My First Blog Post!

            Hello! If you are here visiting my blog, you probably already know the drill- I will be living in Ramstein, Germany for 10 weeks while working with the program Camp Adventure. Camp Adventure takes place all over the United States at college campuses such as Iowa State University, California State University-Chico, Florida A & M University, University of Iowa, University of Northern Iowa, University of Oregon, University of San Diego, University of Toledo, and Washington State University.

The idea behind the program is that college students (like me!) can travel the world while helping out children. We get placed on a military base and work with the children of military families. This summer I will be working on Vogelweh (an army base) in the Child Development Center (a.k.a. CDC) with children that are infants through two years old. I’ve never worked with this age group before, so it should be fun!

Hailey, Amy and I in our super cool camp uniforms!

            The trip here was relatively easy- a 3 1/2 hour plane ride to Iceland, then a 2 1/2 hour ride to Frankfurt, Germany. I got through the airport easily by following a retirement group that was going to tour Austria, Germany and Switzerland. Once I got through security, I ran into BJ! It was nice seeing once last familiar face before I left! Then, once I got to my gate I ran into two other counselors that were traveling to Frankfurt with me! It was nice to meet some counselors right away and I was glad I didn’t have to travel by myself!

Once on the plane, I sat next to a girl who was studying abroad from Norway. She had been in Minnesota for high school for 10 months and she cried practically the entire time because she didn’t want to leave her new friends. I wonder if that will be me by the end of the summer?!

The ride went quickly because of the free movies and extra leg room (I sat next to the door so I had an empty area to stretch out my legs). Once we got to Iceland we had just enough time to get to our next gate and board our plane. We got to board the plane “celebrity style” where you walk up the stairs on the side of the plane. It was cool to say I’ve been out in the Iceland sleet! Once on the plane we realized we were supposed to be in “Economy Comfort” a.k.a. Business Class. The staff was nice enough to switch us around and it made all the difference! We had extra wide seats, complimentary food/coffee, and hot towels. Talk about riding in style! We’re going to make sure we get the same treatment on the way home!

Once at the Frankfurt airport, we found our luggage (luckily all of our luggage made it safe!) and then met Kasee Fuller, our program director. She was nice enough to meet us and make sure we knew our way around the airport. We had to sit around in the Frankfurt airport and wait for a couple of hours for another group of counselors to get there. Unfortunately they never showed up (their plane was delayed and they missed their connection), so we sat at the airport for nothing!

After a very LONG travel experience, we finally got to our apartment. As I mentioned earlier, we will be living on Ramstein Air Force Base, which is the headquarters for all of the Air Force in Europe. Because of this, it is the second largest population of Americans besides the states, pretty cool!  Our apartment complex consists of all 28 counselors for the 3 sites around here: Ramstein, Vogelweh and Kapaun. In our individual apartment there are 8 girls sharing 4 bedrooms (2 in each bedroom) a kitchen, a living room, 2 bathrooms, and a washer/dryer. It sure is different from living with 60 other girls in the sorority! In my bedroom I will be living with another girl from Iowa State who is also in Elementary Education. Our other roommates are from UNI, University of California and University of Toledo. They are all very nice and normal, so it should be a fun summer!

Our bedroom at the apartment!

Ok, that’s enough blabbing for now! Lots more later including travel updates and camp stories!