Well, it's about that time!

Pre-departure

It's hard to believe that within the next 48 hours I will be on a plane to Germany. With just a few more things to take care of, I'm almost ready to go. I'm both very excited and slightly anxious. I really (really) hope that my luggage doesn't get lost because with my luck... Besides that, I feel like I will have a good flight to Germany. I have never really been outside of the United States before; therefore, traveling to Europe for the first time and by myself is worrisome. However, my eagerness to see the world and anticipation of the adventures ahead overcome such. 

I'm participating in this Biosciences program because of the many opportunities it offers for me to grow as a Biomedical Sciences student and as a person. I'm excited for my classes, learning outside of TAMU's campus, watching surgeries, and working on the project with the German biotechnology company. In addition, I'm eager to become more culturally aware and learn a third language. As the program includes trips in Germany and to Vienna and Paris, I'm ready for all of the beautiful sights. I hope to visit Berlin, Prague, and Italy as well (and anywhere else I can go)! 

Although they are excited for me to travel, I am sad to leave my family and friends. However, I must remember that this is only an "I'll see you later." 💜 

I cannot wait to land in Germany and meet those from AIB and my host family. Let the journey begin! :) ✌

Prospective Post

It’s January 9, 2019, a few days out from embarking on our Hero’s Journey. I’m sitting, looking out at a vast city, seeing all the twinkling lights from a bird's-eye view. I tend to do my most existential and introspective thinking when I’m sitting on a plane so decided it would be a great time to reflect on my goals and aspirations of the biosciences semester abroad.

Overall, I’m ecstatic. I’ve been looking forward to this trip for quite some time now. See, while I always hoped to study abroad, I never thought it to be possible. With the Biomedical Sciences coursework and my aspirations of medical school (and the random ‘essential’ extracurriculars that would be tough to complete abroad, i.e: volunteering, shadowing, research etc), it simply did not seem feasible. However thanks to Dr. Wasser’s email in the spring detailing the program, I realized I was wrong. I switched my schedule around a bit, started working more, spending less and voiala, here I am about to start this hero’s journey.

Going forward, I’m particularly excited to immerse in a different culture (German, in this case) to live out a phrase I admire by Ralph Waldo Emerson when he said “Every man I meet is superior to me in some way; and in that, I learn from him.” How I interpret this is that everyone and everything (including a culture, a language, a country, and a host family) has something to offer us and we can learn from them. The key, I believe, is to be open to this sort of learning. I’m also excited travel and learn with the other members of this program. My classmates and I are all in the same boat and that provides a unique opportunity to one-of-a-kind and genuine friendships.

 As for the academics, I am really looking forward to the Physiology course. Biomedical Anatomy was extremely interesting and the biochemistry courses we BIMS students take are awesome (particularly biochem II, the first one was “mehh”), and I think Physiology will be a sort of blend of the two; I’m excited to delve into the material.

            Lastly, I should consider any concerns for the next few months. I truly wish to learn the German language as much as possible during my time there. I am concerned that I won’t meet my goal. However, I will certainly try my best. I also hope to be a good guest in my home and don’t make the family feel weird with my presence. I am slightly concerned about my fitness while abroad. I really enjoy exercising and feel sluggish when I don’t. So, I hope to accommodate working out while in Bonn.

This plane is about to land and the passive-aggressive flight attendant is making her way forcing people to put away “large electronic devices” (because they’re obviously such a hazard to the pilot’s landing abilities). I guess if he doesn’t land correctly there’s the possibility that my laptop flies away and hits somebody. Then again, if he doesn’t land correctly we all have bigger concerns than an airborne 2.2 lb MacBook. So this is farewell for now.

TL;DR: Extremely excited about every aspect of the trip!!!!!!

Pre-departure Expectations

01/06/2019

               In one week, I am going to board a plane to Germany, and I will not return for four months. Four months of not seeing my home, my family, my friends, my pets, or anything that is familiar or a regular part of my life. I am a little nervous, to say the least. The prospect of being away for so long is finally becoming real, and as the emotions set in, it is a mixture of apprehension and excitement. While four months is a long time to be gone, the prospect of traveling to Europe and spending that much time exploring new places, meeting new people, and growing through these new experiences is exciting. I do not expect to return unchanged by this experience; in fact, I would be disappointed if I did. This is going to be such a radically different experience from anything I have done before, so I hope and expect it to be a period of great personal growth and discovery.

               With all of these unknowns, I must confess that I do not have many expectations beyond my belief that this experience will be a flood of new experiences and growth. I look forward to experiencing everything Germany has to offer as well as traveling to other European countries. Academically, I look forward to this semester’s classes as well as the research opportunity provided by Enmodes. Because my research experience is limited, and I am not one of the engineering students, I admit that I am nervous about my utility to the project; however, I am very excited about the opportunity and plan on being as involved in the project and design process as possible. This semester may be the lightest course load I have taken (twelve hours as opposed to sixteen), but I hope this gives me the opportunity to put more time and energy into each class individually as well as the many opportunities that come with the study abroad experience. I expect to learn as much, if not more, outside of the classroom as I do in it while abroad.

               As I prepare to leave, I have been reflecting on why I chose to participate in this program. To be entirely honest, it was a very impulsive decision to apply for the program, and once I was accepted, I quickly had to evaluate if this was something I wanted to do. Studying abroad in Germany, living in Europe for four months – the program sounds like one of my childhood dreams. But the reality of being gone for a whole semester made me stop and question it for just a moment. As I evaluated going versus staying, I realized that this may very well be the only opportunity I ever get to do something like this. After undergrad, I plan to attend medical school. After medical school, I will have a residency and then begin working. As I thought about it, I realized that I would probably never be able to do something like this once I left Texas A&M, and it was absolutely an opportunity that I wanted to experience during my life. I realized that anything I missed while gone would be here when I got back, but this experience would not still be waiting for me if I did not do it. And so, I decided to go to Germany, leave College Station and Texas behind for a semester, and experience everything this study abroad offered.

Yes, I am nervous about this. But I have no regrets, and I cannot wait to board that plane in seven days and begin this once in a lifetime opportunity.

Flightmares! (Pre-Departure)

To say that I am fully prepared for this trip would be an outright lie. In fact I have been having nightmares about this trip! All of which have involved me losing luggage, losing my ticket, and being late for departure. I have only been on a plane once before, and my family led me the whole way so it seemed easy. Now it doesn't seem so plain. I have been very anxious and stressed out about getting to Germany. Not even so much as being in Germany, just getting there. So I suppose we'll see how that works out. Beyond that I am actually incredibly excited for the things that I will be experiencing. I wish I could skip the plane ride all together, but alas I must endure the flight and all its troubles. I will undoubtedly face many obstacles along the way, but I just have to remember that it will all work out. So, we'll see how I fare along this immense journey!

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.

Pre Departure

Only a few days left until I get on the airplane and start my "Hero's journey". I still haven't pack anything yet, I keep procrastinating and spend most of my time with my phone. A part of me doesn't want to leave somehow. I don't know how I'm going to blend myself with the community since I'm kind of hard to open myself with people. My friends always told me that I'm so introvert, which concerned me about my skill in express myself in the culture that I do not know too well.
Of course, I will learn more when I get there like how I survive in a completely different world, how to organize my life without any help from my parents, etc. But the most important thing to me is how I can fix an introvert part of me, how I grow up and adapt to the world. At this point, I see that I'm not mature and smart enough to fully make a good decision and be responsible for all of my action. Thus, I hope through this aboard I will gain more experiment by falling and get up by myself.
I can't wait to see the other part of the world, but first I need to pack my stuff :)))
See you Germany in 6 more days!!!

A non-retrospective non-literary non-Germany final non-blog video post