Pre-departure

Hallo and wilkommen to my blog! This is the first of many posts documenting my life as I study abroad in Bonn, Germany for the next four and a half months. For those of you who don’t know me, my name is Masha and I am a Junior at Texas A&M, where I am studying Biomedical Sciences and Economics. 

When my advisor told me about the Biosciences Semester program a year ago, I was hooked. To this day, I love how it combines my passion for travel with my interest in medical devices, while also giving me the freedom and time to explore on my own. This program was designed for Biomedical Science and Engineering students to take classes abroad and collaborate with a German biotechnology company on a semester-long project. We will also be visiting historical and cultural sites in nearby cities like Vienna, Paris, Cologne, and Hanover. 

 Thanks to my parents, I have travelled quite a bit in my twenty years. I have adopted their fascination with other cultures and the way that people live around the world, but I have never done anything so far out of my comfort zone to pursue this curiosity for myself. I love the popular quote from Anthony Bourdain, “If you’re twenty-two, physically fit, hungry to learn and be better, I urge you to travel- as far and as widely as possible. Sleep on floors if you have to. Find out how other people live and eat and cook. Learn from them- wherever you go.” These words not only inspire me, but also capture the reason I desire to see the world. I don’t want to be a tourist; I want to be a traveler. I don’t see this as a semester-long vacation, I see it as an opportunity to live the life of a student in Germany. Living with a host family across the globe for four and a half months is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to experience food, language, customs, and tradition. I believe there is a limit to how much people can learn from textbooks and videos, at which point real-life experiences are essential to filling in the gaps. 

I’m still figuring out what kind of job I’d like to have after graduation, but I do like the idea of working in the medical device industry, either in the design and development of a devices, or somewhere within the realm of healthcare economics. I am excited to learn about the biotechnology industry by being a part of it, especially in in a country with such high standards for medical equipment. According to trade.gov, the market for German medical equipment is the third largest in the world and the largest in Europe, passing up other countries by far. In addition, the demand for wireless or wearable devices is continuing to grow in the competitive market. The opportunity to work with the TAMU Biomedical Engineering students to complete a project that is needed and can make a real difference is one of the biggest reasons I am looking forward to participating in this program, too. 

Besides the fact that I will be flying into Frankfurt at 8:50 tomorrow morning, taking a bus to Bonn, and then meeting my host family, I have absolutely no idea what to expect. I think the thing that scares me most is the reality that life will continue to go on without me back home. I don’t mean this in an ego-centric way, but I just mean that a lot can happen over the course of almost five months. This past semester, for example, I got to meet new people and continue to develop old friendships, I fell in love with a really awesome guy, and I worked on different studies in a preclinical research facility. Although I know this semester will fly by, I still don’t feel like I’m realizing how long I will actually be away. 

Overall, if there was one word to describe how I am feeling right now, it would be ready. I may not know the language, the cultural norms, or really anything else about what Germany has in store for me, but I still feel ready. I am so grateful for all the people who have helped and supported me in preparing for my travels. As I sit here in Atlanta at gate E30 before my plane boards (sorry for procrastinating Dr. Wasser), it still doesn’t feel real, but I am so excited to take on this adventure of a lifetime.