Day One

Well, last night my friends came over to give me one last good-bye wish... After that, I had to pack, and my cousin, Rachel, ended up spending the night because she was helping me.  Regardless, it still took me until 1 a.m. to finish.  And the morning came waaaayyyy too early!  My flight left from Flint at 6 a.m. and so I had to be at the airport by 5.  So, figuring the drive and the last-minute packing, I had to get up at 3:45 (yeah, do the math, that means only 2 hours and 45 minutes to sleep).  So, my entire family plus Rachel drove with me to the airport to see me off.  They could go as far as security, and then I had to continue on by myself.  I looked back when I was on the other side, and I could see them jumping up and down, waving goodbye to me!  The thought that this is a year now hit me, and I started to tear up.  My plane was just about to leave, so I had to hurry off, and the attendant escorted me to my plane.
     In Detroit I met up with 8 other YFU students and we all talked together for a while as we waited for the boarding call.  As it happened, we were all seated in roughly the same area on the plane, too, so our conversations simply kept going during the flight.  We were met right at the gate in DC by a YFU volunteer.  He showed us to the baggage claim, and then he got us a van to take us to the 4-H center.  There, we got lunch, keys to our rooms, and were allowed to do what we wanted for about two hours while we waited for the rest of the people to arrive.
     I'm pretty confident on the names of the students who were on the flight with me from Detroit to DC, and even a few other students.  My roommate here (we've got two bunkbeds, but only me and one other girl are in the room) comes from St. Louis, and--get this-- she'll be at the same 4 week orientation as me in Germany!!!!  So I'll know one of the other students when I'm there.  Some of the students remind me of my friends in F'muth.  Especially when names are the same (Courtney, Brianna) or even similar (Tadd and Pat).  Plus, every time I talk to these people or hear them talking to other people, I get another tadbit of information to attach to each name and face to remember them by.  Like, Kira is a vegan, Jes is related to the Lamb family I know....  It all somehow sorts out in my mind.  Hah, and here's one for ya-- there's another girl here named Lydia, and she's going to the 4 week orientation with me and Cristina, and we have the same type of pens that we use to take notes!! (okay, you can laugh, but when you're desparate for anything to remember other people by, you're desparate)
     So, we had some culture orientations, and some basic games to help us get to know each other.  Then we went to supper, and then it was back to the culture lessons.  Now, remember, I've been running on 2.75 hours of sleep, so what I'm saying doesn't make sense, and what I'm hearing comes in one ear and out the other.  Fortunately, most of everything was old news to me or written down on some papers they gave us.  So I can read it again later.
     Tomorrow we're going to meet with our congressmen/women.  I get to meet Dale Kildee face-to-face (unless he's too busy with other meetings) and tell him how much I appreciate that Congress is partnering with the German Parliament to give scholarships to students so we can go over to Germany.  After that, I'm off to the News-eum, which is basically a museum about newspapers.  And then the Goethe Institute.  And then..... oh gosh, they have every minute of my day scheduled out so that I'll hardly have time to stop and admire the city!  It's good to be busy, though.
     I guess I'd better try to get some more sleep then, before I have another sleepless night....