Well, I made it.

Well I've been here a full week now, and just got the idea from Aaron to start a blog so that everyone can read my stories at once... rather than typing twelve different emails.

The plane ride into Hamburg was sort of a nightmare... each flight that day left successively later and later, so in Chicago we didn't arrive in time for our scheduled flight to London. We flew standby to London without problems, and then couldn't find an operational phone in the entire airport. Finally we got ahold of our program director, and took a later flight from London to Hamburg. (I just barely made it on that plane, but there was one seat left in first class so I actually came out on top of that deal.)

My host family and I have been slowly getting to know each another. The first day we arrived, our director (from here on "Heide Crawford") told us "Englisch ist verboten." English = forbidden. I was a little worried, because I'd heard the families are usually reluctant to bypass the chance to use English with a foreigner. But (lucky me) I happen to speak more German than all of my family put together know of English. I have a Gastmutter, Marsche; Gastvater, Ernst; and Gastschwester, Anna. We also live with a grumbly dog, Max. Er hat immer hunger. And my family's hobby, among other things, is horse riding. We have a stable down the road from the house, and last weekend my family gave fancy coach rides for the holiday.

Next time I'll tell you a little about our trip to Hamburg... and Eutin bicycle culture. I wish I'd made before photos of my calves to compare with now...