Far from home

How it starts and ends is an example of the experience itself

Germany Reflection Paper

From the moment I met my exchange partner, Denise, my life was changed. Coming from a small town in the Midwest, meeting different diversities wasn’t normal. Though I traveled the United States on my own meeting someone directly from a different country was new. However new, we connected right away. Communication was slow at first, her English wasn’t very strong, and I knew absolutely no German. Through hilarious amounts of google searches, pantomiming, and collaborating, we figured out how much we really have in common. As we all shared stories about how we grew up, concerts we went to or just our daily lives, our group became inseparable. When the German students first arrived, all they wanted to do was go to haunted houses. Luckily Fright Fest was going on at the time, rollercoasters and creepy people jumping out at you, the perfect combination. It had never occurred to the American students that Halloween wasn’t as big to the rest of the world. I wish I could have spent more time with them. Though my work and school schedule got in the way for a few of the group outings, I used every second I could to show the German students what our lives were really like. We took them pumpkin picking, which of course included a hay ride, farm petting zoo, caramel apples, and apple cider. Denise loved holding the ducklings, and Marcel enjoyed getting pictures with all the animals. As we learned from our experience at Fright Fest, our exchange partners enjoyed Halloween. Once we got back from the farm we carved their first jack-o-lanterns with them. One of the group activities I was able to attend was the public safety facility. It was incredible to see all the training that is available, and the German students seemed to enjoy being able to be interactive. The simulation gun range was a lot of fun, and I was able to engrave the casings for Denise to bring back with her. Unlike most Wisconsinites the German students had never shot a gun not even just the simulation guns we used at the school. Both sides of the exchange got to experience things they never thought they would. Through all of these events something happen that I don’t think any of us really realized. At some point this stopped being a school program for us and became real life. The Barnes that we made are stronger than most of them that we had here at home. So as our time grew short we started to dread the end more. When the day finally came that the German students had to leave I don’t think there was a single dry eye. By that point it stop being what they were learning about our culture and more so about what we learned about each other and more so ourselves. The instructors told us the time would fly and in six months we would be able to see them again, but for some of us that seemed like an eternity. For my self work and school consumed my life completely destroying any relationship that I had. When the German students came we didn’t just meet new people we made new best friends he would’ve made a huge impact on our life even in the small amount of time that we had known them. The six months in between our two trips change my life even more. By the time I was packing up to leave for Germany I knew that when I came home my life would never be the same and I was truly saying goodbye. Once I got over that fear and anxiety of what I was leaving behind I couldn’t wait to see my friends that much more. I had never been outside the United States before this point and I had no idea what to expect. When I stepped off the train and my friends ran across the train station and wrap me in a hug was the first time that I had finally felt home since they left. Once I was with my German family again it was like we never skipped a beat. And while we were in Germany it’s like time stood still even though it felt like it flew by. During my stay in Germany I learned many things intellectually and emotionally. We toured beautiful castles that we would never see in the United States culture and history that doesn’t exist in our young nation. At one point during the trip we were walking through Düsseldorf and I told them that it was like walking through a fairytale. The buildings look as though they were pulled straight from the books my parents used to read me as a child. We went to museums filled with artifacts from the crusades and other things that we had only seen in books or online. During the shock and amazement of seeing all of this new culture, our German students decided to take us to the movie park. Which the American students thought was they were taking us to an outdoor movie. “The Movie Park”,however, is actually an amusement park loosely based around the United States. As you walk through there was someone taking your photo as a 1920s character, and there was also an entire section of the park that was based on the wild west. At this point it had never occurred to me that other places didn’t have the wild west. As someone who sees him selves as very open minded felt like a complete fool at this point. When it came to in classroom presentations, the Germans had a lot of questions including political and schooling. Not a single one of them could fathom the amount of debt that each of us was in. Though we aren’t that different as people, how we had to approach our futures was quite different. It wasn’t that surprising but when the Germans would ask how we liked Germany our most common response was “We love it and we want to stay.” Especially during this time in the United States it was more shocking to us at how welcoming the Germans were when we said that. The longer I stayed the more I fell in love with it. As a member of the LGBTQ, I can say without a doubt that I got if you were odd looks and almost no mistakes about my gender. I was never afraid while I was there, even when we were in our small group. Even though our days were filled with activities we found time at night to see how our friends truly lived. We met their families and home cooked meals, night staying up too late at festivals or just laying under the stars. This exchange brought me many things, such as education and experience, but most of all it brought me peace. I came from a pretty poor family, and went back to school because I was still poor. This program gave me a chance to meet some of the best people I will ever know in my life and to find a home in one of the darkest parts of that life. Those are the moments I wish I could share in this paper, but you can’t share a feeling like that, it has to be lived. Honestly the only thing I would change about this trip, I wish it had been longer.