WELCOME TO MY YEAR ABROAD IN BELGIUM!

Here you will find posts about, my struggles, my thoughts, what I am doing, where I am going, cool people I have met, and just cool stuff in general I did throughout the day.

I will post daily! Also I will definitely put pictures up about very interesting things, like what I have seen, what I have done, who I have met, and other pictures!

Stay tuned and make sure to keep in contact with me and up to date on my life in Belgium as I move on into a completely different culture!

Tuesday, December 20, 2011

GERMANYYYY With My Best Friend :D

Today was really stressful but it paid off in the end...

Noon: I woke up ate breakfast took a shower and made sure I had EVERYTHING I needed for my trip, because knowing my family we are always the ones who forget that one important thing that happens to slip your mind! :D

1:30 pm: I walked almost the whole way to the station which is an hour walk, but then a car stopped and I hitch hiked with him (nice guy, not a child molester who offered me candy) 3/4 of the way through and he dropped me off at the stop which then I went to the store and bought Elias and his family some gifts for letting me stay there as he did for my host family when he came to my house.

2:25 pm: My train to Guillmins (the liege train station which is big and beautiful and hosts trains from all over the E.U.) was late originally at 2:19, but knowing the Belgian train system...trains are not always on time, it was pouring outside so I waited for another 10 minutes outside luckily under shelter from the rain.

2:50 pm: I arrive at Liege Guillmins and I wait for my ICE Train (which is the high speed train that only took me 1:30 hrs to reach Cologne Germany) which was late another 10 minutes originally set for 3:14 but it arrived at 3:27.

4:46 pm: my train arrived in Cologne after being delayed ONCE AGAIN somehow... The person on the train never even came to clip my ticket but the train was sooo big so it didn't really matter from that point. The train is a very very nice looking train almost like a plane but in the train form :)

6:10 pm: I had no idea how to speak German to anyone so I missed my train because some lady told me it was a different platform than it was set to. I called my best friend who had been hopelessly waiting at Gelsenkirchen Station for me since 4 pm. I accidentally told him I would arrive at 8pm because in Europe they count with military time so 18:10 is actually 6:10 pm. I already knew this but I was tired so I said the wrong thing. Elias was not mad, he just thought I would arrive at 8pm because I told him that so he left and told me when I was close so he could take the tram and meet me when I arrived at Gelsenkirchen Hbf.

6:28 pm: I arrived at Gelsenkirchen Hbf which is the station where Elias lives. I called him asking where he was, he said I had accidentally said 8pm and so he told me which tram to take near his house and he would meet me there and all would be ok.

6:40 pm: I took the tram to Elias's house and he said get off at the last stop which was Buer Rathaus. I passed his stadium FC Shalke which is the 5th largest soccer club in the world on my way here to Germany.

7:00 ish pm: I arrived at his stop and we went to go buy a Pita from a Pakistani shop here (which by the way is REALLY GOOD! They have these in Belgium but I haven't had one in a while.) After that he greeted me with a German Beer according to their culture.

8:30 ish pm: He called his friends (who are around 18-20) to take us to go play pool at a place called FireBowl (which is a REALLY NICE and NEW Bowling/Bar/Billiards/Casino Place) and hit up the pool tables for about and hour or 2 with around 7 of his friends. His friends are really chill and cool!

9:00 ish pm: Elias, his friends and I all went to the casino (which you had to be 18 to gamble but the security wasn't that good... but it was a really nice small and NEW casino) I lost 20 cents and Elias lost 1 Euro 10 on gambling while his friends won 10 euro from spending 50 cents in a machine! :D GOOD TIMES!!!

9:30 We went to his friends house and played a game called Mayan where you roll to dice and the next person calls you on your bluff or not a game similar to B.S. (This was really fun! Elias and his friends are chill as heck! Elias and me went home around 1 and his house isn't far at all. That has been my first day here in Gelsenkirchen Germany :D LONG BUT GOOD!)

Tomorrow Elias has school but I am going to sleep in and his friend Joe is going to show me the city and we are going out to eat... and after we all hang out again! AWE YEAH! GERMANY!!! :D SER GUTE!

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