Note: although I’m posting this on January 12th, this was written on January 10th, the day of my flight. I think in my tiredness and rush to prepare, I typed this up on a note in my phone and then promptly forgot to post it. Whoops. It’s also pretty long.
When I was initially planning how to write this post, I had thought out a general flow for how I wanted to write my thoughts. How I would start, how to link one idea to the other. Now it’s 4 AM the night before my flight (technically the day of but shhh), I haven’t slept much in the last 48 hours, and I only just realized, after hours of searching, that my phone charger somehow found its way into my toiletries bag. So, if my writing seems unorganized and tangential, it’s because I currently am. And also because I generally am, to a lesser extent. I’ll try my best to minimize that.
With that in mind, let’s start with why I chose to come to Germany in the first place. Ever since high school, I’ve wanted to study abroad. I’ve had family members tell me about their experiences in traveling abroad. I have talked to elder siblings of friends talk about how their perspective changed when they were immersed in unfamiliar cultures. Now, I have traveled with family out of the country a number of times but I’ve never: A) been to Europe (except for layovers), B) been out of the country without my parents, or C) been in a different country long enough to feel like their culture has had a lasting impact on who I am. So, for all of those reasons, I decided I wanted to study abroad. When I was looking through the various options, I saw some in countries I’d visited before (Singapore, India, etc) but the Germany Bio sciences program stuck out to me the most because I would be able to visit all around the region, I would have the opportunity to work with my fellow students with a company and give a presentation regarding our work over the semester, and because it had been recommended to me by multiple juniors and seniors who had previously studied through this program and immensely enjoyed it. And also I can legally drink alcohol but that’s not important or specific to Germany.
I’m not personally anxious about living in Germany. The only part that I feel some concern for is the idea that I might forget something important in my current packing frenzy. Don’t leave your packing until the night before. Bad move. My parents, however, are a tad bit more anxious. I’ve never gone to another country without one of them, let alone another continent that neither of them have been to. However, they both understand how great an opportunity this program is for me and are happy to see how excited I’ve been, which has helped.
Ok so, now the future. My expectations for the program. This is getting to be pretty long so I’ll keep this one hopefully briefer. In terms of personal expectations, I hope to learn the language and culture of Germany and pick up bits from other locations around it. I hope that I can become more aware of perspectives outside of the ones I’ve grown up around. Both in terms of general life perspectives and on how people tend to view America from outside. In terms of academics, I am excited to see what kind of project we will be working on with Enmodes. Also, I have heard very good things about how the reduced class size helps in learning material, so I feel that will help plenty. I don’t want to say something I regret but I’m not too worried on the academic front. The smaller classes and tutors will help in minimizing confusion from classes, maximizing the time that I can spend improving personally. I think. I don’t know what’s going to happen. All I know right now is that I need to find and pack my outlet adapters.
