Sorry about not updating in a while, I started a Sprachkurs and so I have basically no free time Monday-Friday. I’m writing this in the 30 minutes I have between school and Institute (a church group I go to in Germany) so it might be a little hurried and I don’t even want to think about the grammar mistakes, please just bear with me. I wanted to write a post ever since our Mid-year Seminar in Bonn, and was reminded of the fact on Tuesday when I saw an email from Julia.
So first of all, Mid-year was awesome! I was able to see all my friends from Language Camp, and catch up a little with everyone. The one thing I found the most comforting was that almost everyone had very similar problems, and it’s so true that when you read people’s blog posts, FB posts, tweets or Instagram pics that you assume everything is going well for them, but those posts and tweets really just reflect a small part of their actual lives. I realized that I wasn’t alone and I had all these people to talk to about my problems, who would definitely be on my side and give me comfort and advice. I was also able to see Bonn!!! I had Sushi (I know it’s not German, I was just craving some good Asian food)! And visited an English shop (it had Hershey’s and Reece’s and Poptarts, prob the most awesome store I’ve gone to in Germany). Saying goodbye was hard, but for me it was easier because I now know what to expect when I leave and I know I have an awesome host family waiting for me in Mannheim :)
Now on to the email we all got from Julia, there were several important things that she mentioned. First of all, Congratulations to everyone that made Semifinalist!! It’s a huge achievement and you’re now one step closer to your goal of studying abroad in Germany! The second thing was that it reminded all of us about how Congress cut the CBYX budget by half and if not for the German Bundestag’s generous donation of 2 million dollars, the CBYX program would not be able to run on full capacity for 2015-2016. The CBYX program has really helped me gained an understanding of who I am and who I want to become. It gave me opportunities for self-improvement and I can say that I’m one step closer to becoming a global citizen. I am very grateful for the opportunities that the CBYX program had and will give me as I continue my journey in Germany. So I would like to take this opportunity to ask all of you that might read this to go to http://savecbyx.org/ to sign the petition to restore Congress funding to $4 million.
Lastly, we were asked by Julia to send her a few sentences about what we would have found helpful to know before heading to Bad Laasphe and I would like to take this time to write a couple of things I would have found helpful to know before I left. The thing I would have wanted to know, and that might have saved me some trouble with my last host family, was how real the interview questions actually were. I mean I took the time to think and formulate a response during the interview, but I didn’t really take the time to think about them more and now I wished I had done so. So semifinalists, pay attention to the interview questions, because they are relevant and you’d wish you had a great answer when that particular problem arises. I also would like to have known that doing an exchange is actually very difficult at times. I think that I had this perfect image in my head of how my exchange year would turn out, and my time here so far had not only not fulfil that image, but it has also shown me how idealistic and naïve I was at the beginning of my exchange. I remember alumni telling us at the interview and at the departure seminar that some days were so hard for them that they didn’t even want to get out of bed, but they always end with how it was the best year of their life. So I think I sort of I my head just cancelled out the challenges they mentioned, because if the year really was so great, then how bad could the “bad” be? Now that I’m experiencing the exchange, I can say that the bad could be just as awful as the good was awesome. But no worries, it’ll still be the best year of your life. I just wished I’d even the smallest idea of how hard this year would actually be, but also how rewarding it has been.
Congratulations again Semifinalist! And I wish you the best luck with the interview, if you have any questions you can comment below or email me.
p.s. I won't be updating for a while (again) because I'm not really satisfied with my German progress, even with the Sprachkurs, so I'm trying to just use German for the next couple of weeks and see how that goes.
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