Wow!

In the big city part of cologne you see tons of street dancers, homeless men, festivals and crazy things like men having bachelor partys and wearing paper suits letting people pay to cut out hearts on their suits. It's a little hard to explain, but my favorite out of all of these things, is the street art. This is a picture of a street dancer! I love it! So exciting!

Another thing that is amazing.... The view from the top of the cathedral! HOLY COW! You can see the whole city! It's so nice and windy at the top, after a long, and I mean LONG walk up the stairs (over 500) It feels amazing to stand on the top, (feels like the top of the world) and look down at all the tiny ant-size people. You would only understand it if you were there. Everyone needs to go at some point in their lives!

<3 Now you can understand a little bit... but it's just not the same!

German words, so confusing!

So imagine this, you need to pee really really bad and you see two doors; one has a really big "D" painted onto it and the other has an "H"... Which one is the ladies room? Hahaha... Pretty embarrassing moment, not only did I walk into the wrong door, which was H, but I didn't even think "Hey, there is a stand up urinal in here, maybe it's the mens room."

Another embarrassing thing; The words nacht and nackt are almost impoosible for me to pronounce differently and not to mention, are very hard to remember which is which.... one means night and the other means naked.... I fail.

New me!

New school<3

New friends<3

New life<3

This is the bridge in Cologne that goes over the Rhein river and there are millions of locks, all over the entire bridge that couples bring locks, some engraved with initials ect. and they lock it up to the bridge and than they throw the key over the side of the bridge into the water, never to be seen again. It's symbolizes love that will last as long as the locks<3 So romantic!

Funny things:

People keep telling me I look like various movie stars... Haha like Sookie from Trublood, Hannah Montana, or Selena Gomez... They watch too much American TV. Hahaha.

Today at school this girl leans over to me and said "Your lips are so beautiful, do you take injections?" I laughed so hard, and than all the girls around me were ooing and awwing over my lips, they said Plump lips aren't common. It was funny.

Last but not least... I realized that drawling inappropriate pictures of male body parts are Universal, turns out it's not only Americans that are immature!

I'm thirsty!

There are a few things that have really hit me as "strange" here in Germany, one is the parking and the other is the water (wasser)!!!

I feel like the motto for German parking should be

"If the car fits, park it"

Maybe i should but one of those things on it so nobody can copy write my German motto, because if you have ever been here in my home town you would understand what I mean. People park on sidewalks, with curbs and they park on streets sides. Not to mention that people lock their bikes up to anything, street signs, doors, BUSHES!!! It's crazy!!

I will put up a picture later for an example:)

The other thing I wanted to address is the fact that it is so hard to find water, like normal water, they only have sparkling water, when I ask for water at restaurants they give me sparkling... What I would do for a nice glass of ICE WATER! Only place I have found it is in the sink... but that tastes so bad:( I don't want to drink it. Someone send me a bottle of water! Please! And ice! Nobody has ice, the only place I have seen ice so far, is in bars! I have been having dreams... of a tall... beautiful... glass of ice water:( If someone loved me enough they would send me a bottle of water haha:) I can't live off cappuccinos alone!

Refreshments in the afternoon!

This is my host father and I drinking cappuccino's and looking up information on my flight and luggage problems! These cappuccino's are my new obsession! I love them!

New surroundings!

I get to wake up in the mornings and remember that I live in a huge town of 1 million people and I get to live only a few minutes away from one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen in my 17 years of living... The famous Cathedral In Cologne, it's huge! I only got to go inside of it little bit because there was a service going on but from what I got to see from walking inside a little bit and the outside... I was amazed! 

This is a picture of my host mother and my host father at this small ice cream parlor they took me to earlier today. It was like no ice cream I had ever tasted, I had Banana and strawberry! This taste so different, even the coffee! I have been drinking cappuccinos, my host parents favorite drink (they have a machine and make one everyday for lunch)! They are now my favorite!

Confusing everyday things!

Now, imagine trying to read signs, such as this one, all day everyday<3 

This is a sign for a rope course that is in some near by trees and this lake that I spent the day at yesterday with my amazing host family!

Flights and first impressions!

This is my blog for friends and family that wish to keep up with my journey throughout the next year on my foreign exchange to the beautiful Cologne Germany! Most exchange students started their blogs before they left the states, but I am a little slow with mine. I will be keeping up with this and Telling all my funny stories, 3 days in and I already have a ton to share. Life is so different in Europe and I can't wait to share it with everyone.
On the flight to Frankfurt I had a few things happen to me, a cancelled flight, two delayed flights, lost luggage and confusion between my host family and my whereabouts. Long story short, I made it! To Deutschland! Alive!
My host family are wonderful people, I like them a lot, they are overly sweet and very understanding, my German vocabulary is getting really good, I can say all sorts of vegetable and fruit names! Hahah.. okay maybe it's not so impressive yet, but just wait, I will be fluent soon!
My family is vegetarian, so I guess I will be too, at least for the duration of my stay with them, which I don't mind, I may not be getting the full German culture, but there is so much more to be experienced than tasting foods.

Funny story, I was my first flight (from Asheville airport to Charlotte airport) and I was seated by a window where the wing was visible, I was staring out looking at the ground because we were nearing the ground for landing when out of the corner of my eye I saw the wing start to move. Startled, I screamed, everyone in the plane turned and looked at me in horror, when I turned back around to the window I realized that it was just the wheels coming out of the wing for landing... I had to explain to the concerned passengers (very embarrassing) that I mad mistaken the wheels coming out for the wings breaking. MOST EMBARRASSING THING EVER!

Keep up with my blog on a regular basis an you can hear all my horror, funny and amazing stories that I will experience during my year in Germany!!!