Well, first official night in Deutschland, and I haven't gone to bed yet ~3:00am.
To say I was nervous to start this German stuff would not come close to describing my anxiety. We got to the Sprachschule (language school) in Köln today around 17:00 (yeah, I'm going to use that time). We had a little introduction. Then the director gave his introduction in German. So begins the confusion.
I had no idea what he was saying. I could pick up a word or two here and there, but no clue of the overall gist of his talk. Right over my head. That was stressful and frustrating.
Then we got some packets, stood around for a bit and whatnot. One of the interns for the GiZ came over to say bye, and as I went for the hug, I knocked over a glass of water. The glass then proceeds to break and water went everywhere. Great start Nial, great start...
Took a taxi to my host family, and made myself look nice and stupid (I better get used to it now) trying to talk to the cab driver in German. Got to the host family, and was stressed and nervous for quite a while, but am really lucky to have such awesome hosts.
Long story short, my host-sister and her friend took me to a party at one of her friends houses. It was interesting trying to pick up any conversation in deutsch. After a while, I was handed ein bier and proceeded to open it with my flip flops. If you know me, you know what I'm talking about. Well, one of the guys there, Valentin, needed an opener for his bottle, so I obliged and handed over my flip flop. What he did with it made my night. As he was using the opener, he said, "(insert title here)".
Original Publish Date: August 3rd, 2013