 | | | | |
Driving to Sabina | | | | |
|
So there I was in Dayton, OH on the airport, together with a totally strange family. They seemed nice and did their best to leave a good impression. And that good impression only became better and better with the time I was with them. I knew that I would not stay with them for the entire year. They were only an arrival family where I would stay until YFU would find a family which would take me for the whole year. I couldn't stay with the Family Hubbart, because the High school in Sabina told YFU that they would take some Exchange Students. And they did take 2 but not from YFU. Now it happened that YFU placed students there, but they had no place to go to school because the school said they wouldn't take any more Exchange Students.
We took all my luggage and put it into the car. I said bye to the girl with which I flew from Cincinnati to Dayton. Leaving the airport they just told me about them self. Mark told me that he did not work as a priest anymore, but he worked part time at YFU now. And Melissa didn't work at all. They also told me about their two kids, Gavin and grace. Gavin was about one and a half years old then and Grace was only about 6 months old. I had some trouble understanding them. Sitting in the back of the car, which made l ots of driving noises, and with my still very bad English. One of the things I first didn't understand at all was the thing about the Pooh-Bear-Room. They told me I was going to sleep in the Pooh-Bear-Room. Now with my bad English I didn't under stand that at all. Until Melissa showed me her watch, it had a picture of Pooh the Bear in it and than I knew what they were talking about. I understood that Melissa was a big Pooh fan and that the whole room was decorated with things with Winnie Pooh on them. The room was originally Gavin's room but since he still slept with his parents in one bed I could use the room.
On our way we had to stop at a school in a near by town first where Mark had to take care of some business. On the way home we stopped at a restaurant with a buffet. I had seen buffets before but not in that kind of way. Another thing that was new for me at that point was all the ice in the drinks. If we have ice in a drink in germany we have about 2 to 4 cubes in it. They float on top and not as it was here that almost the entire glass was filled with ice. We talked about things like food while eating. My very bad English was a big handicap. For example could I not remember some words as "mushrooms". I tried to explain the word somehow, but didn't get a good explenation so we never knew what word I was talking about.
Walking outside from the cold building into the hot sun, out onto the burning parkinglot was like walking against a wall. And than into the car which was hot but got cold in only a few minutes all those extreme temperature changes made me feel slightly sick. My body wasn't used to such extremes. We don't often have airconditions in building is Germany since it doesn't get that hot. And if it does it just is hot every where. I guess we all just got used to it. Back in the car we drove to Sabina. When entering the town you see a little sign saying " Welcome to Sabina the Eden of Ohio ". It might not be an " Eden," but it sure is a nice town. It only has ca. 1000 citizens and sure not all the big things like Movie theater or public swimming pool. But it had some shops and the town has a nice size to live in I think. I doesn't has the rush of a big city and isn't as isolated as some smaller villages.
Once in Sabina we first went to their house where they showed me my room and the house. I brought all my things upstairs and unpacked a few things but not too much since I knew I would be leaving soon. While I unpacked Mark and Melissa went to get the kids. They both had staid with a good friend of the family while their parents had picked me up from the airport. When they got back after a few minutes Mark told me that he would have to go to Columbus to the YFU office to get a few things and he wanted to know is I would be interested in coming with him. Of course I said yes and we got back into the car and drove to Comlubus, the capital of Ohio. Sabina was right in the middle of the three big towns which are in the south west corner of Ohio. So we drove for about 45 minutes to every one of the big towns. In Comlumbus Mark drove through downtown and showed me some things he thought I might be interested in seeing. At the office he had to do a few things while I shortened my time with looking into the phone book. Caused by the time difference I felt tired very early and on our way back I had even more trouble talking. Again I was looking for easy words this time I had trouble with the word "wizzard" we talked about the Story "The Wizzard of Oz". This time we got the word my describtion of a male witch was crazy but helped. Back in Sabina I experienced the for the first time what a great cook Mark was. He made a delicious meal as he always does when he gets on the stove.
When I went to bed that night I had a very bad headache. It just was so hard to talk English and to listen to English all day long. The brain had to think all the time more than it normally does. By now my brain is thinking in English and has no problems with it any more. Back than the brain had to work as it normally only does when you concentrate very hard and that all day. But even with that headache I fell asleep veryfast and slept very nice and tight in the "Winnie the Pooh bed room".
So that was the second part of the story about my year. I will soon write a third part about me staying in Sabina and how I than came here to Fayetteville. But that much for now.
Back to story index
Back to exchange page
Back to homepage
Back to first Story