Very different

I wasn't sure what I would find when I came to Germany but it wasn't it. Everyone here is extremely nice and helpful, especially when they realize that I don't speak German very well. My family is fantastic and very nice. My room is very nice as well, and I'm enjoying my stay. They eat a lot in the morning and, as someone who hasn't had a big breakfast for most of my life, that's different. Since I've been here, we've visited two different pools, something else I wasn't expecting. I never expected there to be so many different places to go swimming in Berlin. Nor did I think that, even though they have a lake nearby, they don't actually use it. That's a little strange to me. It's also much greener and more spread out than I thought it would be. I've been to big cities in the past where you can usually walk most places you want to go and it's not that big a problem. But here, in Berlin, you can't really do that without your feet falling off. We use the metro and the bus more than we walk. So far at least. The school wasn't what I expected either. I knew that they had shorter days than we do in America and that they had different classes everyday, so that's not very different. I had expected the campus to be smaller though. Of all the of the German exchange students I've had, they all agreed that Har-Ber high was a much larger school than theirs. While they weren't wrong, I had expected something significantly smaller. Instead it's rather large and spacious, much more like a college campus than just one large building like Harber. I like it. It's a little strange not to change rooms between each classes and to have more than one period for each class but it's not that unexpected. It's just a little different than what I'm used to. One thing I also did not expect was that Rosa, the girl I am staying with, bikes to school everyday. I haven't ridden a bike since I was twelve. That was a little intimidating the first time and I will admit that I am not very good at it. Bad even. Fortunately, due to all the trips we've been taking after school, we've used the bus most days so we don't have to go back to the school to get the bikes. I'm very very happy about this. I think in total, I'll only have to bike to school a few days. I am SO okay  with this.

I'm enjoying the tours and trips as well, both with the group and on our own. We've been to several different museums already and just yesterday we went to Dresden for the day. We took a bus for two hours and forty minutes and it didn't rain. We walked around for a little bit after buying a ticket for a boat tour and it was raining. We went to a huge museum with a large park type place in the middle, something that was absolutely amazing. The entire place was covered with beautiful statues and fountains. I only wish that it hadn't been so cloudy so that I could have gotten some better pictures. We also went to the art museum that was inside of the area. I got to see several different  Renaissance paintings, including Raphael's angels. I really enjoyed being able to see those. The entire time we were in the art museum, it didn't rain but right after leaving the area, it started pouring. We finally managed to make it to the boat after the rain had died down some and all during the boat tour it didn't rain. Admittedly, I didn't think the boat tour was very good. There was some things worth sightseeing but it wasn't the best, especially on a rainy dreary day like it was. And then as we got off the boat, it started pouring again, right up until we managed to reach the shopping area where there was awnings to keep the rain off of us. And lucky me (and a most of the others for that matter) didn't have our umbrellas with us. At least I was wearing my rain jacket. I did enjoy Dresden despite Mother Nature turding on us. Just the area we were in was so old, with so many large buildings with amazing architecture. If I come back to Germany again, I would like to visit Dresden again as well. I would liked to have seen more of it.

Today, Rosa, Vivi, Cici, and I visited a haunted bunker. That was fantastic, though surprisingly short. There was a museum under the 'Chamber of Horrors' that provided some interesting information about medicine during the middle ages as well as about the bunker itself. (Though I think the best part about the whole thing was watching everyone freak out, especially Rosa and Vivi.) I'm looking forward to the rest of this trip.