Hallo! Ich bin jetzt total frohlich , meine fruendin aus Deutchland hat mich geshreiben...nach zwei jahre! Ach! Meine Deutch ist schrecklich! Definitely need to polish my German, it really does leave the mind quickly.
So, my friend, my very dear friend, my host sister who lives in Germany, finally got in touch - after two long years. She has been busy building a business and has been 'incommunicado'..for the longest time. This person and I go back fourteen years - she came to the U.S. as an exchange student, and after things went awry with her host family, she came to stay with my family. I was a senior in high school then, and she was also. We had a blast. One of the best times in my life for sure. After the year was over I decided to do my exchange year with her family instead of where I had been planning to go (I had been planning to go to Northern Germany, and had a host family there arranged).
She, her name is Annelie by the way, lives in Rudolstadt - which is in the eastern part of Germany. Her family was amazing and open and I felt at home immediately. Really at home - it was almost scary, actually how comfortable I was there. The language barrier took about two months to overcome, but after that, it was fasinating how easy it was to think, hear, and speak in another language. The culture both shocked me and impressed me. The bond between family - generations - was so strong. The young generation was there for the older, families lived very close - within minutes and got together frequently. The children belong to all of them and everyone helps eveveryone else. It is in deep contrast to here in this country, where we are all spread out thousands of miles apart sometimes, and such a lack of humanity exists. And I got to drive a Trabbi - the old type of car that was prevelant in East Germany before the wall came down. I learned more just in those few months than I would have ever learned in a classroom. I was able to take my younger brother back to visit three years later, and Annelie came to visit the states in 2000 - a month before my second child was born. My, how time does march along...
Anyway, I am so excited to think that she might be coming to the states within the next few months for a long visit - I haven't seen her since 2000. Things like this really make your heart smile.
Thanks for "listening" to me ramble on.
1 comment:
This sounds great. If you get a chance, you should check out Amelie's Welt a bilingual English/German blog about the life of a scientist in Barcelona. (that is, if you haven't seen it already)
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