Auf wiedersehen!

I leave Konstanz, and Germany, very early tomorrow morning--I land in Newark around 1 pm Eastern. I've already had my first incident of reverse culture shock--telling people when I'm coming home in 12 hour time no longer looks correct to me after 4 months of European 24-hour time! But I'm sure once I get home I'll readjust to most things as quickly as I did coming home from Paris.

I've spent the last few weeks preparing for everything when I come home--my classes and teaching schedule, ordering textbooks, even arranging to audit an Intermediate German course--but I still don't feel quite ready to leave. Over the summer, and over the past month in particular, I've really fallen in love with Germany. I've spent almost four months working daily on learning the language, and it turns out I've completed about a year's worth of college curriculum--I'll be skipping the two beginner classes and going straight to auditing Intermediate German at Rutgers. I've done a lot of reading for what I hope will be productive and more directed future research projects (and I have 50 pages of single-spaced typed notes to show for it...). But I've also really gotten to experience Germany and German culture in such a unique way by being here.

I don't normally make spur of the moment decisions, so deciding to come here so spontaneously was really out of character. Spending the summer in a country I'd never been to, where I knew no one, and when I literally did not speak one word of the language--not normally a decision careful, plan-in-advance me would make. But I'm so glad that I decided to make the leap. It's been incredibly rewarding. I learned that I can really handle more uncertainty than I ever thought. I can handle spending some time alone, I can handle not speaking the language and trying to learn and asking for help. I've always wanted to learn a third language--I can't say I ever thought it would be German, though! Before I came here I knew virtually nothing about German culture, had never set foot in the country, etc. Now all I want to do is keep exploring! I love it here--it is an absolutely beautiful, culturally rich nation that I think everyone should visit :-)

I definitely had my homesick moments, and many, MANY moments where I got frustrated with my poor German language abilities--life here wasn't always traveling and fun and games. But four months is plenty of time to fall in love with Konstanz, with Germany, and with German. When I got here all I could do was ask "Sprechen Sie Englisch?" Everything was foreign and incomprehensible, even going to the grocery store. Now I'm almost done with my second Harry Potter book in German, I can run all sorts of errands with no problem, and even hold short conversations. Yes, speaking and understanding are still difficult for me, my reading is far better than either one, but I'm learning more every day. I'm so glad I got to live here, and I will miss a lot of things about Konstanz--as well as being a beautiful place to live, it is an amazing college town--I'm going to miss all these coffeeshops and cafes and bookstores when I go back to New Brunswick...

So at the risk of waxing too nostalgic, I want to say thank you to a few people who made my experience here better:

Erin--thank you for encouraging me to apply for the grant when I was hesitating. without you I would not be in Konstanz. I can't wait for office fun when I'm back home!!

Kelly--thank you so, so much for making sure I had friends when I got here. if you hadn't contacted Laura and Alessia, I would not have known anyone here and probably would have had no social life at all.

Thorin--thank you for our awesome coffee dates and for showing me how to get around town without bus or bike. and for giving me another reason to go visit Oregon! you are a fabulous friend and I am so, so glad I met you. meet me at Das Voglhaus?

Alex--thank you for helping me settle in when I arrived and teaching me some basic and all-important Deutsch! :-) it was so nice to know I had a sister in town.

Alessia--thank you for being there for me when I first got to Konstanz, inviting me to meet people, and for our amazing trip to Berlin! I'm so excited for you and Tobi to come to visit me in America hopefully sometime soon!

Tobi--thank you for being your wonderful, smiling self, and for giving me tools to help me learn German (like Lena, liebe meines lebens ;-) ), and for being part of the best intercultural and interlingual lunches ever! I can't wait for your visit!

Ulf--thank you for being an awesome tandem partner and a great friend :-) I had so much fun eating ice cream and exploring Konstanz with you and your encouragement helped a lot with my learning! I'm so excited to hear about your adventures in Canada.

and of course thank you to my wonderful family, friends, and boyfriend for being supportive, listening to my endless stories and frustrations, and for welcoming me home!! I'm excited to see you all very, very soon! It's been a fabulous summer and I am going to miss Konstanz and Germany and Europe like crazy (I already can't wait for the next time I get to be here) but I am really excited to be going home again. So auf wiedersehen, Deutschland--until next time.