Off to Germany

I am excited to report that I am just about to leave my house to head to the airport.

It will be a long airplane ride, 8.5 hours until Copenhagen, where there is a two hour layover. Then off to Stuttgart for another two hours. It will be a very long night. We are leaving 10:05 pm today (Sunday the 15th) for the 8 hour plane ride, which would put us at 6:20 am. Then the 2.25 hour layover puts us at 8:45am (Illinois time). Then its another 1.35 hour trip to Stuttgart. Which in Illinois time would put us at 10:20 am (if my math is correct).

Not too bad right? Wrong. It may be 10:20 in Illinois. But in Germany May, 16th it will already be 5:20pm.
Germany is 7 hours ahead of Illinois. So looks like I will have time for dinner and then back to sleep!

We have been advised to drink ALOT of water on the plane ride. It is supposed to reduce jet lag. I have never been on a flight this long. Longest was... to Puerto Rico when I was very young. Or Seattle, Washington. Both very long rides!

I am excited, nervous, scared, and homesick already. I taught myself a little bit of German last night. Not much, but enough to help me around town if I get lost. German seems to be a ton easier to learn than Lithuanian, just because alot of the words are alike. (reading it is slightly easier than talking or listening, because when you hear or speak German the letters all sound different)

W's are V's.

Z's sound like TS.

V's are F's.

And when you add in vowels, everything gets jumbled up. Mutter had to recorrect me constantly for the first.. hour...

But I am getting the hang of it. I just don't get enough of the flemmy throat sound that Germans seem to have down easy.

I hope to learn alot these three weeks!

Ok well... Looks like I better double check everything before I leave! I really don't want to forget my passport!