Awwww yeah...

These are my pups!

 Ever since I was young, I was interested in Germany. I am half German, half Italian, but I always have followed my German roots more closely. When people discover I am German, one of the first things they think of is Nazism, and they ask if I am a Nazi. What kind of question is that? How can you just ask someone a question like that? It has always bugged me how Germany has had such a bad reputation and how immediately the first thing people think of are Nazis. Not about the culture, the architecture, the economy, the beauty of it all… No, just Nazis. This pushed me to want to learn more myself, because I considered myself slightly less ignorant, I still wasn’t fully informed. The most informed I was regarded all black German Sherpherds, because those are the dogs I grew up with. That's about it.

I took a class my senior year of high school as a blow off class, but instead I became deeply interested. Then I discovered I needed to take a language in college, so instead of choosing the ever popular Spanish, I chose German. I had already taken five years of Spanish. I didn’t want this experience to be another blow off thing. I take foreign language seriously and have an absolute passion for it. I love hearing the language, I love being able to think in another language, I love being able to read and write and teach my fiancé. I love it all. If I wasn’t so in love with Psychology, German would be my major. But instead I cheat on Psychology with German and have made it my minor. 

Anyway… I have learned a lot about Germany, the culture, the sights and different cities that I want to actually see it. Like see it, up close, breathe in the air and take those annoying tourism photos. I don’t want to look at things anymore just on the computer. I also want to be able to put my skills in speaking and reading into play. But I have the realistic view that I will be reading a lot, but not speaking a lot. I know that once the younger generations find out you’re American, they want to practice their English with you. I am risking my pride to go on this trip, because I will cry on the airplane when it takes off. I hate heights and hate the feeling you get in the pit of your stomach like you experience on rollercoasters. This won’t go well for me, but I doubt I will have an opportunity like this again in my lifetime.

Erfurt Market. So beautiful.

I anticipate learning about architecture. I know almost nothing about it. Not due to lack of trying, but I had a class about it in high school and then never went back to it. The information just kind of slowly leaked out of my head to make room for other information. I anticipate learning how to read a map and train schedule! I stink with directions and reading maps and trying to give directions. It’s a big mess. I also anticipate having fun while learning. It won’t be a straight lecture everyday sitting in a boring old classroom kind of class. It’s going to be real. Going out and experiencing the real world. And I hope it goes well, even though I anticipate a lot of rough patches with the culture itself and trying not to stick out like an American. But, I’ll still try and make the most of it. I cannot wait to go to Erfurt, especially the Christmas Market, and Weimar and just Thüringen in general. I enjoyed doing my project on Thüringen and am excited to see some of what I came across in my research.

Confusing, right?

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