Oh, one more thing! I would like to thank all of my family and friends for their prayers, support, and encouragement. You are all so wonderful and I really appreciate it. I feel so loved! :) Of course, it goes without saying that I will miss you all VERY much! I will try to keep this blog as much as possible.

From the Land of Fairytales

I’m not entirely sure how to go about writing this because it has been so long since my last post… Well, I guess, technically, it hasn’t been that long. So much has happened since my first day in Europe that if feels like I have been in Tübingen for at least a month! My first few days in Tübingen were quite stressful and anxiety provoking, but now that I have been here a week I absolutely LOVE it!! I’m already dreading leaving in August! lol. (Not that I won’t be excited to see everyone, it’s just that Tübingen is THAT awesome.)

I had a wonderful time in Lyon. I’m glad I chose to visit Uncle Kevin and Aunt Therese before heading to Germany. I got to get over my jetlag in a very comfortable environment. Also, it was nice getting to spend time with the other Graggs because I hadn’t seen any of them in several years. I hadn’t seen Eamon since he was in 2^nd grade as a matter of fact! Besides, getting teased by Uncle Kevin kind of made me feel at home because my dad is constantly teasing. (Uncle Kevin is my dad’s brother). While I was in Lyon I tried lamb for the first time, kept forgetting to say “pardon” when I bumped into people, drank a couple gallons of peach tea, got accused of knocking a car’s side mirror off with my giant camera bag (the mirror was ALREADY broken, I swear!), ate lots of banquettes, helped pick on Eamon, and seriously considered dog-napping Freckles, and took 232 pictures! You can find the link to my Lyon photos to the side of my blog under “lovely links.”

I left for Tübingen on Saturday the 28th at 7:10 in the morning. That means I had to get up at 5:00 am! It made for quite a long and tiring day of travel. I took the train from Lyon to Strasbourg- to Stuttgart- to Tübingen. The train ride to Strasbourg seamed to take forever, and the man that came around to check tickets had an entire conversation about me to the people sitting nearby. He asked if I could speak any French and I just shrugged and shook my head, so he took that as the go-ahead to laugh at me with some of the passengers. Um, hellooo, I know enough to pick up that you are talking about me and the fact that I speak English and no French. After 10 minutes of chatting, he turned back to me and asked where I was headed. When he realized I was going to Germany he asked if I spoke any German. “Ja, ein bisschen.” He then immediately turns to the woman behind him and says, “ Ohhh, she knows German” or something like that. I caught a few words. I swear some of those French people have sticks up their butts. I wonder if THEY ever go on vacation to a country where THEY don’t speak the language. Whatever. I tend to offend French people unintentionally. It’s one of those facts of life that I’ve come to accept.

I arrived in Tübingen around 4:00pm and was so wiped. I was tired, hungry, and couldn’t find the WC (bathroom). Since I was so exhausted from a day full of traveling, I wasn’t able to muster up the brain power to speak any German. Unfortunately, I had no understanding of Tübingen’s bus system. So what do I do? Lug my bags halfway across town to the youth hostel. I won’t lie, it sucked. I had a crappy map that didn’t seem to match-up with the street names at all and basically went with instinct based on the Google Earth maps I had studied. It’s not a pleasant walk when you are pulling your weight in luggage! Luckily, as soon as I had checked in at the youth hostel; a guy approached me asking if I need help with my bags. Thank God! There was no way I could get the bags up to the room by myself. No elevators. I soon found out that this helpful guy, Madison, was also in Deutsch Kompakt. After crashing for a while in my room, I ran into Madison again and we went off in search of dinner.

Sunday was not the greatest either. I woke up too late for breakfast and hadn’t had a good night’s sleep to begin with. I decided to search for a convenience store of some sort because the youth hostel didn’t have hand soap. Odd… Also, I needed to find an internet café to email mom and dad and let them know that I made it ok. Oh, and of course I was in search of food too. It must have slipped my mind that European stores and business are NOT open on Sundays. Even a lot of restaurants were closed! Needless to say, I was a bit crabby when I found an internet café and emailed my parents. Finally, around 2:00, I found a Döner stand. I had heard many good things about these sandwich-like things and decided I needed a picture of my very first Döner. Well, it’s quite a messy ordeal trying to eat a Döner; and as I reached in my purse for the camera I spilled half of it on the cobblestone. Hmmm… lucky day for the pigeons I suppose.

Later that night I met up with a bunch of people in Deutsch Kompakt at the Neckarmüller (a beer hall). Calley was there and had managed to get into her apartment early. Lucky! I felt much better about the week ahead once now that I knew some of the other exchange students. We set a time to leave the youth hostel the next morning to go sign our apartment contracts, so I was relieved to know that I would be going with a group.

Ugg, Monday! We had to check-out of the youth hostel by 9:30 that morning. Yet again, I had not had a restful sleep. So 9:00 on the dot, Madison, Jacob, Jeppe (he’s from Denmark) and I set off with our luggage to the bus stop way down the road. As luck would have it, it was drizzly. Eww. The guys helped me with my luggage and we made it to the Studentenwerk office to sign papers and pay deposits. Everything was fine until I finished signing the last of my paperwork and discovered everyone else had already left! There was absolutely no way I could find Neuhalde (my apartment) and carry my luggage without help! That was when I had a mini meltdown. I cried for about 15 minutes until I was able to pull myself together and remember that I know how to ask for a cab in German. Thankfully, the lady at the desk made the call for me. The cab driver was nice and helped me carry my bags to the apartment building. It actually wasn’t as expensive as I had expected. Only 10 Euros.

It felt SO good to finally be in my own room. I could finally unpack and begin settling in. I was pleasantly surprised by the size of my room. Also, the building is newer than I had imagined. My apartment suite even has a nice smell to it. Yay! There are 4 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms and kitchen. I have my own room and it has a sink in it. Next, my top priority was getting internet in my room! Before I could do much unpacking, I had to go check-in for Deutsch Kompakt. Basically, it was a day of countless errands and running around. I also met my roommate. He knew I was American as soon as I told him my name. He’s really nice and helpful and speaks English perfectly. The other roommate is not in Tübingen right now because the normal semester doesn’t start until the end of April.

Tuesday was the placement exam (written and oral) and walking tour of Tübingen. I was more nervous than necessary about the exam. I was afraid my German wouldn’t be good enough to be in the program. (Someone had told me the day before they would send you to a different school in Tübingen if your German wasn’t good enough). Turns out, the people who where turned away hadn’t actually taken German before. All that worry for nothing!

Wednesday was the first day of actual classes. My class is the smallest of the 3 Deutsch Kompakt classes. We only have 9 students, and all of us except one are Americans. We did a list of words that described us that started with each letter of our name. Then we presented them. Kindergarten work is so awesome! lol. Something that excited me is when the instructor would catch people pronouncing words wrong. She would then launch into this mini speech therapy session with our class! SWEET! (ok, I’m a nerd. I realize this.) After class, I spent the entire afternoon walking around town with Anna (from Russia). She was very interesting and we tried to speak in German as much as possible. That evening we had a free dinner for Deutsch Kompakt. It was nice, but I have no idea what the food was. Lol. At the dinner, I actually met someone else who doesn’t really drink! He was one of the only other people drinking apple juice, so the topic came up. He said he, strangely enough, is here for the language rather than the parties! Yay! Lol

On Thursday I successfully opened a German bank account! Speaking only German! Yay, Courtney! Lol. Other than that, the day was just filled with more shopping, exploring, etc. Oh, and I figured out how to do laundry (with the help of a few friendly Germans)! It’s funny how simple everyday chores become a kind of puzzle in foreign countries.

Finally, Friday! I didn’t go out with the rest of the exchange students that went drinking and dancing. I wanted to finally have some time to relax in my room and chat with people back home on Skype. (My roommate, Matei, didn’t seem to understand why I was staying home on a Friday night.) Besides, the weather was doing this nasty wanna-be-snow-but-it’s-actually-misty-rain crap. Apparently that is common in Germany during the winter. Brrr!

Yesterday was spectacular! The weather was much nicer than predicted. After breakfast I found Kaufland! The bus that stops at the bottom of my hill goes straight to Kaufland (German superstore). I was so over stimulated by a being in a giant German superstore that I felt a bit light headed. I can’t explain in. I just get so ridiculously excited when I’m surrounded by German products, labels, signs, and language! I could have spent the whole day in Kaufland, but I needed lunch. So I managed to find the ingredients to make little pizzas like I used to make all the time back home. It took awhile to find everything, of course. When I went to get on the bus (line 7) that had brought me to Kaufland, I found that it switches to line 4! Huh? I thought the busses go in circles? Nooo! But, alas, I made it home. (It took nearly an hour to get back to my apartment). I was quite proud of my pizza that I made. (First meal I made in Germany!) After dinner I went out for coffee, shopping, and picture taking. I had a fabulous day, and think I may need to move here someday! LOVES IT!

PS: Sorry this is so long. If it helps, I DID leave out a lot! lol.

A Peach Ice Tea Reunion!

As most of you already know, I am staying at my Uncle Kevin's house until Saturday. I arrived in Lyon late last night (after a killer long layover in Heathrow) and was picked up by Uncle Kevin. His house is absolutely adorable! And I have already fallen in love with their dog, Freckles. Don't tell Schutz, Rachel! I hope to get pictures of everything up here soon... I'm such a sucker for European homes.

After a brief house tour, I took a quick (much needed shower. 36 hours without one... eww. lol) Then it was a quick phone call home , downing a liter + of peach tea, and lights out. It was tough deciding which I wanted more, to sleep or drink peach tea... lol. (FYI the peach tea in the U.S. is good, but it's nothing compared to the French peach tea!

So far today I have gone to lunch at Eamon's school (my 13-year-old cousin), shopped at the grocery store( I needed more peach tea!), and struggled to connect to Uncle Kevin's wireless internet with my own laptop. I'm on his laptop now because we ran out of ideas of things to try. I best be off to take pictures!