Arrived in Germany Safe and Sound

Well, all is well so far in Germany. I survived the 16 hour trip from San Francisco to Dusseldorf International Airport. We arrived about an hour late because of air traffic at London Heathrow (where we connected flights) and finally got to Dusseldorf, Germany around 5 pm on Monday. I had some serious jet lag after the long flight, because I wasn’t able to get much sleep at all. I maybe got a total of 1 ½ to 2 hours.

Once we arrived in Dusseldorf we were greeted by Camp Adventure Project Director of Europe (Dr. Christopher Kowalski) and Project Coordinator of the British Garrisons (Bobbi Meyer). From the airport we hopped on a bus and drove about 45 minutes to Rheinndahlen Garrison, where we met up with the rest of the Camp Adventure staff (30 in total). I’d also like to mention, that out of those 30 Camp Adventure staff, I am indeed the only male. Why more males choose not to participate in Camp Adventure is beyond me? I mean hey, I’m in Europe for 2 months, for next to nothing, and where are all the guys? They are seriously missing out on a great experience. Sucks for them!! ;-)

So anyways, back to business… When we arrived in Rheindahlen, we were given our accommodations for night; I of course had my own room. We ate dinner in the mess hall and had a quick meeting afterwards to discuss the itinerary for the following morning. We did a quick run through of the Blitz (for those of you who don’t know, we have to learn a lot of songs for Camp Adventure and Blitz is a series of songs that we choose to perform for the kids each morning to start off Camp). Anyways, we were to perform a Blitz in front of some of the important figures of the British military and youth workers on the base on Tuesday morning, so seeing as it was Monday evening we had to do a quick run through to make sure we still remembered the songs and what not. Then it was off to bed.

I slept soundly through the night, which was beneficial because I was able to adjust to the time difference rather quickly (by the way it’s 9 hours ahead). So Tuesday felt just like any other day, except for the fact that I had to wake up at 7:30am for breakfast. After breakfast we went over to Rheindahlen Youth Centre and did our little presentation and orientation until lunch. After lunch, all the staff packed their stuff back up and departed for their respective Garrisons in different areas of Germany, except the staff that were staying at Rheindahlen. We of course had the longest drive to Hohne Garrison (about 4 hours), which is the base I am stationed on this summer. There are 5 other Garrison locations contracted with Camp Adventure: Rheindahlen, Güterslow, Münster, Paderborn, and Garrison Travel Camp. Each location has about 5- 6 Camp A staff.

We traveled by mini-bus to Hohne Garrison which is 3 km from Bergen, Germany in the state of Lower Saxony. It is in North Central Germany about 2 – 2 ½ hours West of Berlin. When we arrived in Hohne, we met our Point of Contact on the base and she gave us our accommodations, which are very nice and spacious; however we are unable to access the internet from our Barracks. That is really the only downside to what has been a tremendous time thus far in Germany! We should be able to get access via the internet café on base, but access may be limited because it is not open 24 hours. Most of my internet time will most likely be on my weekend trips to different cities. Our first weekend the 23^rd- 25^th of July, we are restricted to day trips only, so we plan to visit the town Bergen, the Bergen Belsen concentration camp just 5 km away, the city of Celle and possibly Hannover or Hamburg.

For those of you that are reading this and want to hear from me via facebook or by phone/skype, because of the time difference the only times that I could reach you would either be in the early morning my time which would be around 10 or 11 pm in the US or evening/night my time which would be midday 10-2:30pm in the US. Place comments; ask questions if you’d like; but keep in mind, due to my lack of regular internet access, my answers to your questions may not be as swift as normal. If you would like to set up a skype session (Mom, Corrie, Brent, Dad… etc.) the best times would probably be on the weekend at the above mentioned times. Hope you all enjoy my blog for the rest of the summer, I’ll try and keep them shorter in the future.

Auf Wiedersehen!

I'm working on getting pictures up!