I received an email from the Global Experiences office the other day wishing me luck and safe travels on my study abroad trip. When I got the email, I thought ‘Aw, that’s sweet, but I don’t leave for a while yet’, but then I checked my calendar and realized that I actually leave in a little under a month. This whole time it’s felt like a trip in such distant future, that I wasn’t aware of how soon it actually is. I’m still waiting on some final details of my stay – namely, my host family – but other than that, I have my flights booked, my course chosen, and everything is ready. I was just shocked when I realized how fast it’s coming up.

Now that I’ve realized this, I can start getting excited and looking forward to being back in my favorite country! There are so many things that I’m looking forward to (mostly food, to be honest). I can’t wait to get some Döner and Currywurst with a glass of Apfelschorle or Spezi to wash it down. I’m excited for the class I’ll be taking, as it is a language and culture course that focuses on the cultural and creative history of Berlin. I’m looking forward to (finally) finding out who my host family will be and being able to have that close connection with a family and hopefully learn more about Berlin through their experiences.

I’m also looking forward to potentially being able to see my friends who are currently living in Germany and the surrounding countries. I’m hoping to visit some of my sisters (through AFS) and some friends as well. I want to experience all I can in Berlin, but I also want to take advantage of my time in Europe and go to some of the places on my bucket list – Spain, Italy, and Turkey. It will be hard to pack all of that into my schedule, but I’ll do my best.

As I’m preparing to go to Berlin, I’m also thinking of the other experiences that I’m missing out on. I’ve always had bad FOMO. Because of when my trip was scheduled, I’m unable to work at Waldsee this coming summer, a place that has been my summer home for the past four years. While all my fellow Betreuers are doing Gesang and having Familie in the north woods of Minnesota, I’ll be working on schoolwork and exploring parts of Berlin I haven’t yet seen. I’m super excited to be going to Germany, don’t get me wrong, but I will dearly miss my friends and the experiences at Waldsee.

I know I said in my very first post that I was going to post once a week, but obviously that did not work out as I planned. Until I leave on July 11, I’ll post as much as I can, but no promises. I’m very forgetful and blogging has never been my strong suit. So please, bear with my infrequent posting and enjoy hearing about my experiences!