Kid's Week at the Salvation Army

So most of the kids in the part of Germany that I live in had this past week off of school. During this week the Salvation Army hosts a program (basically a babysitting type of thing) for the kids. This time the week was Roman themed. We played different games with the kids, including catapulting candy into the crowds of children and having them make there own sculptures and carve stuff out of rocks, as well as make rings and other arts and crafts. It was a lot of fun and the kids were amazing (and their German is a bit easier to understand and they don't mind as much when I make mistakes haha) . We took them to a Roman museum (pictures are on facebook) and that was cool and the kids were really interested.

I'm having an awesome time at work and at home. My host family only gets better and better.

It Begins

So after settling in and having a day or two to explore the city, the Salvation Army put me to work. Yesterday I worked in what they call 'die Insel', which translates to 'the island', and is a cafe more or less for underprivileged/poor people. I can't be sure but I think most of the people who come in aren't homeless. I think sometimes it becomes a place for people who don't have, or don't feel that they have, a community of their own and so die Insel becomes a place where they feel welcome and can relate to the other people.

The cafe sells food and drinks for €-.50 but gives tea out for free. I work with another volunteer, he comes from northern Germany and his name is Manuel. We have a lot of fun together and when it gets slow in the cafe we give each other lessons on how to speak our respective native languages... it gets interesting. Our cook, her name is Maria, is really funny too and has a great personality. Though die Insel isn't the most exciting place to work for 5 hours, it goes by quickly with the people I'm working with.

I'm still SUPER jet-lagged but I hope that feeling will go away soon. I met some new friends that go to the local university here from my friend Jessica Moon who goes to Stetson. We went out the other night to a local Irish Pub which gives lessons to its patrons on how to dance...Irishly?? and had a lot of fun, hopefully we can do that again soon.

Arriving In Deutschland

So the plane ride to Germany was loooooooooooooong. Thanks to Iceland's hissy fit the day before, we had to go up over Iceland flying above Greenland (amazing views btw) to avoid the ominous ash cloud. After my 10 hour flight I had a 2 hour layover at the Frankfurt train station and then a 2 hour train trip to Freiburg where I currently am. I met my host family, they are amazing, and have awesome kids. I'm really jetlagged and cannot wait to sleep tonight. Tomorrow I'm going to one of my host family's children's english classes or something, they say they're going to slowly build the work load as the weeks progress... we'll see how that goes.

I need to go shopping for some sweet German clothes.