Holy schnitzel.
I'm in Germany
And I understand absolutely [next to] nothing.
Rewind.
Five days ago [although it seems worlds away now] I finally met up with the fifty-some ASSE kids. Finally! Flying into the Dulles airport, we drove an hour to our hotel in Virginia and crashed hard. How cute, thinking that our five-hour-flight across the U.S. was something strenuous.
The next morning, 50-some adorable exchange students got up with stars in their eyes.
Washington D.C. did everything in its power to rip them out and break us down. Now keep in mind that we're all from the west coast [repping Seattle here] where 80 is a stretch.... it was upwards of 100 in D.C. and humid to boot. And not humid as in, your hair is going to get frizzy. Humid as in, your perfectly straightened hair is going to spring back into curls the second you get outside.
Humid, as in the outdoors is the equivalent of a sauna.
Nonetheless, we touristed and monument-hopped with our group, directors, and awesome tour guide, and were carted around D.C. to see and be seen.
And so!
Day one started with a photo-op in front of the United States Capitol!
Afterwards came a surprisingly sobering trip to the national cemetery. We got into these blue people-movers and chugged around the place- and though I took quite a few pictures, all of them together couldn't portray the place accurately. It's huge- beyond huge- and to think of so many souls gathered one place is crazy. Not only that, but it has an average of 27 burials a day, even though it's near impossible to meet the requirements to be buried in it.
At the cemetery, we were taken to the tomb of unknowns, and watched the changing of the guards ceremony. Not much commentary on this one, other than props to those guys for toughing out the sun and humidity in full uniform.
After that came a bit of memorial-jumping, and we saw the Iwo Jimo Memorial next to the National cemetery, as well as the Martin Luther King one. The Iwo Jima is such a well known- and just plain American- picture, that it was surreal seeing it in real life. On the other hand, I'll admit that I'd never before heard of the MLK memorial, and was pleased to see how it depicted him and the impact he made in his life.
Next up was a trip to the one and only Smithsonian! Our time here was unfortunately limited, so my group decided to go for the classic (and Ben Stiller-endorsed) Museum of Natural History! Oh my goodness that place was huuuge, and yet only one part of the Smithsonian collection. Nowai.
We saw the famed dinosaur exhibit from 'Night at the Museum', insect exhibits, underwater exhibits, bird exhibits, animal exhibits, the rock/mineral and Hope Diamond exhibits [two of my favourites], and more than I can even remember or care to name. Go see it. That is all.
... There was also a 'life-sized' Bengal tiger plushie that was like four times my size and $700.
But macht euch keine Sorgen, my friends.
They ship for free.
Onwards to Day 2!
On this day we went back and got up close and personal with the Capitol, and it was something alright. If you think you've seen all the fancy white marble possible while roaming D.C., wait until you stands on its white-marble steps and look up and around you.
This morning was designated for us to meet the senators from each of our respective states. However, senators are busy people. Sehr busy people. So, we had appointments with Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell's aides.
That is, until Maria herself walked through the door.
One of the Washingtonians guys just about died and went to heaven right then.
After that we got to go inside, and even the horrible tour couldn't take away from some insanely cool aspects of it. We got to pass over a star- a marble compass, actually- inlaid in the floor of the Capitol Crypt that marks the center of D.C.
And then.
Drumroll, bitte.
The Whitehouse.
Even the squirrels there are white.
I will say it was quite anticlimatic. It was a speck of white in the distance, and we took pictures and left within ten minutes, but still. There's yet more white marble for you guys.
.... followed by a quick trip past the Washington Monument...
And then our last stop, a triple-hit with the Korean Memorial, Lincoln Memorial, and Vietnam memorial.
I was lucky enough to be picked up by my permanent host mother and driven to my temporary host family about an hour and a half from Cologne in the city of Bottrop (since the former is taking a vacation to the island of Mallorca, Spain during my language camp). Yay for more German 'relatives'! Everyone is so understanding and kind and speaks English (oh America, way to prepare us for this. Everyone else in the world is bilingual by default), but I'm trying to make do with my broken German.
I actually went back to Cologne today to practice using the train system. I'll need to commute an hour-and-a-half there for the language camp, but Cologne is so gorgeous that I don't mind a bit.
Pictures and more on Germany to come in later posts:)
Tschuuuuuuss!
I'm in Germany
And I understand absolutely [next to] nothing.
Rewind.
Five days ago [although it seems worlds away now] I finally met up with the fifty-some ASSE kids. Finally! Flying into the Dulles airport, we drove an hour to our hotel in Virginia and crashed hard. How cute, thinking that our five-hour-flight across the U.S. was something strenuous.
The next morning, 50-some adorable exchange students got up with stars in their eyes.
Washington D.C. did everything in its power to rip them out and break us down. Now keep in mind that we're all from the west coast [repping Seattle here] where 80 is a stretch.... it was upwards of 100 in D.C. and humid to boot. And not humid as in, your hair is going to get frizzy. Humid as in, your perfectly straightened hair is going to spring back into curls the second you get outside.
Humid, as in the outdoors is the equivalent of a sauna.
Nonetheless, we touristed and monument-hopped with our group, directors, and awesome tour guide, and were carted around D.C. to see and be seen.
And so!
Day one started with a photo-op in front of the United States Capitol!
Afterwards came a surprisingly sobering trip to the national cemetery. We got into these blue people-movers and chugged around the place- and though I took quite a few pictures, all of them together couldn't portray the place accurately. It's huge- beyond huge- and to think of so many souls gathered one place is crazy. Not only that, but it has an average of 27 burials a day, even though it's near impossible to meet the requirements to be buried in it.
At the cemetery, we were taken to the tomb of unknowns, and watched the changing of the guards ceremony. Not much commentary on this one, other than props to those guys for toughing out the sun and humidity in full uniform.
After that came a bit of memorial-jumping, and we saw the Iwo Jimo Memorial next to the National cemetery, as well as the Martin Luther King one. The Iwo Jima is such a well known- and just plain American- picture, that it was surreal seeing it in real life. On the other hand, I'll admit that I'd never before heard of the MLK memorial, and was pleased to see how it depicted him and the impact he made in his life.
Next up was a trip to the one and only Smithsonian! Our time here was unfortunately limited, so my group decided to go for the classic (and Ben Stiller-endorsed) Museum of Natural History! Oh my goodness that place was huuuge, and yet only one part of the Smithsonian collection. Nowai.
We saw the famed dinosaur exhibit from 'Night at the Museum', insect exhibits, underwater exhibits, bird exhibits, animal exhibits, the rock/mineral and Hope Diamond exhibits [two of my favourites], and more than I can even remember or care to name. Go see it. That is all.
But macht euch keine Sorgen, my friends.
They ship for free.
On this day we went back and got up close and personal with the Capitol, and it was something alright. If you think you've seen all the fancy white marble possible while roaming D.C., wait until you stands on its white-marble steps and look up and around you.
This morning was designated for us to meet the senators from each of our respective states. However, senators are busy people. Sehr busy people. So, we had appointments with Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell's aides.
That is, until Maria herself walked through the door.
One of the Washingtonians guys just about died and went to heaven right then.
After that we got to go inside, and even the horrible tour couldn't take away from some insanely cool aspects of it. We got to pass over a star- a marble compass, actually- inlaid in the floor of the Capitol Crypt that marks the center of D.C.
Drumroll, bitte.
The Whitehouse.
Even the squirrels there are white.
I will say it was quite anticlimatic. It was a speck of white in the distance, and we took pictures and left within ten minutes, but still. There's yet more white marble for you guys.
... and then to the Thomas Jefferson Memorial!
...... and then the World War 2 Memorial. We were beyond tired at this point, the monuments kind of became a blur. Nonetheless, we found Washington's little wreath in the circle of states who participated in the war!
And with that grand finale, we finished D.C. Our pre-departure orientation left us totally blindsided and fried -we left the place looking like prunes- with blistered feet and jetlagged minds.
In other words, the best of shape to hop onto an international flight in:)
I never in my life want to go through those 8 hours again [do not talk to me about how I'll be on the same flight coming back in a year], but we did arrive.
We arrived, quite worse for the wear, but we arrived.
Ach, Deutschland.
Stumbled out the Frankfurt airport, hopped on a train to Cologne, made broken conversation with two German guys ("So you guys represent... ass?" "No, no, it's A-S-S-E." "But when you say it together, it's ass... y." "Errr..."), ans stumbled out of the train to meet our families.
I was lucky enough to be picked up by my permanent host mother and driven to my temporary host family about an hour and a half from Cologne in the city of Bottrop (since the former is taking a vacation to the island of Mallorca, Spain during my language camp). Yay for more German 'relatives'! Everyone is so understanding and kind and speaks English (oh America, way to prepare us for this. Everyone else in the world is bilingual by default), but I'm trying to make do with my broken German.
I actually went back to Cologne today to practice using the train system. I'll need to commute an hour-and-a-half there for the language camp, but Cologne is so gorgeous that I don't mind a bit.
Pictures and more on Germany to come in later posts:)
Tschuuuuuuss!
Haha :) I had lots of fun reading this post xD Hope you're doing well there!
ReplyDeleteMichelle
T-T-T-Tammy!!! Es hört sich an als ob du hatte viel Spaß gahabt in DC! I kann nicht warten um Bilder aus Köln sehen ;)
ReplyDeleteMit viel Liebe,
Marina