CJ in the house

A hearty "HOWDY" to y'all out there!

Hi, this is CJ from AIB Düsseldorf. This is my first time ever on a blog, so y'all have to work up some patience for me here. I hope you don't mind me using your Texan vernacular. I've actually been around that for an entire year of my life!
As a start I thought I'd give you just a little bit of background information on myself: After finishing my German "Abitur" (qualifying us for university after 13 years of regular schooling), I've decided to go *really* far away so I could *really* improve my English. That idea had me end up in Coppell, Texas, a growing suburb of Dallas near Dallas Int. Airport where I lived with a family as their "Au Pair" and watched over their first child who was only a tiny little infant when I first got there. My host Dad and Mom had both just graduated with an MBA from UT, so I better stop telling you any more about them... (They are wonderful people, no matter what, and influenced the further course of my life.) So I ended up studying American History and Political Science with a European comparative aspect afterwards in a small, specialized program at Bonn University.
AIB, meaning something like "Academy for International Education" only in German, has its headquarter office in Bonn, so that's how I've first made contact to my current employer. After holding a small student worker position there for a while, I was offered the opportunity to change to AIB's new Düsseldorf branch and work more hours after finishing my Master's degree in what is called "Regional Sciences North America" at Bonn University.
So that's where I am right now, and I do like it a whole lot! As you will see in the near future, we're only a small team here in Düsseldorf but nevertheless put a lot of effort into our work. My boss is Willem Spanninga, a big and usually quiet guy and a very, very nice person who is originally from the Netherlands. Then we also have a few more student workers you will also meet this summer. What we all have in common, I think, is that we like the fact that you have this wish to come over here and see places you've never been to. We'd like to make this a pleasant experience for you, even though some degree of cultural shock should be considered within the normal range of reactions. So don't worry if you feel a little bit displaced upon your arrival. That feeling will pass away quickly. At least you'll have some buddies you can talk to in your own language; I wasn't awarded such a luxury in Texas. I went back during my graduate studies to go to school in Saint Louis for a year. I never really picked Dallas or Saint Louis but ended up feeling very much at home in both these cities. Hopefully you'll be able to say the same about Düsseldorf, even if your stay will be terribly short!
I don't have the slightest clue as to how this whole blog will continue from here. I guess we'll all just check in every once in a while and see what's going on? Maybe I'll post some pictures if I can find some adequate ones :-) I am very picture-shy, and we don't want to scare you away, right? I also can't make any promises as to how regularly I will be able to check in here and answer some of your questions. Jeremy should be a good first source if you have a lot of things to ask. He knows Germany very well and his German is getting better and better! (He knows so much more about German cantorial singing than all of us at AIB combined!)
As a next step for the program preparations, I am awaiting the arrival of your housing forms. Let me just stress again that a simple, one page letter to your potential host family helps us a lot for matchmaking. The more we know about your personality, likes and dislikes, the better chances we have of finding the right host family for you.
With the ongoing semester it will probably be a while before y'all start thinking more about this trip. The best of luck to you for all those finals yet to come, best wishes and "Auf Wiedersehen in Düsseldorf",

CJ