The Beginning.

Well, since I wrote a couple weeks ago quite a lot has happened!  I am currently sitting at the desk in my new apartment in Kiel, attempting to pass the hours until I feel sleepy (damn you, 3 hour afternoon nap!)  I suppose a recap of the past 13 or so days is in order, so I will start from where I left off in my last post.

... I don't quite remember where that was off the top of my head and I'm too lazy to open another browser tab and look, so I'll just go by the pictures I had set aside to put in this post.  Igballe's cousin came to visit from Kosovo for a couple days and we all went into Skopje to visit with their other cousins.  The two sisters we met with had each just had an adorable baby boy, so we spent the say hanging out with them before bidding adieu and wandering around the mall.

Mother Teresa's "house" in downtown Skopje.  As I mentioned before, she was born in the city.

Alexander the Great looking majestic in the setting sun. 

The next day we went to Igballe's family's house to celebrate Eid al-Fitr, breaking the Ramadan fast.  The meal was great, and fortunately by that point I had learned to eat the amazing food, but politely refuse when I'd had enough.  The previous meal we had there I didn't want to be rude and ate everything heaped onto my plate.  That resulted in me feeling like I was about to vomit and being thankful that I was wearing a high waisted dress, leaving room for the gut I acquired. 

Me with my awesome hosts!

The next couple days were pretty chill as I had a lot to do to get ready to leave for Germany and Igballe started a new job on September 1st.  The time I spent in Macedonia was truly unforgettable and I sincerely hope I'll be able to visit again soon.  

Last night in Tetovo.

On September 2nd I went to the Alexander the Great airport in Skopje for my flight to Germany.  Just a side note, in case you're wondering if the airport is "great" in the vein of Alexander, the answer is no, not really.  There were two departure gates. Two.  To be fair, they did just build a whole new airport complex, but it was opening a few days after I left, so in my mind it still doesn't exist.  I had a few hours to kill during my layover in Vienna so I left the airport and wandered around, found a Turkish/Greek restaurant (I just wasn't ready to give up that great Balkan food), and saw the Stephansdom without scaffolding for the first time ever.  That night I stayed in Frankfurt before my Saturday morning train to Bonn to meet up with my friend Stephanie.  

In the Frankfurt train station, about to board to Bonn.

Train ride from Frankfurt to Bonn along the Rhine river. 

The infamous Lorelei.  Not Gilmore. 

Stephanie is from Australia and was in town for a scholarship thing she got from Deutsche Welle to do some media coverage of some sort of UN gathering.  That sounds like I was uninterested in what she was told me, but it did sound pretty awesome.  We had studied together in Graz, Austria a few years ago and since then have only seen each other once when she was in NYC last New Years Eve.  Even though we only had one night together we definitely made the most of it and I think its safe to say we both a great night laughing, catching up and partying.  

Steph at the start of our great night together.

The next day I went to Cologne and met up with some guys we had met the night before.  They were nice enough to drag themselves out of bed on extremely limited sleep and show me around the city a bit.  We went to the top of one of the skyscrapers across the river from the Cathedral.  The view was pretty cool and when we came down we also discovered there was a huge race in the city that day.  

Cologne.

Tilt-Shift mini train station below us.

That marathon was all over the place!

That night I met up with another German guy who was my first official CouchSurfing host.  And what a great host he was!  After dropping my stuff at his apartment he took me around the city old town and told me a lot of the history of the city.  We then went to a tapas restaurant before heading to the apartment so I could rest before my big day.

Cologne old town at night.

Monday September 5 found me wandering around the Cologne train station looking for a large group of Americans, which I found.  After some standing around and making introductions, 140 of us were piled onto buses and taken to Altenberg to begin our three day Fulbright orientation.  There we spent the time listening to lectures, learning teaching techniques, and mingling.  Overall, I'd give the orientation two thumbs up, even though I'm still kind of scared shitless to start teaching children.  

Cologne cathedral.

Last Thursday, after the orientation ended we again shipped back to the Cologne train station.  I took a mid-morning train 5.5 hours north to Kiel, where I presently find myself.  My awesome new roommates met me at the train station with this adorable sign:

That night was spent getting acquainted and unpacking a bit, and even though I told myself I would go to bed early I ended up going to sleep around 2am.  Flash forward to Friday morning when I was supposed to be up at 6am to get ready to be picked up for my school's carpool at 7am.  As I blearily open my eyes and squint at my ipod, I realize my alarm never went off and I had five minutes to get ready.  No use accounting for my ride being a few minutes late, Germans never are.  As I was hopping around trying to put my pants on and grabbing my bag, I completely forgot to eat anything, do my hair or put makeup on and turned up at the school to meet the head master looking like a huge slob. Very embarrassing for my first day.  Technically it wasn't my first day however, as I was just there to meet people and be introduced to some of the classes. 

I was shown around the school, introduced to a handful of teachers and asked the same "Do you like horses?" question from every student that interviewed me.  Apparently all equine-related things are very popular in this area.  Overall the day was *interesting* if not totally overwhelming.  Luckily the school day ends around 12:30 and I was driven home in the carpool again, desperately trying to keep my eyes open and vaguely follow the conversation.  At home I scarfed down cold pizza and napped for a good portion of the afternoon. 

My first official day is Tuesday as I have Mondays as my free day.  Tuesdays and Wednesday I have open at the moment and teachers can ask me to come to their classes those days for the next few weeks and I'll suss out which ones I like best.  Thursday and Friday were pre-planed for me with a few 7th and 8th grade classes, and each of those days I'll have three morning classes and am done around 10am. Sweet. 

Back on track: Saturday I met some a couple of the other Fulbright girls living in Kiel and we saw some sights and shopped in the city.  That evening we took the train to Neumünster to visit two of our other Fulbright friends and go to a wine festival.  The trains stopped running earlier than they stopped selling wine, so we decided to stay at our friend's house for the night.  The next morning when we got back to Kiel there was a big city wide marathon going on.  I lazily walked the route from the train station to my apartment, watching children 15 years younger than me easily run gazelle-like toward the finish line on Rathausplatz with not a bead of sweat on their foreheads.  Dumb super in shape German children.  One day... just one day that beer will catch up with you.  Cherish the ease of fitness while you can.  The rest of my walk was extremely pleasant in the beautiful warm sunny Kiel weather.  

Kiel Rathaus

Kiel marathon.

Kiel houses.

The park near my apartment.

View from my window.

Back at home I spent the day finishing my unpacking, cleaning, napping, etc.  Tomorrow being my day off, I have a billion errands to do to officially be allowed to live in Germany.  I really hope I don't forget anything I need and that everything goes smoothly.  Wish me luck.

Until Next Time,

Chelsea