I'm here!

Hello all,
Long time no post. Life has been super hectic. I don't think I have ever been so excited, exhausted, nervous, and relieved in my whole life!  Ever since I've arrived I have been challenged every day in most situations. I have done things I would never ever have done in the US, and guess what? It's been awesome! Being a slightly shy person in the past I've had to get over that, really quickly. Oh my gooodness....
A couple weeks ago for example I had to take the train by myself to Bonn. That alone scared me a heck of a lot. Mainly because I have taken a train 4 times in my life, and there were always people with me to help me. Not this time! Some how I took the right train and got off at the right station, however I then had to walk to language school. I got lost of course. It's hard when you're completely lost but you don't want to look like it. Being from the country I never really had to manuver big cities.  I'm still getting used to wearing my "don't mess with me" face while walking alone. I'm always tempted to smile at everyone, I've been told that apparently if you smile at the wrong person bad things can happen. This hasn't really been something that I've worried about before. Where I am from, people smile and wave even if they don't know each other. Well, in the end I did make it to language school, after some directions from my host father.

Gymnasium would be so much more fun if I could understand half of what people were saying.  Most of my classmates can speak fairly decent english, and they have been super nice helping me with the bus and all. The classes themselves are so boring! I usually just read or study german. I have been placed in the 10th grade but I'm going to ask about getting that changed. I like my classmates but most of them are quite a bit younger. I think I would enjoy it more if I was with kids my age in the community.
So the one thing I love is the public transport! It's amazing.
There are:
 buses-everywhere! even in my village which is the smallest village on earth
 trains-you can get anywhere by train
ferries-this is a bit unique to the Rhein. There are no bridges from Koblenz to Bonn (they were all destroyed during WWII) but there are ferries!
tram\subway? these are in Bonn, I don't what their proper name is but they look like a mini train, sometimes above ground sometimes not.

Oh if Ohio had this kind of system! I wish.
Well all in all life has been good. This weekend I have late orientation camp which should be a blast! This week I have been on holiday and have had lots of freetime. I spent today learning the countries and capitols in Europe in German.
~ Hannah Rae
P.S. My family told me that we will be spending 2 weeks during Christmas in Switzerland skiing! I'm excited beyond belief. Schweiz.