’t worry about Skyping very much. You don’t get as homesick if you don’t skype for the first little bit. And if you are having problems (like sickness or something), don’t tell your parents. They can’t (usually) do anything for you, and they will just worry anyway.  But I skyped with them and it was nice. I haven’t felt homesick at all yet, so that’s nice. I’m expecting it any day now.

As I am writing this, I am on my way to my host family. I won’t post it until later, but you get the point. I got them on Thursday and they are absolutely perfect! I was really nervous because I was one of the last people to get them. I guess they can’t give us the information until the school approves us, and sometimes it takes forever. But yeah. I finally got them. I have one older brother, one older sister, and two younger sisters. I have always wanted more siblings and especially younger ones. So I am way excited! And also, they said they have 20 YEARS of experience with gluten free food!!!! I’m not exactly sure how they do, but it is such a relief. I was super nervous about eating gluten free in Germany, but now I’m not at all. This family is seriously perfect for me. I have been praying for months that I will be able to get a good host family. I know that the Lord watched over me and handpicked this family for me. They will be absolutely wonderful. They said that they are going to have a barbeque after they pick me up with a bunch of people! So hopefully I won’t look like a complete idiot without knowing much German. And they are going to paint my room whatever I want them to! I’m super stoked (but also kind of nervous) about meeting them. I literally did a huge dance for like 5 minutes when I found out about them.

                Today was pretty hard leaving all the other exchange students. Luckily I don’t cry an exceedingly often, so I didn’t today. But honestly I gave everyone like 20 hugs. We all got pretty close. It was hard for a little while in the middle when I just wanted to get out of there when I was tired of everyone, but as we were leaving I realized how much I really do like our group as a whole. We have some great people and I am very glad that they are here with me. If I have problems I know I can talk to them about it and they will understand. I don’t feel alone over here even though I will be by myself with my family. Language camp was a wonderful idea.

                Every day I become more and more thankful for this wonderful opportunity. This is the experience of a lifetime. I know how special this is. I know there will be struggles, but I know that it will be good in the end. I will grow so much while I’m over here, I’m so excited for this year!

Tschüss!

Washington D.C. - On My Way

After a couple of days of hurried packing and making final preparations, I finally was ready to leave!  I said my last goodbyes (I hate them. They are like the hardest things in the world.) and headed off to stay at my cousins house for the night.  The next morning after like 2 hours of sleep I woke up at 3:30 and got ready to leave.  Leaving my family was impossibly hard.  I love them so much.  I will miss them but I am also so excited to go see another part of the world.  Yes, I bawled like a baby.  But after that I made it through security and onto the plane.  I had a short layover in Los Angeles then flew to the Washington Dulles airport.  There I met my director and he took me to the hotel, where I met up with all the other CBYX students!  It was quite a long and boring day, but I have a longer one planned for tomorrow! We wake up early again and then get on a 2 hour flight to Dallas, stay there for a couple hour layover, fly on a 9 1/2 hour flight to Germany, then have a 4 hour bus ride to Hedersleben, where all of us will be staying until September 7.  Its very boring, but necessary! I'll try to post more when I arrive in Germany!

Preparations... Less Than 2 Weeks Left!

Almost every conversation I have had lately goes like this:

Other Person: "I didn't know you were going to Germany!"

Me: "Yep I am!"

"For how long?"

"Ten months"

"Oh my goodness that is a long time! What is your mom going to do without you?" (it's seriously what people always ask me... I think they are more concerned for her than for me)

"I don't know...."

"So when do you leave?"

"August 10th"

"Where will you be staying?"

"I don't know yet. I will hopefully get a host family anytime now, but I don't necessarily have to have one until September 7th, which is when we meet our host families."

"Do you speak any German?"

"Well I took it a couple years ago in school, but now I don't remember much of it. I have been doing a language program over the summer, and they will have a language camp for me for the first month I am there."

"Are you packed yet?"

"Ummmmm..... I've thought about starting?"

"You're so brave!!"

"yeah...." (I never ever know what to say to this)

And that's about it. This whole time I've known I got the scholarship (about 4 months), it has seemed like it was far away.  Up until last Saturday when I hit the 2 week mark.  Now all the sudden it feels like I am practically leaving tomorrow, and I'm not ready AT ALL. I have a huge bucket list that I made at the beginning of the summer that is only like half completed.  And I realized the other day that it looks like a bucket list to do before you die, not before you leave for only 10 months.  I mean, I honestly can go see the Great Salt Lake when I get back right? I never realized how much I haven't done in this area until I wanted to do everything.  Here are the important things that I must get done before I go:

1. Pack! The most I've done is take my suitcase out of storage.  And set it in the corner of my room.  Oh and I made a packing list. So basically, I haven't even started.  That's a problem. This happens every. single. time. I go on a trip.  Honestly.  Even two years ago when I went to Germany for a month.  I packed the night before, and thank goodness Walmart is open at 1 o'clock in the morning or else I wouldn't have had everything.  I hope this time I don't repeat that situation, however.

2. Get Host Family Gifts. Since I don't know what my host family is like yet, it is really hard to get them gifts.  I have a couple general ones and that may be as far as it's going to go.  I might not find out until I'm already in Germany (at language camp), and that will be too hard to buy them gifts then... and kind of pointless because it wouldn't be anything from my area/representing me.

3. Figure Out Banking Information. I think I am just going to have a bank card that I can take cash out of every week or something, but I'm not sure yet.  I really need to work on that.

4. Figure Out Phone. My phone company won't let me unlock my phone, which means that I won't be able to use it with a different service in Germany.  So basically I will have to buy a new one.  Which is really expensive if I want a smartphone again. I'm sorry but I won't give you my phone number once I get a new one over there.  That is just for people in Germany and my immediate family. If you would like to contact me, feel free to send me a message on Facebook or email me or something similar. Or old-fashioned letters are always awesome :)

5. Shopping! Making my packing list made me realize how many things I need to buy before I leave. I think I finally got all the clothes taken care of, but there are many other simple things I will need that I don't have. Speaking of clothes, I realized that I don't really have a decent winter coat to pack.  I live in UTAH (where it was like -15 degrees last winter), and I don't have a coat! Hopefully I will be able to survive because the weather in Germany is similar to it is here, and I've survived this long without a coat. This is the one time that I am grateful for the cold weather in Utah.  Now I'm not all worried about the cold like the people in my region from Texas or California. 

6. Saying Goodbye. This is the worst thing on my list.  I don't know what it is going to be like when I get back (Will my dog have died? Will my friends still live around here? Will my brother still live here? so on and so forth). So basically I am saying goodbye to everyone like I will never see them again.  Which is horrible. Now is the time when I realize how much I absolutely love how much my brother teases me.  Yes, he gets on my nerves fairly often, but I am so grateful that I have an older brother in my life who would do anything for me.  It will be so hard to say goodbye to him and my parents. And my dog. And my grandma. And... okay I better stop before I start bawling (like I am going to do at the airport).

Honestly, I am super super excited for this new adventure.  I could make a never-ending list of why this is going to be amazing.  But obviously that would take too long. You'll just have to see for yourself why it is amazing!  A couple months ago I was so excited. Then for the next little while I started to get really nervous.  Now I'm back to the excited stage. I am so ready to go to Germany!! (mentally, not physically)

Well I hope I haven't bored you to death with my rambling... for now,

Tschüss! (I know, my German is fantastic)

Abbie :)

p.s. T minus 294 hours before I leave!

Orientation

Last weekend all of the FLAG CBYX scholarship winners had an orientation in Bridgman, Michigan. There were 54 of us (including alternates) and it was so much fun! Basically they just gave us a lot of information about the program but there was a lot of time to interact with each other and we got to know everyone pretty well. For the first month that we are in Germany, we will have a language camp. All 50 of us will stay together in a monastery in a town called Hedersleben. I'm so glad that I have such a wonderful group to go over with and I'm excited to spend this time with them! We leave for Washington D.C. on August 10th and leave for Germany on August 11th. That's 2 1/2 months! I have so much to get done before I leave and before I know it I will be in Germany... I'm so excited!

Beginnings

So basically, I'm in love. With Germany. And I get to go back in August! I got the Congress-Bundestag Youth Exchange (CBYX) scholarship and all I have to pay for is a flight to D.C. and spending money! I highly recommend this program to anyone who is considering an exchange. I will be spending my entire senior year over there living with a German family. I will leave Washington D.C. on August 11 after a short orientation with all the scholarship winners from my region.
I don't have a host family yet but I'm excited to find out who I will be living with for ten months! And since I know you're wondering: no, I don't really speak German. A couple years ago I could understand it, but that was a couple of years ago and I can't anymore. I'll be taking online courses and some other things before I leave, but I won't actually know it until I've lived there for a little while.
It's crazy to think that I only have one month left of American high school. I don't think I'll miss it very much though to tell you the truth. I never imagined I wouldn't graduate like a normal person, but here I am: preparing to go on an adventure that could take me who-knows-where.

And I'm so excited! :)

I started this blog so everyone can keep up with what I'm doing easily... I hope I remember update it often enough! If you have any questions, feel free to ask me! :)