Well. This is the last blog post that I'll be writing in Germany. I'm so excited about that. And I could cry in a second also. And I'm happy. And I'm nervous. It's the truest example of bittersweet that I've come to know so far in my life.
As I leave Germany, I leave with an incredibly grateful heart to my sister, Talya. She's the reason I was able to come here in the first place. She also made it possible for me to go to Italy and England. I've come to know my sister more over the past year and discover the incredible qualities that reside in that fun-loving, always positive heart of hers. She's utterly gracious, optimistic, funny. She has a personality that's the definition of infectious. She's dependable. She's always there for anyone that needs her. She's practical. She's a dreamer. She's smart. She's constantly coming up with new schemes and business ideas. She's a hard worker. She loves anything with marzipan. She's my sister.
My niece and nephews aren't bad either ;). Granted, they could act a little badly when they wanted to, and we had our bad days, but I wouldn't trade my time with my babies for the world. I don't know the next time I'll be able to spend a whole year with them again, so it's been amazing getting to take them to and from school in a foreign country, something I never would have dreamed I'd be doing several years ago. I've also learned and gotten to practice some of my German with them. The more I learned at school, the more I was able to speak with them and understand. Them being so young, sometimes I'd ask a question and they wouldn't understand a word or something, but when I translated it (if I could) into German, they got it. That's what being bilingual does to you! It's really been a huge pleasure and honor to get to babysit them so much over the past year, and watch them grow into total individuals. They'll always be more like my siblings than niece and nephews, and therefore I will always be up for taking on all three at the same time and, as a result, getting a few bruises in the process. :)
My time here has been incredible not only with my sister and her beautiful kids, but also with my new friends from my language classes. I met people from literally all over the world at my language classes. I learned how to have discussions with people from different economic, political, and religious backgrounds than me. I also learned a whole other language with these people, that instantly gave us all a bond because German isn't so easy to learn. Sometimes the verb goes at the end of the sentence, and when we learned that we were all like "what?!" It blew our minds. Learning a language together bonds people.
I met some pretty incredible people at school though. People from places that I would love to get to travel to someday. People with beautiful hearts and senses of humor that made me laugh so hard I sometimes disturbed the library :/ Getting to know some many people from different countries really taught me that we're all pretty much the same after all. Yeah, we may come from different parts of the world and speak different languages, but most of us love to laugh, dance, lay out in the sunshine, travel, get to know new people, do touristy things. I'm so happy and grateful that I get to say that I've made life-long friendships with people from Brasil to China.
I also got involved in a church, ICF (International Christian Fellowship). I went there a couple times, when I didn't know any German, but even then I knew I wanted to be a part of it. Then I heard about the opening of a new location, which was much closer to us. The more I went there, the more I understood the services and developed some friendships with believers that will always have special places in my heart. The people at ICF are some of the most amazing people I've gotten to know, and I had an absolutely blast getting to help on Sundays as a part of the "Welcome Team." I was so afraid when I first came here that I wouldn't find a church family or small group or anything, but I did much faster than I would have ever dreamed. I'm utterly, utterly thankful for the lead pastor, the leaders, and others that I got to know and who made ICF like a second home for me.
Now that my year abroad is over, it's time to start back to my life in the States and go to "university." :) I'm so excited to start studying and to begin my college experiences, but I plan on making Europe my summer home. <3
