Finally Arrived!

Hello all!

I have arrived in Bad Honnef! I got off to a rocky start when I had my flight changed from Wednesday to Thursday because of the backup from the hurricane. It was just as hard saying "see you later" to everyone on Thursday as it was Wednesday. Maybe it was even harder but I got through it. I flew from Buffalo to Newark. It was a quick flight and I actually slept during most of it.

Then I had a 7 hour flight from Newark to Hamburg, Germany. I watched Water For Elephants the first 2 hours. Then I got about 3 or 4 hours of sleep. I stayed up after that and watched some tv shows. It was a pretty good flight. The dinner was pretty gross but we had croissants for breakfast and they were good.

I arrived in Hamburg around 7:30 a.m. (german time) or 1:30 a.m. (Buffalo time) and went through customs. It was SO easy. He just looked at my passport and said "have a nice time." Then I got lost :( They don't give you your ticket for your flight in Germany so I had to wander around until I found someone I could ask. I had no idea what gate to go to or anything. Turns out I wandered the wrong way so I had to go back and go downstairs. When I got to my gate there was nobody from the airlines to help me so I sat down and finished watching a movie on my laptop. Finally the airline people showed up and I was able to get my boarding pass. They scan your ticket and then you go outside and get on a bus. The bus then takes you to your plane. The flight was quick from Hamburg to Cologne. It took about 45 minutes.

When I arrived in Cologne I had to board another bus to take you to the entrance. Turns out the entrance was about 50 ft away but you can't walk outside so you had to get on a bus and go around the plane and get off the bus at the doors. It was quite silly. The only nice thing about that is they take your luggage right off the plane and bring it right in for you. I only waited about 3 minutes. Trying to carry all my stuff was hard! I ended up dragging my duffle bag. I had to bring them up an escalator but there were two cement posts that I had to fit all my stuff through to get on the escalator. I am sure I looked like a fool! haha.

When I got to the second floor my buddies Sarah and Mirja were waiting for me! They helped me take my luggage to the car. They also gave me a cute little present to welcome me. It took about a half hour to get from Cologne to Bad Honnef. My University is in Bad Honnef.

When we got there I had to go sign some papers to get my apartment key. I found out I was rooming with Wendy one of the other girls from Niagara! That was a wonderful surprise! After I put my stuff in my room I had to go to the international office at school to fill out some more paperwork and pay for my student pass which gets me on the train and bus in the Bonn/ Cologne area. I also got my computer hooked up to the school network so I could let everyone know I was okay! :) I had a mini breakdown and really wanted to come home but once I got over that I was okay. I think I was just exhausted and overwhelmed with things.

I went back to my room and unpacked a little and skyped with Bob and sent out a few emails. At 2 we went and got ice cream and got cell phones! Then we went back and got the cars and took a trip to Ikea! I LOVE IKEA. Bob and I went on a trip to Pittsburgh about 2 years ago but I had forgot how amazing it is! When we walked in they gave us free champagne! :) We bought our bed linens and towels and small things for our apartment. We ate dinner there too. It was pretty good!

When we got back we set up our rooms and just hung out for the night. I was able to skype with  my cousin Val, Bob and my mom! I even got to see Manny and Gabe on skype! I ended up going to bed at almost 1 a.m.

This morning I didn't wake up until 10:45 which is late for me. The other girls had decided to go on a walk in town but I got ahold of them early enough that they hadn't gone far. I quickly got ready and went to meet them. We ended up going all the way down the main street until we hit the Autobahn. It was a 3 mile walk there and back. On our way back we stopped at a grocery store so I could buy some food. The other girls had gone to Aldi the day before I got here.

We decided we wanted to take a hike so we went back to our rooms for an hour and then set off on what turned out to be a very long hike! We took the path about 3 km to the top then decided to take a different path down. That was 4 km... well when we got to the bottom we had no idea where we were. It was a very busy street with no houses on it and it said Bad Honnef was 6.7 km in another direction. So we decided to head back up.. we thought we would take a different way up but turned around when we realized the trail ended. It ended up being about 4.5 km back to the top. From the top we went back the way we had come in the first place. It ended up being about 9 miles from start to finish. Not exactly what I was expecting when we had said we wanted to go hiking.

When we got back I laid down to relax for a minute and ended up falling asleep for an hour. When I woke up I made some dinner (spaghetti) and skyped. It is now midnight and I am ready for bed! I know this was a very long post but I thought I would post it all at one time.

I have pictures of my first few days on my facebook but will try to post a few on here! Please comment on here or email me if you have any questions or just want to get in touch! I also have skype so send me your skype information so we can chat!

I can't wait to share the rest of my adventure with all of you!

Thank you for all of your love and support!

Love,

Brittany