Der Anfang (The Beginning)

            So my adventure started on September 9, 2011. Henrik was off to school with my Dad and Mom and I were up early after not having slept long, because of course I finished packing at one in the morning the night before. So with my suitcase packed just under the 40 pound weight limit I had, so to say, packed my whole life in one tiny box, which is why it was so hard to finish (also because yours truly is a procrastinator). It was rainy and was not long after the hurricane so as Mom and I were in the car to the Hartford we came across a few roads that had been just completely dragged away or flooded. Eventually we were there and it was time to part with my Mom. She waited and watched as I went off alone, and it was still too early for me to think about actually leaving, because you can’t imagine that sort of thing until you have done it.

            I got onto the flight to Washington DC just fine in my jacket and tie, keeping it classy :). I flew into Dulles, which happens to be the worst planned layout of an airport in history, as it took Ajelet (another CBYX student) and I forever to get to the train to bring us to Baggage Claim. When we got to Baggage Claim it was an AFS takeover. There were student arrivers and volunteers everywhere. Off to the hotel and from then on for the next three days it was me and fourty-eight of the coolest kids from the north east that I have ever met from all over the east coast. It didn’t even take a day until we were all good buds and we have continued to have contact to one another. We had days full of orientation and learned a lot of things about what we will go through for the next ten months. But nothing could prepare us for the year ahead. No chart could tell us how much fun we were going to have, and of course the occasional low points, which lucky for me I have been mostly spared of. We flew from Dulles to Frankfurt and we left American soil for good…well ten months but still, a while :).