There's no place like...?

In Latin class today, I got a text message from my mother saying that I had received a letter from Germany. Naturally, I sat in class calmly bolted for the door and called her straightaway.

We immediately hit a barrier: The letter was from the PAD, from Germany, and was therefore in...yep, German. And except for "Volkswagen" and "bitte", my mother doesn't speak a word of German. We managed to work out that I have been placed in the state of Thüringen, which is in central eastern Germany (Wikipedia article here); it's the bright yellow one right smack in the middle of the map I've conveniently provided. :). Thüringen is just north of Bavaria and just east of Hesse, which is great for me because that means I'll (hopefully) be a reasonable distance from Marburg and can visit friends there.

Of course, given the language barrier, I still don't know where in Thüringen I've been placed. My mother is mailing the documents to me today, which means I'll hopefully have them by tomorrow and will have a have a better idea of where I'm going to spend the next year of my life.

Although I still don't have a solid answer, it's most definitely within reach. The waiting was really starting to grate on me--knowing I was going somewhere but not where, depending on the processes of a bureaucracy (albeit a German bureaucracy) to dictate my future. What a relief it is to have a positive answer, no matter what it is.

More information is forthcoming. Now I've gone from waiting on the PAD to waiting on the USPS...

[UPDATE: I did receive the letter the next day, and found out that...well, I've been placed in Thüringen. The PAD has forwarded my information on to Thüringen, and they will contact me at some point in the future (June-ish) with more information. Sigh...]