Study Abroad is Actually Educational

Contrary to the impression you may have received from my blog post about my trip to Turkey, it was not 100% a vacation, but maybe 75%. There was some work involved, and it didn't end when we returned to Germany. Back in January, we took a field trip to DEKRA University Berlin, which is where people study Media, Film, and Journalism. We were there for the journalism aspect. Considering part of our trip to Turkey was documenting our findings through reports, photos, blogs, and interviews, we were there to learn more about journalism and improve what we had written through the help of a journalist. Similar to most of expierences here in Germany, I had no idea what's going on until it was actually happening. The whole day was really a surprise for me in terms of what we were doing, but I will say it was pretty cool. Even though journalism is not a career I plan on pursuing, I still enjoyed learning about it and hearing comments from a professional. 

The teacher in charge of this exchange with the Turks, who is also my math teacher, recently gave me a task because moral support as a contribution to our project probably isn't cutting it. When the Turks come, I am to lead them through a tour of our city. I will make the distinction now that the city where my school is located is not the same city in which I reside, so don't think I am well versed on the history and points of interest of Rathenow. I personally think it's a great task for me. I can learn about the city, practice public speaking, and get more practice learning German. I'm not totally alone on this project, one of the teachers is helping me some as well. 

Speaking of German learning, on Wednesday I had my last German lesson. I was very sad that our lessons are over because I know that I have learned a ton, and I really looked forward to them every week. To be honest, we would chat a lot. Maybe then she would quickly explain how to form the passive and I would recite a text (all with perfect grammar of course) that she had me memorize. At the beginning it wasn't like that though, but later on most things I hadn't been formally taught yet, I had already picked up. 

For our last lesson, I asked if we could simply converse. As I mentioned previously, she is Ukrainian, still has family there, and speaks Russian. I wanted to take that opportunity to talk to her and get her opinion on what is happening in Ukraine. I had been forewarned about her political beliefs, which is exactly why I wanted to hear her opinions. I knew it would be different than anything I would hear in the USA. In addition to hearing her opinions, I got a big history lesson on Russia and Ukraine. She also gave me a little of her personal background. I obviously found our discussion incredibly interesting. I just sat there for an hour with my ears wide open, but we didn't actually finish in that hour.  We had to continue for another hour the next day. There is one thing in particular that stood out to me. She has been to both the United States and Russia and she finds the people of each country very similar. Russia is seen as the opposite of America; two opposing powers who can't seem to get along. According to her observations, Americans are the type of people to strike up a conversation with a stranger. We are friendly and open, but complicated (who isn't, though...). Russians are exactly the same. She even went so far to say that we're more similar to the Russian people than the German people. Not that I know anything about Russians or Russia, but I have learned some things about Germans and there are some large differences in the way we act versus the Germans.

This whole thing brings me back to why I find exchange programs so wonderful. When you peel back politics, languages, and cultural differences, we are all just people. We are people who are not that different from each other, but more importantly we are all people who could learn something from one another if we allow ourselves to.

In other and relatively unimportant news, the weather has started to suck less lately. First and foremost, I have seen more of the sun in the past few weeks than I have since November. Secondly, it's light out again on the drive to school, which is automatically a positive start to the day for me. It is also all around not as cold as it has been. Three weeks ago, I would get excited if the weather was simply above 32 degrees Fahrenheit. Now, anything over 45-50 degrees is warm. Looks like I'm in for a hot surprise when I return this summer to California. 

Shannon