Pre-departure Blog

I am finding it difficult to come to terms with the fact that I begin my journey to Germany in less than two days. I feel like time has passed ten times faster then it should ever since Thanksgiving break. Then I came home from finals to a house packed with my family from Pennsylvania and Michigan that left little room or time to begin thinking about my trip. And since they all left yesterday afternoon I've spent all of my time last minute Christmas shopping and finishing the German history book.

Last summer was my first trip outside of North America. My family of 6 spent two and a half weeks driving around Italy, Switzerland and Austria in a car made for 5. The largest shock for me was the size of everything. The cars were smaller, beds were smaller, restaurants were smaller and the roads were narrower (we took out a wheel on our first rental car that seated 8 on a curb on our way to the Amalfi Coast in Italy trying to avoid a car traveling in the different direction.) The second largest shock was the lack of peanut butter. I think I missed it more than anything else in America (I'm going to pack some peanut butter crackers this time). I feel like I am more prepared for the culture differences this time now that I have a little more of an idea of what to expect.

One of the things I enjoyed most about last trip was seeing the Roman architecture in Italy and the paintings in Florence that I've learned about in school since I was probably 8. For me, it was amazing to stand inside the Colosseum that looked just like the millions of pictures I've seen. It really brought to life all the history I've learned. I look forward to similar expereinces like that in Germany. Im glad that we've had lectures over Germany culture and read the book on Germany history before we leave. I know that I will appreciate the experince more now that I have a little more background knowledge.

I am very excited about all of the hospital and medical school visits we have planned. I get really excited every time I go in a hospital. Even the time I had to get stitches as a kid I wanted to see everything that was going on. Im excited now just thinking about the experiences I'll have this trip. I was just looking at the website for the training center for doctors. I couldn't read anything about it, but the pictures across the top looked neat.

That leads me into my biggest concern about this trip; I can't speak German. Italian was somewhat similar to Spanish so I was surprised that I could pick up what signs were communicating, but when we were in Switzerland and Austria I didn't know what was happening. I've looked up some phrase, but I'm not confident enough to try to pronounce them. I'm hoping that I'm able to pick up phrases once I have the chance to listen to the language some.

The more time I spend writing this blog, the more excited I am to leave.

See you soon, Germany!