Crazy Realization

I just realized that Congress-Bundestag encompasses all of the US and is much bigger than just my little section. I was selected out of my region whose organization is called AYUSA. There are 45 students going from AYUSA to the language camp in Hedersleben. Congress Bundestag Youth Exchange Program however is made up of all the different regions put together, and 250 students are going all togher from the US.

AYUSA encompasses only Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, Utah, Southern California, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas.

There are 5 total regional organizations including AYUSA that the country is divided up into.

I'm kind of bummed that I won't be with people from all over the US. Students from South Western states are more likely to live like me and be less different, which is too bad. I was excited to meet all the different people.

I got confused with the conference calls, thinking that they were for every time zone, but none of them were in Eastern time, only Central, Mountain, and Pacific time zones.

Here's the CBYX website with the map: http://www.usagermanyscholarship.org/secondary.html

Arriving at Fraport

Perhaps I should have blogged about my initial two week trip to Germany while I was still there, but oh well. It was amazing, and so far I love it, not that there is any chance that I won't love it later. First I flew into Frankfurt International Airport, and all the employees there where the logo with "Fraport" written under it.

And speaking of employees, when I first got there, I had lots of time to kill so I wandered around looked for a quiet place to eat, and went up an escalator, and found a bank up there. Actually I found two banks, a bank and einen Bank (a bench). I also found an ATM (Geldautomat) and wanted to get money out, but wanted to know if there would be any fee for my American credit card. So I went up to the bank guard standing there and asked him if he spoke English (in German) and he said no, German. So I asked him in shaky German if it would cost more to use the machine with my card, and he said he didn't know and I should go ask someone else.

I learned an important lesson from this, that I shouldn't ask people if they speak English right away, and should attempt in German, and that's the whole point of it anyway. Just thinking that due to the technical nature of my question, his English might be better than my German...oh well.

Then Antonia and her family, and we were reunited. We all had Starbucks coffee in the airport, which was a bit surreal because you don't expect a Starbucks in Germany, and you also don't expect them to speak German inside. (but of course they did) Then Antonia's mother, brother grew wings and flew away.
No they flew away on a plane, and we drove to Weissenfels (White Stone when directly translated) with Antonia's grandparents.