It's been two months since I've been home from Germany and gotten back to my real life. A week after I arrived stateside, I had already returned to College Station, gotten a job, and attended the much anticipated baby shower of my very pregnant sister. Life has been good.... but different. I was no longer in the hustle-and-bustle of my German lifestyle. I no longer had 5 people eating around the kitchen table, was not near my host parents anymore, and did not have to prepare an hour in advance if I needed to go somewhere. I have very much enjoyed my time with my family, but everyday I miss my other family. My German family truly became apart of my everyday life and they truly became my FAMILY.
It's strange to think about celebrating the 4th of July and that not being a world-wide holiday, just like Karneval is not celebrated in the United States. It's strange to think that rooting for Germany in the world cup is essentially going against rooting for my own country. And it's strange to think that I have lived this entire life for several months and nobody other than my classmates knows the life I had in Bonn. My bus route, my walk to school, the shear amount of walking we did on a daily basis, the grey cobblestones that made me feel like I was walking in another time. It all almost seems like a dream. This trip has changed me in many ways. The experiences and my relationships has made me very happy, however coming off of the high of the excitement and the yearning to see my host family again has left me feeling like something is missing from my life. I've even started recycling my plastics..... because.... it's not that hard to do and because it reminds me of the look I'd see on my host-dad's face when I'd put the wrong thing in the wrong recycle bin. "Nooooooo" he'd say, and then look at me with a smile and correct my error.
I have enjoyed coming home to the Texas heat. Even with the air conditioner broken in my car seems alright because I can feel the much needed rays of sun and heat seeping into my skin. Although the whole trip does seem like a dream, much of it remains in my mind... I want to speak German to the spanish-speaking people at work because now I know more German than Spanish, and because that's the only foreign language I know! I quickly come to the realization that me speaking German to them is not doing anybody any favors. I have however learned to love the language and I plan on continuing my German education. I love listening to the song Edelweiss being played on the piano at the restaurant that I work at because it reminds me of my time in Salzburg. I love looking at the painting I bought in Paris hanging up in my home because it makes me think of the delicious Souffles I shared with my family. I love drinking coffee out of a cup I bought in Ireland because it makes me remember how I bought that cup while traveling through the Connemara region of Ireland. I have strategically placed many things that I bought on the trip just so that for a moment I can go back to the place I bought them and be there for just a moment.
I truly hope that I can go back to Germany and spend more time there, get to know the culture even more, and become fluent in their language. I want to see more of the regions of Germany that I missed, and eat the German food.... drink the German beer (naturally). But one thing is true is that this was a chance of a lifetime... and I wouldn't change one minute of it!!!
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