my exploits, chapter 1...

well, heres the (third-) oldest of the emails that i can find, so i hope you like it! id originally thought it was the inaugural email of the semester, but, upon further inspection, realized i was wrong. however, id already written the title, so i figured id let it stand and just amend it. #stylechoice

feel free to post questions in the comments if you have them...i guess comments there work, too. ;)  there were a lot of replies to the email that i am posting, and it was really nostalgic to read some of those. mayhaps i will include snippets or reflections on these email responses, as well. maybe ill even find my old computer and see what pictures exist! hmmm...so many options! 

note: please forgive the two spaces after periods...it was 2006, after all. hah. 

original writing: 6. january 2006

howdy!  

well i miss all of yall already, and i have only been here about one day.  i have to say this to start off that if i replace a y with a z its because the z is where the y should be on the german keyboard.  

most of yall will be proud to know that i am typing this on a mac, which is defintely a first...

so whats gone on since i wrote last...  wellllll, i almost didnt make my flight, but God is good and i was where i needed to be precisely when i needed to be there and the only things i can figure out that i didnt bring that i need is my outlet converter (a little annoying, to be sure...ärgerlich is how you say annoying in german...) and thats the only really necessary thing...

last night i could barely stay awake and i fell asleep in the desk chair in my room for like, 30 minutes and my roommates (you really dont realize how often you type y's until theyre in the wrong place) apparently found me and had a good laugh...oh well :-)  glad i could oblige them that.

we went to the pub last night to socialize (my favorite) and i stayed there until almost midnight this time, which is 7 hours ahead so it was really only 5 pm...however, i got to my platz  (place) and was in bed around 1230, so that i could get up and be meet the group at 10.  i said my prayers (yes, kelli cook, in german) and woke up today at 1245.  thats right, i said 1245.  WHAT?!?!?!  i almost had a panic attack and i hadnt even showered or anything.  i probably would not have freaked out as much if i were in a latin country, since theyre more lax about being on time.  AAAAHHHHH!!!  so i worried for a while until one of my roommates called the leader lady and she told me what i needed to do.  still, i cried (at least in my head) and had some yogurt (which is kinda gross over here) and took a shower.  

the shower is weird.  its in a bathtub and has a curtain, which seems normal...but the shower head is on the wall...in the middle of the bathtub!  so the shower curtain wraps around you as though you were in a round shower but theres the whole tub still.  ganz komisch (very strange).  

tonight, my buddy promised to take me and some peoples around to the pubs, so that should be fun but i figure i cant stay out late if i want to go to church tomorrow because who knows how long ill sleep tonight, too!  booooo....

so i got to school and was the only one not there, so that was horrible to walk into a room 4 hours late and be the only one to get there at that time.  i want to come home, but i know that i cant so that helps with the sucking it up and dealing with the unknown.  i am excited, however, that muster is on a friday this year because i wont have to skip any school to go!  whoop!  so, thats my big thing im looking forward to (jason brown, youd better figure out a way for me to get there ;-)  i would put the second parenthesis after that but then it looks stupid...if you can figure out why, let me know.  i know, but do you?)

a side note for those of you who like to laugh at the difference between americans and germans...

my buddy's name is dino, and his best friend?  knut.  thats right.  i know like 6 germans and their names are:  luise, lena, nadine, svend (those are the roommates), dino, and knut.  theyre pretty neat.

i got placed in the ESG which is on lindenstraße 22 (22 linden street) and it is the home of the evangälische studentgemeine.  yaaaay!  so im living with Christians, but still not the sort you might expect.  they are apparently fairly sketchy about how often they go to church but one of them is baptist, so that could be fun.  i think i might try to see if he will take me to church with him tomorrow.  hes a nice guy, and speaks probably less english than the rest of the house, so communicating with him is ein bißchen schwer (a little hard).  

i loved reading yalls emails so keep sending them!  i miss you all so greatly that even just reading them made me cry (but its good).  ill try to call soon!  love! 

later days!

-sarah (theres no tilde on this keyboard!  aaah!)