Once the Plane Lands. This is it.: ORIENTATION DAYS

can be really boring.

But I’m glad to have had them. It was the perfect transition and it gave AFSers time to get to know one another. I think though that AFS really went too far in categorizing Germans. They talked about how Germans are always on time, the tram leave exactly on the dot, and how water is expensive so people take fewer showers. Although this can be true in some cases, we spent literally 1 hour talking about these subjects (especially water). And what do you know an awkward moment came up because of it! It turns out my German host family takes showers everyday (and sometimes even more than once) and are barely ever on time for anything—AND my train is late at least twice a week. So there. Stereotypes aren’t always true.

But anyway, Orientation went something like this:

Day 1: hours of lecture, watching a movie till 12am
Day 2: visit to the State Department, Meetings with Congressional Representatives, hanging around Union Station, dinner at a German restaurant: Cafe Mozart
Day 3: 9:00 am to 10 pm workshops and lectures with breaks for lunch and dinner
Day 4: Travel Information, Closure Session, Airport Departure at 1:30 pm

And some details—>

We had to walk from Union Station to our Congressional Representative meetings. It was pouring rain outside, but we CBYXers are tough! We faced various challenges including a puddle that large ducks could swim in, but we defeated them with our handy-dandy emergency ponchos.