Across the Border and Back

For my first three weeks here I am living with a wonderful host family in the German state of Schleswig-Holstein.  I am living with a host father, a host mother, two host sisters and a cute golden retriever named Lotta.  The city I am living in, Flensburg, is the northernmost town in Germany.  I am so glad to be in this beautiful harbor town less than a thirty-minute drive from Denmark.  The first weekend I was here my host family took me to across the border to Sondeborg, Denmark which was so cool!  I can officially check Denmark off my list of countries to visit.  We went to Annie's Kiosk, which is a small yellow shack known for its Danish hot dogs.  I had one with mustard and pickles, and I've noticed that for some reason the mustard here is generally much better than in America!  I'm not quite sure what it is about it.  One of the nice things about Flensburg is all of the water that surrounds it.  The harbor downtown is full of boats and my host family and I have enjoyed spending time there.  We've also gone to the town of Glücksburg a couple of times as well.  Last weekend there was a cool trade fair called "LebensArt" followed by the annual concert by a German band covering Simon and Garfunkel.

The Flensburg harbor

I'm having a great time here in Flensburg with my host family and my German is slowly but surely improving.  I'm feeling comfortable with my routine here.  During the week I go to my orientation and language course from 8:00 a.m. until 3:30 p.m.  I feel like I am learning a lot thanks to all of the activities and the worksheets upon worksheets.  One of the cool things about the northern part of Germany is a sweet word moin.  When I first heard this word I thought it was just Morgen said really, really fast.  It basically just means hello and I'm sure I have been saying it way too much.  Moin moin!

The cute little shack with delicious Danish hot dogs

Hallo Deutschland!

It's hard for me to even believe that I am here in Germany now!  Since the time that I started filling out the Congress-Bundestag application in the winter, leaving my home in the United States for a year to live abroad seemed like such an abstract concept.  It was just something I thought I would do in the future, and as a teenager, or at any age, really, the future is a difficult thing to grasp.  When I found out that I had received the Congress-Bundestag scholarship to go to Germany I was thrilled because since I had heard about the idea of doing a foreign exchange as a gap year I was sure that it would be a good experience for me.  Especially being a year younger than most of my classmates, I thought it would be a fantastic way to mature for a year before going to college.

One of the things I have noticed while explaining my plan for this year to people, especially people who are unfamiliar with gap years, is that they think of it as a "year off."  I'm sure this is not meant to be offensive, but for me, it makes me think of going on vacation for a year.  Yes, I am delaying my normal schooling in the United States by one year, but I did not come to Germany just to hang out.  I am just starting my year here, but in my mind I think that it will be one of the most challenging things that I will ever do.  Coming to a new country by myself and functioning at school all in German are just two of the many things that are scary about this year for me.  Nevertheless, I am so happy to have the support of so many people this year!  It is nice to know that the college I will be going to, Amherst College, believes in this program and thinks that it will help me do better when I get there.  It has also been encouraging to hear all of the nice stories from others who have also done foreign exchanges.  I know it will be hard but I think it will all be worth it.  Maybe by the end of the year I will even be able to express my feelings all in German too!  Vielleicht