I'm writing today's blog post from the AYF Office, in Freiburg Germany, in the state of Baden-Württemburg. I can hardly believe that it has been a whole week since I last updated this blog! Everything seems to have flown by so quickly. My flight from Detroit to JFK last week was fine, and rather uninteresting. I sat next to a nice lady who was quiet and napped almost the entire time. Arriving in JFK was a nightmare, however. I had no idea where I was supposed to go. I had to completely switch terminals, taking a long tram ride. Then I had to check in at the Singapore Air kiosk, and go through security again. Only thing was, my flight to Detroit got in a half hour late. On top of that, the line to get through security was unbelievibly long- they estimated that it would take two whole hours to get through! Thankfully, since my flight was leaving soon, a nice TSA agent toward the front let some of the people going to Frankfurt cut ahead. So after a frantic struggle to get all my stuff in order after security (and almost leaving my laptop case behind!) I managed to find the gate for my departure and make a few quick last minute phone calls to people in the states.

The flight to Frankfurt was not too bad- Singapore Air is rather nice actually! They come around with drinks, and the variety is rather large, and they don't charge for anything. We had two full meals, and a snack. The food was even pretty good, and we got real silverware. I sat between two people, a young, college age girl about as old as myself (who was feeling under the weather and slept almost the entire eight hours) and another lady named Judy. Both of them were flying through to Singapore, where as I was getting off in Frankfurt, naturally. Judy was a very nice lady, who lived in Melasia. She told me all about it, and she kept saying how nice it was to see students going to study and live abroad.

After getting to the Frankfurt Airport, I waited for my luggage. And I waited. And waited. And waited some more. They eventually announced some names of people who should seek out a Singapore Airlines representative, and I could have sworn I heard my name... but they didn't really pronounce Stohrer correctly, nor did they say a first name. Well, it turns out they were trying to say my name. JFK had apparently decided to not load my luggage on the plane, for whatever reason. So, my luggage was on the next flight out, which would come on Friday, and be shipped to Freiburg then. But the German Post doesn't deliver mail on Saturdays or Sundays, so the earilest that I would get my suitcase would be Monday.

Well, everything went smoothly at Frankfurt after that. I went to the DB (Deutsche Bahn) Office and got my student discount card, and my ticket to Freiburg. Now I was rolling. I had a little over an hour to kill, so I decided to grab at the very least some water, if not some food too. I never did get food, but after I had some water, I felt vastly better. Waiting by train tracks, I ran into some kids who looked liked they belonged in America, and were talking about the same train that I was waiting for. I asked them politely if they were going to Freiburg, and they all said yes. That is how I met several of my AYF classmates from Iowa, who were all very nice and chipper, and sympathized with my luggage problem.

Well, after a week, not much has changed here in Freiburg since the day I arrived. I've been doing paperwork, and trying to get my room all organized. It's going well. In a few minutes here, I have a placement exam, to see what level my German is at, in order to be put in the correct language class for the next month or so. So with that thought, I shall bid you all farewell! I will continue to update this blog a little more regularly, and maybe even fill in some of the past couple day's events! But for now, this post is certainly long enough!

"All men dream, but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds, wake in the day to find that it was vanity: but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act on their dreams with open eyes, to make them possible."
-T.E. Lawrence