Heim (Home)

Finally made it home! After 117 days abroad and 12 hours of travelling in one day I finally made it back home. Now its been 4 days now that I've been home and it feels so good to be back. Now Germany will always have a huge part of me because it taught me so much and now when I see it on the map I won't be able to not smile just thinking of all the things it showed me and gave to me and taught me. I look back now to my sophomore year of high school when I first took German as a foreign language class. It was hard, and I just could never seem to grasp it and excel in it. I got by and was able to get into the upper classes but always struggled. And along with that, I never, ever, not one bit did I look at the map of Germany and think maybe one day I'll make it there. I didn't even think i'd use the German that I learned in my future. And of course looking back I smile thinking how far I've come. Now of course people ask how my trip was and of course the only answers I can give are short and sweet ones because of the immensity of the true answer of explaining it all. But it's not a problem to sum it up by saying it was "good" or "the trip of a lifetime"  because these things are still true. And coming back it was so weird at first, because I felt so distant, but it was the surprise welcome home party that my mom, the one and only Kathryn Fagan and my lovely girlfriend, Jenny Kenyon set up for me that it all snapped back. It was so great to have a small group of friends come together to welcome me back home and just fire up the grill and have an amazing night together sharing moments and memories. I couldn't of asked for a better place to come back to and even more for better people to come back to. I do think of Germany often of course, but I don't think I let the idea manifest itself to deep because of the fact it was temporary. I do miss it terribly and hope to be able to return to Germany again and maybe even Marburg, but I knew that there is still this life that needs to be returned to and I was content with that. I am happy to have shared so much with people all around the world that I hadn't even heard of until 4 months ago, and all of them will also have a special place in my heart. All in all it was "the trip of a lifetime", it was a milestone in my life that will affect all the things in the future that I pursue and aim to achieve. While I was over there I decided to switch my existing German minor to a German major and hope that in the future I'll be returning to Germany, maybe not for studying abroad, but instead for business and connecting with the German people. I thank you all for baring with me and my numerous amounts of delayed blog posts and my incredibly amateur comedy, and also thank you all again for supporting me and giving me the advice that I could use while abroad. This may be the end of the Germany study abroad adventure, but by no means is it the end of the adventure I've been on my whole life.



"Every end is a new beginning"   

Sechs Tage und dann nach Hause

Hello everyone!! This quite possibly could be my last post on this blog, BUT I hopefully want to squeeze one more in before I come home. It is exactly 6 days that I will be in what seems like very hot wisconsin and hopefully I will overcome the jet lag when I am back. I'm not gonna lie to my lovely readers and I'm gonna go out and say that I cant wait to come home. Now don't get me wrong Germany will always have a place in my heart and so will everyone that I have gotten so close to here, but I miss my home. I have one final travel that I start actually on sunday BUT the cheapest way to get there is to catch a train from here to seigen which isnt that far away around 11pm. Stay over night in the train station till the first train in the morning to Dusseldorf and then from Dusseldorf we take a shuttle to a smaller airport to take our plane to Budapest. Truthfully I don't know a whole lot about Budapest, but if anything going in with no expectations isnt a bad thing. But what is a more of a sore subject is tonight will be my last official night in Marburg and its so surreal. I have the same feeling about it that I did before I came to Germany. I hear the words and think about it, but I think the realization is a little delayed. And I'm making sure I take tons of random pictures around Marburg so that I can always go back and just look around Marburg and reminisce. And I gotta tell you I am terrible with goodbyes. I want to make them memorable and have a nice goodbye and all but it's hard to try and say it all. But in the end they will all be great goodbyes and if anything I like to consider them not goodbyes but instead I will see you soon's. And I gotta say I think there is going to be more of a culture shock coming back home then there was coming here. It'll be just different to see english everywhere that I understand after coming from a country that I only understand only some of the things i read and hear. Now I'm not saying that I'm gonna run through the streets screaming because of all the stress of being able to understand everything, but I think it will just catch me off guard a lot. Now the cliche phrase that I'll utter is that this whole experience was life changing but just because its cliche doesnt mean its not true. These 117 days have shown me not only so much about the world around me and the people in it, but also the world inside of me and the potential that I have. I found out more of the things i want to do with my life and the sort of places I want to take it. I left not knowing what I would find out and what would happen, but coming back I can say that I've found out so much about myself and so this experience has changed the course of my life, but in such a good way. Now 6 days away from home I am content and in more ways then none I've said my goodbyes to Germany, one of those was by running 6.37 miles from my dormitory to marburg and then back today. The longest run I've gone on since I've been here and it felt so great completing it. 6 days and I will be back with all of you and I am just again so thankful to have all of you supporting me before i left and even now by reading about all my adventures and amateur comedy. I love you all so much and am so fortunate to have you in my life. See you all next week!

  "Time is a companion that goes with us on a journey. It reminds us to cherish each moment, because it will never come again. What we leave behind is not as important as how we have lived." - Jean Luc Picard