Hey Everyone,
Sorry it has been so long since I last
posted something, but I have waited a while after getting back, just so I could
get acclimated to everyday life and prevail it in this post. There has been
quite a lot since I last posted, so I will try to just hit the biggest things
such as my trip to London, the "Abiball," leaving/coming home, and
the few weeks after getting back.
I have to thank my host family, like a
thousand times, for everything. During the last part of my stay there, my host parents
and the host family of my host sister invited and took me on a trip to London.
I personally think this was really nice of them to do, as well as everything
else they have done in the past year. While we were in London, we got to walk
around quite a bit seeing all the different sights from the London Eye, to the
Big Ben, or even a trip down to the Harry Potter museum, and the Stone Hedge.
Getting to try a variety of foods, and one of my favorites, hearing the British
accent. It was definitely a great trip with my host family to be able to tour
around a little.
Not long after getting back, I got to meet
my host brother, whom was in Alabama for an exchange year. The next evening, we
all went over to my host sister's graduation party, or her "Abiball."
In Germany, a lot of people who go through school end up taking a large test in
April which basically shows what all you know and learned since the 6th grade.
During the evening, they served dinner and put on a show for all the students,
which was actually put on by the graduating students. They had skits, music,
and speeches which took up most of the night. Towards the end, all the students
walked up on stage got their finally grades from school. After the whole deal
was up and done with, we all went home for a good night’s rest before I left
the next day.
On the Fourth of July, my host family and
some of my good friends, took/met me at the train station in Aalen for my good
bye. I know it will not be my final though, as I am already trying to find a
way to get back to meet up with all them again, as am I hopping they come out
to visit me too. Getting on the train though, it was a kind of surreal feeling,
knowing that it will be a long time before I meet up with any of them again. I
then proceeded to take the train all the way to Frankfurt, where I met up with
other exchange students who were spending the night there before getting on the
plane the next day. We got to talk with one another for a while, about our
exchange year and all of our experiences, as AFS just kind of let us do our own
thing, just relaxing. The next day we all headed down to the (in my opinion,
less than pleasing) Frankfurt airport. After getting 80+ kids checked in, and
put through, we all got on the plane to go back to our countries. After
arriving in Washington, and somehow managing to find our way to our
connections, I separated from everyone and got on my flight back to Colorado.
After seeing my family after a year, it did feel as though somethings have
changed but it was also a relaxing feeling to be home again. My family, and
cousins were there to say hello again to me after a long time, which was a
really nice feeling.
The following week, I mostly hung around
with my family, and friends, and working on getting things done for school that
needed to be done. I was really happy to be back and to tell my tails,
literally the same thing over and over again, to everyone was kind of relaxing
and tedious. But it wasn't long before the topic changed to something else more
recent. It was kind of like I just missed a year, and have to do a bunch of
catching up just to be on par again, except I have a different view on things
as well. I also started work again, at my summer job, which helped in a way to
readjust me to life too. I will still continue to see friends, family, and
people who I know over the next few weeks which will also be good.
Well, I hope you guys enjoyed my last
little notes from my exchange year, and learned something along the way as I
did over the past year. I just want to thank everyone again, friends, family,
host family, and grandparents for the help along the way as to making this
adventure possible. I would be more than willing to still answer any questions
if you have any about doing an exchange year. Again, thank you all for
everything.
Thanks,
~Michael Steiner~
