One month from now, I will be in Berlin. I might still be recovering from jet-lag, jumping six hours into the future. Very soon, I will be meeting my host family and asking if they have any spare bicycles for making my way around the extremely large city. One month from tomorrow will be my orientation around Humboldt. I hope this school will help me to become a better person, thinking outside the box and framing my life up to this point in a new perspective.
I have heard much talk about Berlin as a 'sexy, vibrant metropolis.' It is a new type of self-sufficiency that I am approaching, separated by an ocean from everyone I know personally. I will not be familiar with any of my fellow students to begin with. In other words, I will have to find my way through a forest where most everything seems foreign to me. There is one possible visit from a friend in late October, but that gives me some time to think about who I am, who I want to become. Personal time is an important part of this trip, aside from the hours I spend studying.
Right now, I am sitting at my dining room table, listening to jazz on npr, and sipping a hefeweizen. Basically, I am relishing my friday evening for all that it is worth.
I work in construction, and the 40+ hours per week demanded of me is not a terrific situation, but I have begun to count the days until the fall. My primary efforts at this point are to build up a sufficient bank account that would sustain my American dollar against the mighty Euro. So in other words, I have to keep hammering away for as long as possible, sweaty and tired though I may be at the end of the day.
I have maintained communication with IES (the Institution for International Education of Students), and have stated that I plan to travel on a few program-guided trips around Germany, as well as a few days in St. Petersburg and in Paris. I hope I'll be able to travel independent of the program, too.
I have also spoken a little bit with acquaintances from around my community who have given me great assistance and personal connections for my travels. By happenstance, my parents met with a lady whose father grew up in Germany and who now lives in Berlin. This man, Mr. Schuring, also helped to rebuild a town in Eastern Germany that was damaged during the second World War. He now owns a farm out there.
This summer has seemed to stretch out for a long time. But once I leave, I am sure that I can expect homesickness, at least for the first couple of weeks. Before I leave I plan to visit a few friends to say hello - and goodbye. I also want to spend some time with family. I know how important the family is to the soul. As I have spent the past few years at a University, I hope any sense of detachment syndrome is fairly minimal.
For a few months, I have been thinking about my voyage to Berlin as more than a chance to learn from an alternative culture, but also an opportunity to draw from within myself. I have great expectations that this semester might play a crucial role as a turning point in my life. After all, I have never lived in a city before... and what a city. Even if my outward gestures are not immediately changed by these studies or travels, I will be experiencing new sights and sounds of a foreign culture, breathing in the tastes and odors of a novel world, and with these undiscovered passions, firming the mold of my character.
"Every man who rises above the common level has received two educations: the first from his teachers; the second, more personal and important, from himself."
Edward Gibbon
