Observing at the center =)

June 29

So this is awesome! One of the guys just gave me his internet password! It doesn’t work in my room but it works down the hall which is way better than walking to the library or warrior zone. Also last night we decided to walk downtown to see the game between Germany and Italy. It was a lot farther walk than we thought and we went to this bar that was having a public viewing but we couldn’t get in because it was so packed. So we ended up walking all the way to city hall where there were still a million people all standing in the square outside restaurants watching the game. It was pretty cool to see…. But then it started raining!!!! We were seriously downtown for about 5 minutes before started thundering, lightning, and raining. We walked part of the way back but then took a taxi. For a short ride it was seriously 6 Euros! So expensive! And then to make it worse, when we walked inside the building, the MP at the front desk said we should have called for a ride! It was nuts! But nonetheless, I am happy I got to see a little bit of what goes on during the games and stuff.

Work was interesting today. We observed all day and we got to see how the center runs. In the morning they have their different camp activities like sports camp art camp, etc. Then we had lunch. I had taco salad which was basically like the meat and tomatoes (no real like salad part to it haha) and potato salad and peaches. I only get a child size portion but that still filled me up. After lunch the program goes back to running how their after school program goes. They first have large group activity (which today was kickball and dodgeball, staff against kids) and then free choice between different rooms. But today was different because on Fridays they have water play in the afternoon. They blow up a kiddy pool and put it at the bottom of their slide and also hook up a hose to the top of the spiral slide so it becomes like a water slide. They also had a slip n’ slide and a sprinkler for the kids to play on. I wish I could show you but I can’t put up pictures of the kids and stuff. But man it was so dangerous! A few kids slid so fast on the slide that they fell off the side of it! We also had a fire drill today. They have fire drills once a month and the kids are really fast and know exactly what to do; like the drill only lasted five minutes. But it was a good day

At night we went bowling with some of the soldiers from the barracks and then went to an Irish Pub. I saw these cool shots called a leprechaun that were actually green it was awesome! It was really good to see a bar downtown even though I didn’t drink. I had so much fun. Tomorrow we will be in Munich until 1 am our time here and it’s going to be an awesome day! Can’t wait to tell you more.

Kicking it with the 5th graders

So last night we made so many friends in the barracks. A couple are MP’s and some are just soldiers. Apparently the guy who punched Snooki is here isn’t that crazy? But they are so freaking cool. They are so chill and are willing to drive us and tell us all the places to go see and what not. They are also trying to get us a wifi code from one of the guys on our floor so we can get it in our rooms. It was really cool; they were just so talkative and wanting to hang out with us. The person right across from us is this awesome girl about our age and said we can come talk to her about anything and she’ll always take us to the shoppette if we need anything.

So if we don’t get wifi in our rooms, I am already starting to see where there might start to be problems about me writing and posting every day. Such as tonight… I am going on the fieldtrip with the kids and then getting off work at six, then I am dying to hit the gym (because I still have not had any time to) and at eight we are going downtown to watch the futbol (soccer) game because they show it on huge screens in the town. We have to be back by ten thirty and then we are allowed to go with a buddy to use wifi only until eleven thirty. So it might start to get hard, especially on the weekends when I travel. I was also really dumb and I didn’t bring a notebook to write stuff down when I don’t have my computer with me.

The amusement park with the kids was super fun. We went to this place called Freizeit-Land Geiselwind and it was really fun. They had mostly more like carnival type rides rather than what you would think of like at Six flags but they also had some animals (which I didn’t get a chance to see) like monkeys and goats. I was observing and hanging out with the fifth graders today and they were awesome to talk to. Their group leader was really nice and I was able to ask him so many questions about what they expected of us, how camp runs, what there is too see, and many other things. He was super nice and bought me a slice of pizza and some ice cream while we were there (I swear I really need to get to that gym!!!) and it was REALLY good. They had some of the same rides that we do like Crazy Mouse, Boomerang, and the one that shoots you straight up. What was awesome was from the top or T-rex tower (the one that shoots you up) you could see a bunch of the fields that were around the area. All the kids were super cool and I was glad I was able to start bonding with them.

Tonight we are still planning on going downtown to see the soccer game (although I am a little hesitant because some people on base think it isn’t a good idea but some people think it’s a great idea) and I will tell you more about that when I go.

Starting to Get out there and see the world!

So today was a lot more training and stuff. Today was the first time where we had to walk to our work sites and beforehand we got coffee (I was really happy about that!) and I got a large coffee for $3 (WAY cheaper than Starbucks and just as good!). The walk was only about 15 minutes and since we all had coffee we got really talkative. It was really nice because finally we were all starting to get a really closer and better connection. It’s all girls here so the six of us talked about EVERYTHING from movies to boyfriends, to our hometowns, to where we wanted to travel this summer. Then training took a little longer because we even just started opening up and talking to our trainer at the CDC (child development center) more.

We then got picked up by our POC’s for lunch but they didn’t tell us where we were going. None of us were in the mood for buying lunch again (because it’s $5 for not even that great of food and we all don’t have money) but we didn’t get the chance to tell them we just wanted to eat the stuff we got at the grocery store (if we could finally get some utensils, plates, cups, bowls, etc to eat with!!!!) but I am so glad we didn’t! They took us to the downtown area and plaza and it was so awesome! The POC’s car I was in was this awesome beamer and like he drove as if I was in a Jason Statehem movie driving in that thing. It was so cool. We took a ton of pictures around the downtown area, city hall, and ate lunch and ice cream there. I got a sandwich for only 1 euro and it was bomb. All their meat is pork, but this was more like thin sliced bologna type stuff and I actually didn’t think it was too bad. It’ll take some getting used to eating the meat here since their peanut butter and stuff is really expensive (since everyone just eats pork and that’s their source of protein and no one really uses peanut butter) and I just want to try new things. We also got to walk around the square and stuff and we saw an H&M and all these cool shops.

After we came back we started doing our observations. I got to go see how the school age center runs and all the kids wanted to talk to me and it was really cool. All the staff there is really nice and awesome. I know working there is going to be great. Tomorrow we get to go on a field trip with them to keep observing since we have to do 16 hours of observation before we can work.

It’s been a really fun and exciting and we have started planning out our trips for the summer. We plan on going Munich, Paris, Belgium, Switzerland… just all these places.  We aren’t for sure yet but I am really excited to go anywhere really =)

More updates to come soon =) pictures are on facebook!

Orientation Day 1

Well my roommate and I started with the best experience ever. Somehow we set our clock to the wrong time. So when we thought we woke up at 8 it was still really only seven and we had no idea why no one else was up yet. We plugged in our clock last night and we tried to go based off Miranda’s phone that we thought was stuck on Eastern time; so we figured Germany was six hours ahead. What’s even worse to think about is that the sun rises between like 4-5 am; I know this because I remember waking up at our clock (that was off an hour) saying 5:30 am and it was bright outside. Also the Army men (yes I figured out we are on an army base) do like PT and drills right outside our window early in the morning. So at least I now know that I won’t ever miss work because I won’t be able to sleep in. But anyways back to figuring out how our clock was wrong… Miranda and I got up at what we thought was 7:30 just because we couldn’t sleep with all of them talking outside (mostly cuz my window was open and it doesn’t really stay closed…. Or at least I haven’t figured out how to lock it shut) and just went about getting dressed and ready and eating breakfast and stuff and we even had time to wander the building to find the community kitchen in the barracks. So then we just hung out and laid around until ten til 9 and then walked downstairs because we were supposed to meet and get picked up at five til 9. There were all these people walking by and we noticed none of the other girls were down there yet and we were like what the heck. So finally we asked one of the men that came out what time it was and he said “uhm it’s 7:57 am why?” and we were like oh my god are you serious and we could tell he was about to ask if we needed something but then figured out we were just dumb and were an hour off.

The barracks I live in are the MP (Military Police) barracks. I think mostly guys live in the building (considering their wifi names are things like “fuck off” ) but we did see a girl working the desk downstairs. Miranda and I want to like find one of our neighbors and get their wifi password so that we don’t have to walk over to the library or café or anywhere to get wifi. It’d be so nice to be able to just have it in our room. Because when there’s down time (like the huge amount of time we had this morning) there’s not much to do. We have a TV and DVD player… but we didn’t bring any movies and there isn’t cable, we don’t have internet or phone service, and there’s nowhere to really go and hang out (that we know of yet).

So today was just a lot of reading and papers. But I also got to see where I will be working and got a tour of the whole site. There’s a lot of stuff that is open to us even though the PX and the Commissary are not open to us. But if we make friends with our POC or the people we work with, most of them are willing to take us there if we need it. There’s also a bowling alley and a movie theater and a gym open to us. We also get to use the bus for free to get around form installation to installation. But everything is also within a short walk so that will be nice. I am not really allowed to take pictures of things on base so that’s why I don’t have any pictures up yet or anything to show you what I am talking about. Everything is still a whirlwind experience and a lot to take in, but hopefully soon I will get a better handle on things. Tonight we are going to dinner at our POC’s house and that will be cool. I am not sure what else we have going on tonight and then tomorrow we have more boring training and then we start observations on our work site. I might have to work 5:30 am- 2:30 pm but I really hope not I rather start a little later and be done later. But we do work 8 hour days Monday- Friday and every Thursday we get to go on a field trip with the kids. It’s still been a really long day and I definitely need to catch up on sleep. I just can’t wait to really be able to know my schedule and know my way around so I can stop feeling like a wandering weirdo.

Finally Arrived!!!!!!

Monday June 25^th

At like 5:45 am your time I finally got to Germany. My flights were crazy. The first flight I was in a middle seat and man it is just so uncomfortable to try to sleep. So I just listened to a lot of music and started reading the Kite Runner. Then in North Carolina, Katie, Anneka, and I (the two girls I traveled with that are both form Sac State) hung out behind a check in podium at the gates so we could charge our phones. That airport is crazy and there are rocking chairs all over the airport! It was definitely weird. Then on the long freaking flight to Frankfurt I actually sat in the wrong seat haha. I had to idea for some reason I thought I had the aisle seat, but at the very end of the flight I figured out I was supposed to be in the middle seat but the British guy that sat next to me didn’t say anything to me. He just let me sit there. On that flight we got dinner... which I had pasta pesto (except I swear there was no pesto on the pasta it was like butter, broccoli, and cheese) and just have been drinking a lot of water. I also watched Chronicle, 21 Jump Street, and part of Alvin and the Chipmunks Chipwrecked. I slept a lot on that plane too, but it was still squished and uncomfortable the whole time. The British guy next to me was so talkative and nice, he was talking about the girl he met in Alabama and he’s come to the US three times this year now and he has four kids. He was also talking about how safe I’ll be and how clean it is in Germany. I didn’t read much or even listen to music on that plane. I also had this bomb apple cinnamon muffin top (yes they serve you just the top of a muffin) for breakfast and more and more water. Then we had to go through customs and back through security in Frankfurt (which btw is HUGE it’s like 5 times bigger than like the great mall!) and things are really different, but everyone still speaks English. So this airport was crazy, we got on this crazy crowded bus that took us like I swear in circles around the entire airport and we were sooo close to planes taking off it was scary. And then we boarded the plane the way celebs do. And it was a tiny tiny little plane. Only two seats on each side. It was only a thirty minute flight and they gave us some hazelnut powerbar/ candy bar thing.

So now you’re up to date on my last two days. It’s definitely been weird. We have been waiting for like two more girls and then we will drive out to our base. Today we might be able to go grocery shopping, I will find out where I am living, I will get a phone, and hopefully I will get some time to work out and connect to the internet (cuz that is right next to the gym).

I am really excited but also still really nervous. I just can’t wait to see what everything is like and find out how my day to day life will go.

So now I got to my site. And it’s pretty cool. We live kind of like dorm style but the rooms are bigger and we have a big fridge, an old microwave, and a small bathroom. My roommates name is Miranda and she’s really cool. She’s working in the CDC and she is from Oregon. I definitely know that we will be good friends. I unpacked everything and I have been doing pretty well so far.

We also went grocery shopping and it was totally weird. We kind of all huddled together and had no idea what to buy or what we were really doing. This time around I bought the basics… apples, bananas, bread, pb… typical stuff I would eat just because I was feeling weird. But I know as the weeks go on I am going to start buying this fruit and stuff that I have never seen before and our Point of Contact didn’t even know how to explain what it was to us.

also i will be working with day camp i was actually placed in teen camp but i switched with this other girl and now im working with the kids!

 I  might have to start work at 5:30 AM!!!!! but we get to go on all these cool field trips and stuff. ill tell you more about it as i go through orientation this week!!!!