Orientation

whew. I'm back in Köln. We had our orientation for the last four days in the little picturesque city of Altenberg. It was.... I don't even know. I'm so wiped out right now. It was really great to meet so many people there. I didn't quite realize how huge this program is. There are about 120 americans here with the Fulbright thing and then there are also tons of British, Austrailians, Canadians, etc. Then there are also groups of French, Italian and Spanish teachers coming to Germany. Our group was only 1\3 of the english speakers. So it was pretty overwhelming. It was kinda like the first few days of freshman year, meeting everyone for the first time except that we all at least had a common interest in Germanness. There are a ton of Minnesotans in the bunch, all that German heritage I suppose. I ended up hanging out a lot with the two Canadians that were there.... Crazy Canadians. I made lots of friends with people who will be all over Germany, so I've got lots of travel buddies and places to visit. There are actually two other american girls in Munich.
The orientation involved a lot of meetings and group work. We had to do little practice teaching lessons. Of couse we also had some liesure time. The place we were staying was pretty neat. Its a church complex with big cool cathedral out in the middle of nowhere. We were locked in every night at 9:45, but they provided cheap beer and wine, so no one complained to much. Good times.
I can't think of what else to say about it right now, I'm sort of in a daze. We were supposed to wake up at 6am to catch the bus this morning. I overslept, there were going to leave without me, luckily a friend noticed i was missing and got me just in time. But I still have that feeling like I'm dreaming or something.
In a couple hours I'm off to Munich! It's about four hour train ride. Nap time for me! My teacher is picking me up at the train station. I'm really excited to get to a house with a bed and a washing machine.