Prospective Post..Hallo Deutschland!

Now that I am in the airport, soon to be boarding my international flight later today, I've started this blog. I feel as though I've avoided writing this as to not make it real; flipping between just wanting the day to be here and wanting it to come later when I'm "ready". I have felt so many emotions today but if I had to categorize: anxiety, excitement, and sorrow. For a while now I've been nervous to leave the country for that long, I am quite the homebody and love to visit my hometown. Anxious that I'll forget something, packing wise but also forget to do something before I leave. At the same time, I've had a smile on my face all day because I am so excited to go on this journey, to immerse myself in another culture, to see and experience new things, and to prove to myself that I can do it. But as I said goodbye to my parents, I couldn't help but cry. I won't be seeing them or my two cats for months. As I write this I am finding their hairs all over my laptop and am expecting to find a few random hairs throughout the semester. Despite this wave of emotions, I cannot help but look forward to Germany. Everything about this trip I am looking forward to. Meeting my host family, going on weekend trips, making lifelong friends, learning SO much, even the movies I get to watch on the plane! Learning German is a huge goal of mine, I took four years of it and have never really been confident in the language. I expect to gain confidence not only in German but also in most aspects of my life after this program. Now that the date is here and there's nothing left to do or change, I am steadily feeling more positive emotions. I've seen so many people I love over the past month and I cannot wait to tell them all about my experience. Being able to study something I love while proving to myself I can overcome whatever is thrown my way is something important to me. I have so many expectations for this trip but I am being lenient with them because I think the biggest thing I will learn is to be flexible. At the same time, the research and culture shock as well as homesick-ness concerns me. I have worked in a research lab but I am worried that this project will really be a challenge, its an exciting concern that is. After all I've been looking forward to this program since I heard about it Freshman year. I love Germany and the way the classes complete my major while allowing me to explore on my own were the reasons I chose this program. The History of Medicine class sold me on it too. I think it'll be my favorite class I take out of my entire degree plan. Just writing this post is making me overexcited so I am going to sign off here, see y'all in Germany! Auf Wiedersehen