Preparing to go back to my roots

     Well, yesterday was 11 months.  11 months, since I hugged my family goodbye and waved once more after I got through security.  11 months, during which I have met challenges, trials, and joys.  11 months, through which I have experienced many different situations.  11 months, after which I am a changed and different person, even though I am really still the same person.

     11 months.  That’s a fair amount of time!  During that time many things can change.  But just how much has changed?  I only see the changes on my side, and I don’t even notice the most of them because they seem normal to me.  YFU has a really good simile for this situation, in which all exchange students find themselves as they near the end of their year abroad.  It’s really easy to catch onto, too: imagine a river that divides two different lands (the Rio Grande, for example, or the St. Lawrence Seaway).  By doing an exchange year, it’s like you take a bridge and cross over to the other side.  On the other side, there is (of course) a different type of landscape; maybe there are deserts, mountains, plains, whatever.  Here’s the thing: there’s a thick fog over the river, so you can’t see over to the other side, and those who stayed behind can’t see over to your side.  During this year, they go through a new landscape, too.  At the end of the year you cross over another bridge and meet up with your friends and family again.  You both have changed through your experiences; you can try to tell each other about what the landscapes were like and about how you had to adapt to different things, but it’s never quite possible to figure out exactly what happened on the other side.

     When I think about going home, I’m really excited.  I can’t wait to see everyone and to tell about my year!  And of course, (typical American, everyone tells me) I can’t wait to get back in my car and cruise down King Road.  I’m sure there are quite a few differences to how I was when I left, but I’m not going to stress out about them.  Right now I try not to think about that—I don’t want to make myself really sad.  It’s going to be rough enough with good-byes and all; I don’t need the stress about what will happen when I get home, too.

     Anyways…. What I’ve been up to?  Well, I’ve been so busy; I hardly have any time to sit down and sort everything out again!  Nearly every weekend I’m somewhere else.  Last week I was in Berlin with YFU for a meeting with the German Bundestag and American Embassy.  This weekend I’m going to a youth camp with the youth group.  Next weekend (my last weekend) my host sister and I are going to visit cousins.  And the next weekend I’ll be back in Frankenmuth!!!  When I say it like that, it’s really hard to believe that I’m already at the end of the year.  In just a bit more than two weeks (16 days, actually), I’ll be able to sit in the lawn and chill, or to go play tennis, or to go running, or… whatever I want to do when I’m back home.

     The other day I weeded out the garden for a while.  You can’t believe how good that felt!  I was so happy to just dig in the dirt for a while.  I guess I always will be a farm girl; I’ve already started to dream about what I want my garden to look like when I have my own house.

     Right now I’m in school.  I’ve got an hour free while my class has French/Latin (I can’t speak either language, so…).  Today I’m going to get my report card (when everything goes well)!  Based on the comments I’ve gotten from my teachers, it should be pretty good.  For an exchange student, at least.  And I plan in that they grade me a whole lot easier than the other students.  Sometimes I think that’s pretty unfair… But then again, I’m kind of glad that I’ll be able to bring back a good Zeugnis (report card), just so that I can say I did well in a foreign school. 

    And I guess that there’s not really much else to say.  Well, of course, there’s about a million things to say.  But I can’t explain them in writing as well as when I’m talking.  And I partially don’t really want to try to explain them right now.  Besides, the bell’s about to ring.  Macht’s gut!