How unprepared can you be but still be considered prepared?

I have about 5 days until I board a plane, fly to another country, and live there for four months. I don't speak the language. Nor do I know the history, the culture and customs, the politics, the geography, etc. That list could go on and make up this whole blog about how much I don't know about Germany. So, in order to prepare for this monumental trip, I have reduced my unpreparedness to a short list. On the list are things like, "pack", "print documents on emails", and "copy passport". There's about 15 things that I determined that once I'm done with all of them I will be "prepared" to fly to Germany. This list might make me physically prepared and able to travel to and survive in Germany, but the list does not mentally or emotionally help me. I don't think living in Germany will feel like reality until I arrive at the home of my host family, set my bags down, and fall asleep. I'm curious to see what emotion I feel in that moment. Maybe I'll be excited that I made it and ready to embark on my Hero's Journey. Maybe I'll be sad that I left my friends and family for months. Maybe I'll be nervous and waiting for the events of the next day and to see how I settle into living in Bonn. I'll just wait and see.

I am supposed to answer a set of questions in this entry. The first one is why did I decide to embark on the Hero's Journey? The simple answer would be to say that I saw the flier, logically looked into the coursework and saw it aligned with the classes I need, and realized studying abroad was a real opportunity for me. I had never considered that a realistic prospect for my undergraduate career. I decided to participate in the program as a way to expand my knowledge of the world experience ideas and customs that I do not currently know about. I want to become more comfortable with living outside my comfort zone and I believe it will be a valuable experience for my personal, academic and career pathways. Also, one of my goals in life is to visit all the locations that my dad grew up; he received his PhD from the University of Aachen and I want to visit there to see where he had his experiences.

The next question I am supposed to answer is concerning my expectations. I honestly have no idea what to expect. I have been abroad so I have a basic understanding of being in another country, but I have travelled outside the US without my parents and family or stayed for this amount of time previously. I expect to be uncomfortable and work hard in my classes. I expect to be lost and confused for a small amount of time but I expect to grow into a person who can handle uncertainty better. I expect to gain friends through the students in the program, my instructors, and my host family members. I expect to gain another home in a country I can't even imagine currently. Also, I expect to be freezing cold for a little while when the weather is grey and dark.

I am anxious that the darker colder weather and the uncertainty and newness will stress me out and impact my emotions while I am abroad so I am going to make an active effort to spend time each day talking to my friends from home, even if its just one text and doing simple activities that I enjoy. I want to make sure that I know my emotional self so I can remain happy and enjoying the trip. Also, I hope to do well in classes and will reserve energy for this purpose. However, I tend to focus too much on perfection in my schoolwork and I hope to learn how to balance my effort and time in order to learn more about the country and explore and have new experiences while abroad in addition to pursuing school. If this means that some of my assignments are not the most perfect they could be, that is fine by me. One concrete goal is to get to know Bonn and the students in the program well within the first week or two and form more solid short term goals for the trip. These will drive me towards success while I am there. I'll post the goals on these blog posts and keep everyone updated.