Hallo! This is my first time writing a blog, so here goes to exploring my voice in this form and trying to be hilarious. I’ve never been to Germany before and I wanted to learn German, so when I saw that Northwestern offered a summer study abroad in Berlin, I applied. To prepare for this, I took one quarter of German, German 115. One quarter is most definitely NOT enough to live in Berlin. However, I don’t think that even if I’ve taken two full years of German and completed the language requirement, I’d feel any better. When I’m put into a situation where I have to think on my feet, sometimes, even English fails me. So, I’m excited and nervous. Mostly excited because I’m going to Berlin and there are Northwestern students who know German I can leech onto. I’ll be taking German 101 in Berlin, but it’s comforting that there are others who can help me if I need it.
As I’m writing this on the plane, I’ve just finished watching A Wrinkle in Time (cried a bit, maybe I’m just more emotional 2,000 feet in the air.) I’m thinking about the journey that Meg takes to find herself (not a spoiler?) and what the heck I’m going to do in Berlin. My life is not a movie. I am not going to end this study abroad knowing who I am as a person and all that and I don’t expect to or want to. Thus, I don’t have many expectations except to try everything and to learn German! I want to be able to converse in as many languages as possible and that’s going to be the one goal I’m setting for myself this summer. I’m ready with a cute bullet journal to record it all- mistakes, happy moments, learning experiences. And even if it’s cringe worthy, at least I’ll be polite doing it thanks to my beginner’s German. Bitte and danke!