Hello my dear friends!
First of all, let me tell you that contrary to rumors I am not dead. :-) I just realized it hasn't even been two weeks since I've come to the US!!!! It feels a lot longer than that - in a positive sense of course.
This might be a bit longer blog, so if you're out of time stop now and continue reading later or tomorrow ;).
It was hard to leave home in the end. It had been two months of being with my parents, not having to take care of anything. They paid for it all, my mum washed my clothes etc. It was like it had been before I went to Holland, but of course that couldn't last. I knew that, but yet it was really hard to say goodbye. I remember being at the Berlin airport where my dad drove me and thinking how I could never do this! However once I got on the plane it got better. It was a pretty big one, not overly big, but still enough to enjoy the flight. I had never really been a fan of flying but now I am. I could watch movies the whole time - which I did of course. First I watched The Hunger Games and afterwards The Lucky One. The food was good, too, believe it or not! I was completely vegan fried polenta with some vegetables. Good be worse! I didn't feel sick at all!! It was great. I didn't sleep however, which was a mistake as it turned out.
When we finally landed I couldn't believe it ... I was in the United States!!! And then it took me about 1 1/2 to get through security. Thankfully no one wanted to inspect my bags, so I walked right out of there. Unfortunately there was no one there to meet me, but I found a cab and took it to the youth hostel I had booked. Wow, was that a mistake! :-) First of all it had stairs like you wouldn't believe. All the people reading this who have ever been inside a real Dutch house know what I'm talking about. I had to carry both of my bags up those stairs (both were just above the legal limit, so both were around 24 kg ...) and that hurt. A very nice American man came and helped me, though. It was quite a run-down house. The atmosphere was very lovely and welcoming, however I could have used a single room. There were none in the hostel, unfortunately. It was 1000 degrees in the room and when you turned the airconditioner on it made the loudest noise ever! The bed was rather comfortable, though, surprisingly enough. And what always happens in hostels: you meet great people! I met some people from England and Wales, Japan, America, Canada, even Germany! Although I have to say I haven't met a lot of Germans yet.
After 5 nights in the hostel I could finally move into my room! My roommate and her dad helped me with ... pretty much everything (Thank you sooo much for that!!!!!! in case you're reading ;)), drove to Ikea with me and built up the furniture. They're such amazing people! Really wonderful.
It took me about three more days to really feel like I had properly arrived in an emotional sense. But ever since tuesday (I remember the day exactly, because that's when I started smiling and being weird again) I'Ve been feeling rather at home and welcome. Like I belong or something.
This week has been "orientation week", meaning checking in, getting your schedule, getting to know people etc. Very useful, actually. Now I know my way around the school, at least almost.
In two days classes will start and I'm going to have a blast!!! Unfortunately I can't take any Songwriting classes yet, but after finishing the courses I have this semester, things will be wide open for me. I'll just have to come back for a second year, too, to really experience the whole thing. Or maybe a third, who knows! :-) But for now, starting monday I will work my a** off to achieve the best I can in all my classes. Also I've just ordered a Mandolin which I will be using frequently in coming compositions once I've learned it.
That's it for now! I'll write a little post here and there about how I'm doing and how everything's going. Tonight (my tonight, probably your middle of the night :P) I will enjoy the many fun sides of a brand new Doctor Who episode. I love that there's such a thing as BBC America!!! And I love my roommate, for many reasons :P, but always at that moment especially for the fact that she has a TV and she brought it with her! Yay and hurray!!!!
That's it. Cheerio, me mates!
