Kaite in Germany: Neuruppin

So this past weekend was spent in Neuruppin, a city just north of Berlin...I think, at my first inbound orientation. I woke up on Friday at like 8:30 (yes, that means no school for me!! :)) and yeah, ate and hung out and stuff. And then I went to the train station and bought my ticket and hopped on the train. Honestly, it was sooo scary. I was soo stressed that maybe I wasnt on the right train and maybe I wont be able to find my next train and oh no oh no oh no. It was crazy. I'm such a worry wart. But anyways, so I didnt have any problems with the train and I got to Neuruppin (about 3 hours later) in one piece. And I even met an exchange student along the way! :) Rotarians picked us up from the trainstation and took us to the "jugenddorf" where we were staying. It was right on a little lake and so we went down there and hung out a while. But basically we just sat around and talked for the entire day. Oh! And we had chicken nuggets and french fries for dinner (mmmmmm....:)) They were yummy. :)

Saturday we got up (waaay too early), ate breakfast, and got on a ferry to go to Neuruppin (like the city part). Once we got there we took a picture of all of us on pretty much all 43 exchange students' cameras. We were standing there for quite a while. And then we split up into two groups (english/german and spanish) and went for a tour of the city. I got to see what I think was a real German church. I think they said it was built in the 11th century, but they had to rebuild it in like the 1700s or something. And yeah, we walked up 8 gazillion stairs to the top and just looked out the windows and stuff. Then we went through the rest of the city, stopped for lunch and a brief orientation and then were given 2 hours of freetime to explore the city on our own......but it was raining and cold and all the shops were closed. But I got some yummy ice cream (I love the ice cream in Germany! :)) and then went on a search for a bathroom with another girl. We ended up sneaking past a gate and using a portapotty (well, she did, I decided I didnt have to go anymore when I saw the portapotty). Then we went to the "disco" that Rotary was throwing for us. We sat there and had some soda (Germans are really big on hydration) and did little country presentations. And then we ate (bratwurst, some meatloaf-like stuff, chicken, and potatoes) and then just hung out until like midnight. Then we went back to the jugenddorf.

Sunday we had breakfast, traded pins and cards, took too many pictures, and then went to the train station where most of us rode together to Berlin and then caught our connecting trains. And that was the weekend. It was pretty fun, very exhausting, and really awesome. :)

Oh, and our next orientation is a month from now in Paris!! :)

And now for some pictures:

Me and my roomies. :)