First Two Days

I'm at the hostel now and everything is running smoothly. I'm more than a bit lonely at the moment, but I know I'll get over that and start meeting people soon. I knew this first week or so was going to be challenging, but I'll pull through it. My roommate is a very nice German girl who's home is about 2 hours away. She's studying in Cologne for a year and staying at the hostel until she gets she degree/certificate. Like I said, she's nice, but quiet (at the moment, she's studying, so that's understandable). But she speaks only a little English so the conversations we've had have been sparse, but good.

Funnily enough when I first met her she was watching Gilmore Girls (in German, of course), and we just finished watching an epsiode together. They are a season behind, so I tried not to give anything away during our post-episode discussion. I'm fortunate enough to understand soap operas, no matter what language they are in. But regardless, I need to learn to shorten my sentences and talk slower if I'm really going to try and talk people in the hostel. The good news is that tomorrow the hostel is having an "Asia dinner night" that is pretty cheap. I'm definitely going to that because it will help me meet people easier instead of just walking into a room full of German speaking kids.

But I've been keeping myself busying with this and that. Went exploring today around town and met a nice woman from Winsconsin that was sightseeing, who I joined for a bit. I went grocery shopping today and got some food, though I'm afriad to buy things because I'm still getting used to kilos and grams. The weather here is below freezing (around 26-28), but no snow yet (it's supposed to soon!). Walking around isn't that bad, considering I just duck into stores every now and then.

I also just talked to my parents on Skype, which was very much needed. My parents noticed right away that I was feeling down, but I really didn't feel like crying in front of my roommate so I sucked it up and pushed through the conversation. Both they and I know I just need to put myself out there and everything will be fine. God...I don't know what I would do without Skype.

I counted on this first week or so being hell and though it's not quite at that calibur I sometimes catch myself thinking "I should have picked England. Or Canada." But I know I need to give it time. I need to show people the outgoing person I can be and not be so shy. God, shy is a word I don't think anyone would use to describe me, but that's what I am here.

Time to shake off the funk. I'm tired of being down and tearing up everytime I think about my friends or family. In all honesty I knew my personal life would suck for a while, and I was right. The school is fine and I like it a lot, though I'm still getting used to class schedules and the like. The teachers are great though and many will go out of their way to talk to me (while I, once again, am still finding my ground and don't want to step on toes). I think the biggest difficulty I'm having is learning everyone's names!

It's 10pm at the moment. I'm going to spend the rest of my night watching Robot Chicken episodes on YouTube. Humor is a necessity in life and I haven't laughed in three days.