Packing!

Just a little update- I just finished the first day of Gateway Orientation in DC. So far so good! I am all settled in, and I'm getting ready to go to bed. 

I wanted to do a post about packing, because I know it is one of the things that I stressed out about the most going into my exchange. I'll probably do another post  later in the year talking about what I wish I packed and what I regret packing, but for now I'll just talk about what I brought. 

I was allowed to have one checked bag (max 50 lbs.), one carry on, and one personal item. I had a small suitcase as my carry on, and a backpack as my personal item. 

In terms of clothes, here is a list of what I brought:

• 3 pairs of jeans
• 5 short sleeved t shirts in varying colors and styles
• 4 long sleeved t shirts in varying colors and styles
• a canvas bomber jacket
• a Letterman- type jacket
• a corduroy skirt
• a fancy dress
• 5 sweaters
• My winter jacket
• 3 pajama t shirts (ones with writing on them) 
• 2 long sleeved pajama t shirts
• 3 pajama shorts
• a pair of pajama pants
• a pair of sweatpants
• an under armour long sleeve
• a running jacket
• 3 pairs of athletic shorts
• 3 pairs of spandex
• an athletic tank top
• 2 pairs of leggings (one more athletic, the other for wearing)
• a fancy dress
• a ,more formal business outfit (for orientation)
• 2 weeks worth of underwear and socks

I am pretty happy with the amount I brought. I think I was able to cut it down to the more essential things, although looking back on it now,  don't think I needed the amount of athletic/leisure wear stuff that I brought, but I don't know, we will see what I find useful when I get there. 

I spent a lot of time figuring out what kind of non-clothing items that I needed, and I think I came up with a pretty good list of stuff to pack. I'll include all of that here because a lot of the stuff you might not think about.

First thing, host family gifts. I brought local honey, a coffee mug from my favorite breakfast place, a collar for their dog, some black eyed Susan seeds (Maryland's state flower), a book of photographs from around Baltimore, and a book of my family's favorite recipes. I know it seems like a lot, but it's all pretty small stuff that I picked up throughout the summer. My advice on host family gifts would be to not panic and then go out and buy them, but rather to keep an eye out and just gradually buy things you think they would like or that represent home. I also brought a few packs of Reese's (apparently they are a favorite of the Germans) and some small souvenir things like key chains to give to people I meet while on exchange. This is a suggestion that I got from a few youtubers, and I thought it sounded like a good idea, so we'll see how it goes. 

Another important category is cosmetic stuff. Of course I brought travel sizes of all of my shampoos and conditioners and face wash for orientation, but I also picked up 4 sticks of deodorant to use throughout the year, as well as what I think is a year supply of tampons. I brought the deodorant because German deodorant doesn't usually come in the stick form the same way ours does, and it doesn't always work as well in other forms, so I decided to bring it. I brought the tampons because apparently they don't have the same brands we have, and they are very expensive there. I also just don't want to deal with that. 

I also packed a few items for me, just because I thought I'd miss them while I was away. I brought a few boxes of Mike and Ikes and Sour Patch kids (my favorite american candies) and a jar of peanut butter. I also brought a few posters and decorations for my room, including an American flag to hang on my wall. My friend (hey Sicily) made me a super cute poster, so I brought that, as well as a few other things. I think it will be nice to have something to start out with so my walls don't look so bare the first few weeks I'm there. I also bought storage bins, another suggestion from youtube, which I hope will just make it easier to store my stuff out of sight in my room because I don't know how much storage there is. I also bought a shower caddy, because there is only one bathroom in our house, and I don't want to clutter up their whole bathroom with my stuff.

I also bought a few books that I think will be helpful to me. First off, I bought a Lonely Planet guide to Europe, as well as a European phrase book. I know most of this info is online now, but I thought it would be nice to have it all in one place or if my phone dies or something. And I also bought a German-English dictionary, for obvious reasons. The other thing I brought is a Kindle. I plan on reading a lot in English on my exchange, and I thought it would be a good way to easily access books in English because they aren't always available in Germany. 

So that's pretty much all I brought. I know it sounds like a lot, and I kind of is, but it all fit into my suitcases, so I'm happy :) I'm going to end this post now because it's super long, but I hope it's helpful!!

12 days!

There are 12 more days until I arrive in Germany. 9 more until I drive to DC for my gateway orientation. After all of the complaining I did about how slow time was passing, this summer actually did go by very quickly. Its actually blowing my mind how fast my departure date is approaching (blowing my mind in a really good way).

My last few days in Baltimore will be spent hanging out with my family and friends before I leave, as well as making sure I have the last few things I need. I am going to visit my school for a few hours on Friday, then I have my going away party on Saturday, and on Tuesday my parents are driving me down to DC to drop me off at orientation.  

Before I left, I wanted to set up a schedule for my blog. I know if I don't give myself a specific time to post I will never do it (I'm not saying I'm lazy, but I'm lazy). So, I've decided to update my blog every Sunday night, letting everyone know what I did that week, as well as just talking about what my experiences are, both with Germany and exchange. Hopefully there will also be some sort of photo element, but my technological skills are lacking so we'll see about that. I'll probably update it more in the beginning because I'll be doing a lot of new stuff, and I will forget about it sometimes as life in Germany becomes more normal, but basically I'm hoping there will be new posts every Sunday. 

Good luck to everyone starting school tomorrow (not me haha) and I'm sure I'll be posting again soon!

Learning new languages does not make me want to pull my hair out I swear

I am going to be spending my junior year of high school in Germany. Outside of independence, critical thinking, cultural awareness and all those other amazing lessons that come with studying abroad, I will also be thrown headfirst into a language where my conversational skills are akin to those of a kindergartner, and not a very articulate one at that.

 I already have two years of classroom German under my belt, so I am hoping  I will be able to communicate with people enough so that I don't starve or get so insanely lost that I never see my host family again. However, I am still trying to learn a little (or  a lot) more German before I leave  September 9th. I really like German, and I can't wait to become immersed in it, but if I'm being totally honest, I am not the best at learning languages. I have been practicing a good amount in preparation for the next 10 months, and I wanted to share with prospective or current CBYXers (or anyone else who wants to learn German) some of my favorite strategies for "Deutsch learnen"

• Read a favorite book, in German. I have been reading the first Harry Potter book (very slowly), but it has been really good because I have most of the book almost memorized, so I can usually figure out what is happening if I get stuck. It is also really satisfying to know that you are reading something that actual German speakers read, and that you understand it (sort of) 
• Watch Netflix, in German. The audio for all of the Netflix original shows and movies can be German. You can also add English subtitles to help you understand. It is super awesome, and helps strengthen your listening skills, which are very important for school and conversing and pretty much everything. 
• Email your host family, in German. I know that some people don't have their host families yet, but if you do, I would encourage you to email them, at least partly, in German. Most Germans these days are pretty good at English, so they probably aren't having many issues communicating with you, but I offered to converse in German, and so far it has gone really well. I have learned some new German phrases and colloquialisms, as well as lots of vocab. Sometimes doing worksheets or exercises can get boring, and asking questions about your host community is a way more fun way to practice. Even if you barely know any German, your host family will appreciate a sentence or two, even if it reminds them of a toddler :)
• Use Deutsche Welle, in German. Deutsche Welle (http://www.dw.com/en/learn-german/s-2469)  is a really awesome website for learning German created by the German government. There are courses for every level, and most of them include videos, either news stories or German soap operas or something like that, to help you learn vocab and grammar. It uses the European language levels, so I would recommend taking the quick placement test if you want to know where your German skills are. Their Deustch Interaktiv course is the one I have been using. It is really awesome and I would totally recommend it. 
• And of course, Duolingo. I have no idea when you are going to use the sentence "The girl is eating the apple" but Duolingo seems to think it is going to be integral. Who am I to judge. People love it, the bird is cute, and I can use it on my phone, so it is good enough for me. 

That is most of what I have been using. Through all of this, I have also been keeping book of new German words that I hear/read and then look up. (My favorite translation website is dict.cc) It reminds me to keep looking for new vocab, and writing things down really helps me remember stuff. 

Hope this helped!

A lot of things happened in a very short time

A couple big things have happened on the CBYX front since I last posted. 

Most notably, I received my host family!

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

They live in a small town called Ahaus, about 10 kilometers (look at me, already so European) away from the Dutch border. It's a couple with no kids, and I am really excited to be an only child for a year. They have a super cute dog named Cher and they both seem really nice and friendly. We have been emailing in German mostly, and it is so exciting to see how well we can communicate. It is making me a little less nervous about the whole language thing.

My school has no uniform, so it’s pretty much everything I was hoping for. I will get to bike to school every day, and it's only about a mile and a half away from my house. Ahaus is only 39,000 people (as opposed to Baltimore’s 600,000). I wanted a smaller town, so I guess I got my wish!

I am also very excited to say that, as of now, I am the only exchange student in my town! Most people I talk to didn’t want this, but I really think it will be the best thing for me. I’m hoping that it will force me to make friends with my German classmates instead of the other exchange students. And I also hoping it makes me a little cooler in the eyes of my fellow Ahausians J

Having my host family has made me even more excited to go. There is no part of me that wants to stay, I am just so pumped to be going. I spend so much time looking at other blogs and people's instagrams. I even followed AFS on snapchat :) If I could leave tomorrow I would. People keep telling me that these next few months (73 days to be exact, but who’s counting?) will go by fast, but so far I am finding that that’s not really the case. Now that school has ended, exchange has been the only thing that I am thinking about. It’s making me a little crazy, but in a really good way.

I also recently had my AFS Pre Departure Orientation. This is an event put on by my regional AFS volunteers. It is attended by all of the students who are going abroad from the region, so it is a great oppourtunity to meet fellow “outbounds” as we’re called. There were 3 other CBYXers there, as well as 2 kids going to Malaysia, one going to Switzerland, one going to Turkey and one going to Argentina. It was run by a recent CBYX alum, so it was actually really helpful. It made me feel better to hear all of the information from someone who has had a really similar experience. All the alums there had great tips and advice that I know I’m going to use during my exchange.

The final new thing- yesterday, AFS sent me my travel itinerary. At 5:20pm on September 9, I will be leaving America for 10 months. I could not be more excited. I had known my departure date for a while, but having the confirmation made my leaving even more real.

I know I say that a lot, but that is really how it feels. When you start, exchange is just a concept, something that you could possibly do. Once you get accepted, it feels a bit like a movie, something that you’ve read about other people doing, but it still doesn’t feel quite like your future. It’s hard to form clear expectations, so it’s hard to actually imagine yourself doing it.  With each new piece of information, the orientation, then your host family, then your departure date, it starts to feel more concrete. I will be going here, at this time. I will be attending this school, living in that house. With each new specific you get, you start to form an idea in your head. Not a vague concept of “Germany”, but an actual image of what exchange will be like in a specific town at a specific school with specific people. I know almost everything I can about my exchange. I have my departure date, my family, my school. I have done research on research, and it still doesn’t feel completely real. It’s a weird feeling, knowing you’re doing something, but being unable to wrap your brain around it.  But I guess that’s kind of the point 

I am issuing my first infrequent posting apology

I would like to start off by apologizing for the lack of posting that has happened on this blog. I can't even use the excuse that I was doing cool stuff, because not a lot has happened. School ended, summer lacrosse started, I tried (and failed) to find a job, but other than that I have just been watching a lot of Grey's Anatomy.

In terms of study abroad stuff, I recently found out that I got accepted by AFS Germany, which means I can actually go on exchange, which is pretty exciting. I also recieved my departure date. Having an actual day I can circle on my calender and label "Germany" makes this whole thing feel a little more real. I have been dreaming about exchange for so long that it sometimes doesn't feel like something I am actually going to be doing. I leave for gateway orientation in DC on September 6, and then my flight to Germany leaves September 9. It feels simultaneously like too much and too little time. I don't know if I'll have enough time with my friends and family, or to actually finish driving school, but this summer also feels like an unnecessary gap between my old life and my new one. It's hard to make plans with people or hang out when you know that you won't be seeing them in 3 months. I am nervous about how much I am going to miss everyone back home next year, but I am also itching to leave right now. 

Before this summer, I was almost regretting my decision to go on exchange. I was really happy with how everything was going in Baltimore, and I didn't particularly want to leave. My friends were picking their classes for Junior year and talking about next year's prom, and I wanted to be a part of it. I started to think about all the stuff I would be missing next year by going to Germany, and it made me really afraid that I might be making the wrong decision by going. It really helped to talk about it with my other friends who are going on exchange next year, and I realized that everyone feels like that, and that I am not just a crappy exchange student. 

Once this summer started, I really have just wanted to leave as soon as possible. I can't wait for Germany, but it still doesn't feel totally real. I am having trouble preparing for it because I still can't believe it's happening. I am definitely going to start practicing my German more soon though, because I don't want to be mute for the first few months :)

I have my first AFS orientation tomorrow, so I should be going to bed. I will write a post letting you know how that goes!

I Got Mostly Accepted

My name is Jo Schmollinger, and I am a CBYX scholar for the 2016-17 school year.

It still feels weird saying that. I have spent the past 7 months writing, editing, re-editing, re-re-editing, submitting, interviewing and waiting, all in hopes of receiving the CBYX scholarship to study abroad in Germany for a year. Study abroad has always been a dream for me, and CBYX seemed like the perfect way to make that dream come true. Until I was rejected.

Technically, it wasn't rejection. Alternate status. I had to confirm it and everything. But in my mind, Germany and the year I had imagined for myself were no longer a possibility. I stopped listening to German pop music, stopped obsessively watching exchange videos on YouTube (I recommend checking out Kieko Menna's channel if you're interested.) and stopped using German in everyday conversation. I wasn't able to just forget the whole thing either because one of my close friends had actually gone through the whole process with me and had been selected as a finalist. I was proud of her and I was glad she was happy, but there was a part of me that was still insanely jealous of the conference calls, the home interviews,  and the pre departure materials she was getting.

AFS had said that most alternates get called up within the first 2 weeks, once finalists chose whether or not their taking the scholarship. The first two weeks passed, then three, and I hadn't heard anything from AFS. It was at this point that I really began to accept that fact that I was not going to Germany next year. I started to think less and less about the scholarship, and I was actually getting excited for junior year at home, even though I knew it was going to be tough being here while my close friend was abroad. I was starting to forget about studying abroad in high school. I would do it in college like most people.

 Two weeks later, I got an email from CBYX. The subject line was "Program Status Update-Action Requested". I did not appreciate how cryptic this was, because Gmail on my phone would not load, and I ended up standing in the middle of the sidewalk for about 5 minutes trying to get this email to open. Once I finally read the first "Congratulations", I was the lunatic who was not only standing in the middle of the sidewalk, but was also crying in the middle of the sidewalk. After that, I called my mom, my dad and pretty much everyone else I knew because I could not wait to tell people. I sent my acceptance form in that night, and I have been steadily experiencing my own onslaught of conference calls, home interviews and pre departure materials since then.

I don't even know how to describe everything I have been feeling since I got my acceptance email. There's so much excitement, but there is also nervousness and sadness and guilt about leaving my friends and family. I know that I am going to have an amazing year next year, and I am going to gain so much. But I'm also going to have to face challenges that I never have before, which is scary. I am looking forward to the personal growth and change that will result from this year, and I am almost glad that my CBYX experience started out the way it did.  I have already learned a valuable lesson about dealing with rejection and disappointment,  and I haven't even gotten my visa yet.