Sunday, July 06, 2008

Sprechen Sie Englisch?

No, not at all? Oh what a trip this is going to be…..
Well, I guess I should start at the beginning. Coming into the trip I had mixed emotions. I was sad I had to say goodbye to those I love, yet was excited to travel overseas for the first time and immerse myself in new culture. I strangely wasn’t too worried about the plane rides or being across the Atlantic from everything I know. I guess Dr. Wasser prepared us well for our trip. Once over here, I expected to live with a host family not unlike my own, English speaking, younger, and with a large backyard. I thought maybe a family I saw briefly between me coming in to the house and me going to sleep. However my expectations quickly changed. You see, I was at the AIB (the school) and my host family walked in, a daughter and her mom together. It took me a little while to realize the older lady knew no English, but if the younger one was there, she was our translator and every thing was okay. But then before dinner the daughter left leaving us till Monday with her parents who knew about as much English as Jon and I know German. Let’s just say dinner was interesting, not bad at all but interesting. So Jon and I spent our dinner flipping through pages of a translation book, trying to figure out what our host parents were saying and what to respond. Despite the language barrier, we worked through it and I feel we understood most of the conversation at dinner. After dinner we met up with a couple other guys on the trip and went to the “Old City” to do some late night sightseeing. On the way back, I realized that it had not yet hit me that I was in Germany, a long way from home and Texas A&M and here with no one except Jon that I really know. Anyways, Jon and I are going to definitely be completely exposed to German culture for the next 5 weeks and I have a feeling that once I wake up to reality I’m going to love every minute of it.
Till next time,
Jordan “Juice”

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