Finally in Germany!

OK, I'm finally in Germany and all settled in!

I'm staying in the small, very diverse town of Radolfzell, which borders the BodenSee (Lake Constance) and Switzerland. While all of you are baking in the August swelter, I have to put on a jacket every day. There are 19 other participants from America with me here and we span all corners of the United States. We are truly a melting pot and it makes all adventures as a group an experience! I've been placed in the intermediate class at language school and it's really fun. There are Russians, Spaniards, Chinese, Koreans, French and Americans in my class, so instruction is 100% taught in german. The only problem I have encountered is the explanations of German grammar in German. I don't get it.

In terms of culture shock, I'm in what the culture shock people call a "honeymoon" period. This period has been pretty great so far. I've only had a few German mishaps so far, like: My host family had Weiss Wurst (white sausage) for breakfast this morning and I had to be polite and eat it. It's a Bavarian thing and even when cooked, the insides of the sausage are white and you have to remove the thick casing on it before you eat it. Then! You have to put this sweet mustard on it. I'm pretty sure I turned green because they didn't ask me if I wanted another one. The eating pattern went like this: small bite of sausage, BIG BITE OF BREAD, BIG SWIG OF TEA, swallow. You know that show Fear Factor? Where they have to eat cow eyes, worms etc? I equate it to that. The only other cultural thing so far is how devastating trying on pants is. I was thinking that my euro size would be the size I wear in men's pants. Well, when I went to try some jeans on, they were in no way going to fit in this lifetime. Come to find out, euro sizes are in centimeters, not inches. I have a feeling that the metric system is going to get the best of me.

I joined a rowing club here and it's really intense. So intense that I had to move up from the 18-30 group and join the 50+ womens group. Last night I was in a 3 boat with two of the buffest women I have ever seen shy of a body building competition and we rowed for 2 hours. I was so tired by the time I got home that I passed out at 8:15. We are going to compete at the end of September, so we have tol get in sync- meaning I have to learn the rowing terms in German and we have row dates 3-4 times a week.

I'll finish up this email with my host family, Peter, Rita and their 4 year old daughter, Sophie. Sophie is a kindred spirit of mine and I spend the most time with her because, well, I speak German on a 4 year old level. We watch movies together because her movies are the only ones I can understand. We also play a game where she points to an object in the house and tells me the german name for it in return for the English name. Schildkroete is my newest word learned, which is a turtle. Lately though, she's been on a rhyming kick and she's not very good at it. The only thing she can come up with that rhymes with Liza is "langsam"…which has got to change because "langsam" means "slow" inGerman.

Alright, that's about it for me.

Tscuss!

-Eliza