Arnold in the Castle - First impressions

Hello, my name is Arnold Guzman, I'm from Cartago, Costa Rica, I'm 24 years old and this is my first blog about my life in Germany.

I arrived in Germany on July 26, 2021 and at my place of work on August 9, 2021. It is a Christian camp in Northern Germany in a town called Ascheberg.

For my first week in Germany there is not much to tell since I spent it in quarantine in a WG in Berlin and the second week we went to a seminar of Visioneers where we talked about several interesting topics. We had a good time, we had the opportunity to practice our German and to help with Spanish to the Germans going to Costa Rica and we ate a lot of bread. The following week I had a long trip to the north of Germany ahead of me and I was lucky to have Andres with me since he had more knowledge about how the trains and buses work.

The way from Berlin was long but with great views that I could see when I wasn't sleeping haha. When we arrived at the last stop we were picked up by the whole castle team, we greeted each other, introduced ourselves and went straight for the welcome dinner. The place is amazing, surrounded by nature, with a lake in front and many tuani people. The first few days were good since I had someone to speak Spanish with from time to time and obviously to help me translate everything they told me. But this was not going to last forever and this is where the real adventure begins - since Andres is leaving and he was the only person I could speak Spanish with in person.

The day comes when Andres has to leave and there is no choice but to learn and talk or die trying haha. This fills me with anxiety but at the same time with the desire to be able to talk about my life in Costa Rica, exchange ideas and tell jokes. Even today I still don't understand most of the things they tell me, but day by day I understand a little more and they take the time to try to make things clear to me. I have been living here for a week and I have already lived several adventures with the work team like going out for a canoe ride, sharing a few games of table soccer with the group that was here and getting important papers like insurance and bank account (yes, these procedures are an adventure in Germany). They made me feel like family and although I can't understand much, that's no reason why we can't have a good time!

It's just the beginning, I will have good days and bad days but that's life and we have to do our best to achieve our goals.