Last Week at the Scloss

Hey guys!

So its Sunday, at the conlusion of my second week here at Schloss Wittingenstein in Bad Laasphe, Germany for German language camp, I have one more week to go and then I am off to my host family which I will (God willing) be with till June.

This past week, I have walked around a 1,000 year old city (Marburg) to the point of foot amputation, watched a total of 45 seconds of the Olympics (Flag twirling, speed walking, and diving), and eaten so much incrediable German food to the point of my stomach remaking the famous scene from Alien. With all said and done, I have had a good week. However, with all this Deutsch wonderfullness going on I have still run into some major issues that I can predict will come up in my host year:

1) Religion. Germans often don't go to church, it's cultural thing. However I can really see myself struggling to maintain my strong Catholic faith when I may/may not be able or not be motivated to go to church every Sunday. I am sure being able to go to Mass as often I as would like is something that can be easily arranged during the "long talk" I'll have with my host family when I arrive at their home. But still, you never know when your body will try tell its okay to sleep in one Sunday and it becomes a habit.

2) Friends. I am quite worried that I will not be to make friends here. This is a typical exchange student point of nervousness, and all my friends that are German (all three of them) said I should be fine, fingers still crossed though.

3) Family. I awoke this morning with a horrible pang of homesickness, I am okay, don't worry, but it was there and it was bad. I have it easier then most of the kids here though, I have my brother stationed in Vilseck, Germany with the U.S Army that I can visit if my homesickness get's to bad. I am sure my host family will be wonderful, but I am still going to miss all of them.

That is pretty much it for now. I am looking forward to my year in Germany as well as that moment after having such an awesome year abroad when the TSA guy says "Welcome home" when he checks my passport.  

Auf Wiedersehen!