The Ordinary World, Pre-Departure

At this point, we've talked about the Hero's Journey a few times. Up to now, the journey for myself has been fairly accurate, though drawn out. I first heard about the summer version of this study abroad program about two years ago. I was short a few pre-requisite classes and wasn't in a position financially that would have allowed me to participate, so I had to say no to the opportunity. That was really hard for me for a number of reasons. The biggest reason is that my dad is in the Army and I moved a lot when I was young and then every year after starting middle school. Any opportunity I had, I had to take the second it presented itself because I could practically guarantee that I wouldn't get another shot. I'm beyond grateful that that was not this case for this program. Another reason it was hard for me to miss out the first time around was that I have always wanted to go to Europe, specifically Spain and Portugal, where my mom's family is from. I know the program is in Germany, which is not quite the same, but it gets me close enough to have a real shot at visiting. Germany also has a rich culture and my dad's side has some ties to the country, so I'm not disappointed in any way when it comes to location.

My flight is in two days, two hours and 42 minutes- officially, anyway. I won't be surprised if we take off a bit later. I'm about to cross the threshold into a special and new world and I have mixed emotions about it. Of course, I am excited and (clearly) counting-down the minutes but I'm also a bit apprehensive about a potential repeat of past experiences. It's not my first time traveling abroad; I went to Australia on exchange when I was a freshman, so three years ago now, and I've been to Mexico on a family vacation. And, honestly, both trips left me with a sense of disappointment, though the experiences themselves were fun.

In Australia, I was pretty much on my own when it came to learning about the history of the country and the daily workings. I asked the people I was with but they were all my age so, even though they grew up in Australia, they weren't necessarily well-versed in the history of the nation, political details, etc. Although, everyone could tell me about how Prime Minister Harold Holt mysteriously disappeared while Australia was at war in Vietnam. (It was later- four decades later, to be precise- discovered that he accidentally drowned.) I was also on the campus of the Defence Force Academy, Australia's joint-service military college, because my exchange program was through the Corps of Cadets at A&M. Here, the rules are a bit different and the officer cadets get privileges in a system that is very different from the Corps. The most important one though, was that first-years (AKA freshmen) were only allowed off-campus on the weekends. So I didn't get to travel around a lot during the semester, with the exception being our two-week spring break.

I don't really consider my visit to Mexico a true cultural experience since my family was only there for a week. We went on a few tours of the area and learned a lot about the history of the place, but didn't have a lot of interaction with locals. I was very much a tourist.

For this semester abroad, I want and expect a totally different experience. I don't want to feel like a tourist, only touching on the surface of the history, culture, and people. I want to really experience everything that Germany has to offer- or as much as possible. I want to live with Germans, do what they do, learn what they know, and widen my view and perspective of the world. I want to leave Germany a changed person- a better person who is more aware of others and myself. And I know that this program will make that happen, as long as I let it.

But none of that can happen if I'm not ready to leave, so I guess that I should get back to packing. I actually finished packing yesterday but still feel like I have too much stuff want to rearrange a few things. Also, just in case you were wondering, yes, I was updating my countdown as I wrote. This post ended up being a lot longer than I planned.