Oh, HALLO

I am finally here. Now my whole new life begins. My journey across the Atlantic wasn't too bad. I flew from Columbus to DC and had a small lay-over. Then boarded my flight headed to Frankfurt. It was a full flight, but luckily I had an aisle so I could stretch out and could easily get up without bothering anyone. The girl sitting next to me on the plane was also moving to Germany. She is married to someone in the Army and he has just been stationed there. She had with her an 168 page "pamphlet" telling her all the laws and rule of Germany. While on the plane I watched Transformers 2. They had it in both English and German. I watched it in German to see what it would be like. It made me laugh. None of the characters sound like they should and pretty sure Optimus Prime sounded like a retarded robot. Pretty funny. I slept as much as I could on the plane. I arrived to Frankfurt at around 11am on Wednesday the 28th (but it was 5am Ohio time.. so I was pretty exhausted). I was to board my train at 12:09 there and be taken to Köln. However, my bags weren't taken off the United flight and taken to the Lufthansa counter until about 5 minutes before the train was set to leave--and remember, I'm in Gemany now--if something says it is leaving at 12:09, it is really leaving at 12:09. I knew I wouldn't have time so the lady at the counter told me another train would leave in an hour, so she booked me for that one instead. A slight set-back but nothing too extreme. Also, while waiting for my train I decided to go ahead a convert the American dollars I had on me to Euros. Oh, cool. I hand them $70 and recieve €40.00. Cool. Super awesome. Love the weak dollar... grrr.

The train from Frankfurt to Köln was about an hour. I tried to stay awake to look out the window, but I just could not do it. When I woke up I had only about 5 minutes more until pulling into Köln's train station. I got off the train, and knew vaguely of what Kai and Lisa looked like, so when I saw a man standing alone we kind of both just looked at eachother and then he said "Megan??". We hugged and then Lisa came with the baby and I hugged her. Emilian (the little one :) was sleeping, and he was soooo cute in his like outfit with a Knight on it. Omg it was so adorable. We walked out of the train station and BAM there's the Köln Dom, like literally right next to the train station. I guess if I didn't realize I was living in Europe, I did right at that second. I wish I would have had my camera to take a picture of it, because it is honestly breathtaking. Although, I suppose will have some time in the next 11 months to take pictures of it ;) We all got in the Mercedes G-Wagon (which by the way is SO gnarly) and headed home. Bonn is only about 15 minutes drive from downtown Köln, so it wasn't far at all. Especially not when I saw we were going about 90mph.. got to love the German Autobahn :)

When we came home Kai and Lisa knew I was tired so they showed me around really quickly and to my room. There on the table in my new room they had a big bouquet of fall roses--soo pretty and a little decoration saying welcome, and even had some buckeyes laying on the table! It was so sweet of them. I took a shower and then took about a 2 or so hour nap. When I woke up, Johanna (Kai's 11 year old daughter from a previous relationship) was here. She is so cute too. Your typical 11 year old girl. She was nervous to speak English with me, although she has been taking it in school for the past 3 years. When she finally did, she had nothing to worry about--she speaks it really, really well. Kai made dinner, we had a spinach salad and some pototos and steak. It was delicious. Afterwards we had Marzipan which Kai said is his favorite. I've had it before, but don't remember it being as good as the kind we had last night. They are basically these little balls made of crushed up almonds and sugar. I talked to Johanna about books since she loves to read too. She said she loves fantasy kind of books, like Lord of the Rings--pretty sure she's like automatically my favorite person after saying that ;) I then asked her if she (deep breath) liked the Twilight books. She immediately got a huge grin on her face and said yes. Although, she likes the books much more than the movies she said. Most of you who know me know that I would have usually attacked the person for liking such an AWFUL movie (I'll admit, the book wasn't thhhat bad though), but I held back. Not only because I just met her, but also because she is 11 and I decided it is perfectly OK for her to like it :) hahaha. Oh Twilight.. looks like I'll be going to see New Moon afterall...


This morning I woke up and feel as if I have already adjusted to the time change. Kai told me that in 15 years, this will no longer be "possible" lol. While I was brushing my teeth a tiny spider was crawling up the sink. I started cracking up and tried to take a picture of it--it didn't really come out well. All I could think of was when my mom asked Naemi one of the world's dumbest questions; "Do they have spiders in Germany??" Yes mom, they do. hahaha. Kai left for work and I had breakfast with Lisa and little Emilian. Lisa sang me Happy Birthday and told me that Kai actually had picked up a cake for me. They are so cute. I poured myself a glass of milk and immediatly thought of Andy and Hunter back home. The milk here is so thick. Like EXTRA 2% or something. It tastes the same, its just definitely not something someone used to drinking skim in the US would go for. I just said to myself "Andy and Hunter would LOVE this stuff" :) After breakfast (of awesome German bread and oranges) I went on a walk with Emilian so Lisa could get some work done. I walked to the path that runs along the Rhein River. The Rhein is probably about 4 houses down from where I live now. I walked up and down the path for about an hour and 1/2 before I came home. I was surprised by how calm of a river it is. Lisa told me that yes, it is very calm, but very dangerous to actually swim in. Apparently, there are tons of holes in the bottom of the river from the area being bombed during WWII and that if you get caught in one, its very hard to get out annnnnd you're pretty much a goner. Sooo.. won't be tryin' that any time soon.


I am so excited to explore more of both Bonn and Köln. Lisa was telling me how Bonn is home to the largest German History museum--I can not WAIT to check it out. I already told my host family how I am a huge history nerd, so they are trying to think of all the places I need to go. Well as for now, I have nothing else to really report. Emilian is still sleeping from our walk, but when he wakes Lisa is going to feed him and then we are going to go to the electronic store to try and find me an adapter that will work with my laptop. Then maybe a cafe.. I don't know. I don't know if we'll have time. Nice little Thursday planned ;)
Tschuß!!
xoxo Megan