This past week has felt like an emotional roller-coaster as I've said goodbye to all the people who have made this year amazing. As I feel myself get misty eyed thinking about when I will see them again, I know that this may be the end of China, but this is the beginning of a new adventure.
I've always dreamed of going to Germany. I remember being a very young child walking along my house with my grandfather. I stopped and picked up a poppy flower, I told my grandfather that I thought poppies were the coolest flowers ever. My grandfather pointed across the street to a house on a large hill, and told me to look at it. He said that when he was in Germany (during WWII) it was full of rolling hills covered in poppy plants. That was when I first wanted to see Germany.
Fast forward eight-ish years.
It was the end of sixth grade and I had to chose what foreign language I would study. My choices were Spanish, French, and German, we were given a 5 page packet with the Spanish, French, and German translations for various English words and phrases. I was very disappointed that the school had decided to phase out Latin, I had always planned on taking Latin. I knew I didn't want to take Spanish because there was one first year Spanish teacher known for being notoriously mean. I thought about French but whenever I hear French it sounds like boomalajdalalamafouxpaxjammapelle, so French was out. As I looked through the packet at the German words and translations that I remembered that conversation with my Grandfather.
For the next five years I was immersed (as immersed as you can be in a small city in Ulster County NY) in German culture and the study of Germany. I began making lists of places I just had to see, by the time my German education was done the list covered just about every place in Germany.
Like many people college became a time to explore traveling I took numerous travel courses where we would study a country as a group and then travel there with a professor for a week. However being a double major with a minor I never found time to do a semester abroad and unfortunately my college never offered a travel course to Germany. After graduating I figured that traveling to Germany would just have to be something I did later. It became part of a rough five year plan.
This changed in January when I found an opportunity to become a certified English as a Second Language teacher in Germany. I signed up as fast as I could. So as my time in China is coming to a close, I look forward to the future where I will accomplish my dream of getting to Germany!
Yet these happy thoughts only go so far, so I tried to fill these past days with friends, Chinese food, and reflection; and tried not to think about all the goodbyes. I think I'll have plenty of time for reflection during my 30ish hour journey back to my parents house.
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