the countdown begins in earnest!

11 days and I will be 5208 miles away, in the as-yet-unexplored city of Munich!

(Or rather, 8380 km. I should probably start doing that now, right?)

Speaking of kilometers, it’s always fascinating how frames of reference change with travel, no matter the distance covered. What’s important and useful condenses: these particular clothes, this book, that time zone, and, in this case, different increments by which to measure temperature and distance. These things are predictable, but really there’s only so much that can be anticipated; the rest shifts on arrival.

One of the interesting aspects of this experience so far (as much as I can call preparation an experience in and of itself) is how different it is from four years ago as I prepared to depart for Hungary. With AFS, I left home for an orientation in New York, red-shirted volunteers helping every step of the way to make sure we understood what we needed to do, where we needed to go, and when we needed to go there. Once we landed in Budapest, tired after our long flights, we spent another two days at an orientation with students from around the world before scattering across the country with our new families. I could only guess at what I needed to pack, I knew two words of the language (szia-hello and köszönöm-thank you, a good two to start with), and despite the external support framework, I was setting out alone, the only student from my state to study in Hungary that year and, as it turned out, the only exchange student in my host city. As a sixteen-year-old, I had never crossed the Atlantic or been to a foreign country other than Canada, much less seriously studied another language in that intense of an environment. All of those things are different this time around.

But having been through something similar in the past doesn’t mean I’m any less excited or even that much more informed about this upcoming year. Being in college means a new set of challenges that come along with studying abroad, as well as a new set of opportunities. One of the most wonderful differences is that I’m going to be with people I already know are friends and that no matter what, this experience will never stop being worth it. On a visceral level, I understand that there will be good days and bad days, days where the language clicks and days where it doesn’t, moments of defeat and moments of triumph. Most of all, it’s going to be awesome, and I can’t wait until 10 days from now, when my airplane finally takes off and this adventure truly begins.

• August 23, 2011
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