My beloved family from all over the world

"The world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page"
                                                                                                                    - St. Augustine








"Love makes a family"
                                                                                                                    - Gigi Kaeser






"in truth a family is what you make it. it is made strong not by the number of heads counted
  at the dinner table, but by the rituals you help family members create, by the memories you
  share, by the commitment of time, caring, and love you show to one another, and by the hopes
  for the future you have as individuals and as a unit"


                                                                                                                    - Marge Kennedy








  As the end of my exchange year draws near (I´ve got exactly 4 weeks and 4 days left) you start to look back on your exchange in a very judging matter. Questions like "Did you learn enough? Did you see enough? experience enough? Could you have made more friends? Was it worth it? Should I have done something different in order to make my exchange year even better? What if I would have done this..instead of that?"
All these questions I can effortlessly answer. For me "if" doesn´t exist. I made some major life altering choices during my year and I´m privileged to say that the majority of them turned out excellent. Others...well.

"If" doesn´t exist. Would I still be here in Germany if I had made that one phone call? Would Jordan still be here if he hadn´t shown the security guard his papers? Would Jonathan still be here if his home town hadn´t been Oberstdorf? We´ll never know because "if" doesn´t exist.
But now as I sit here reminiscing on my year as a whole I can proudly say that no regrets linger in my mind.
Did I make mistakes? Of course. Why don´t I have regret? You learn from your mistakes and by understanding the nature of the mistake and realizing that a mistake has been made can grant you knowledge that you can use to your advantage in times to come. And I have made my peace with these mistakes.



One and perhaps the only question about my year that I fail to answer is "How am I going to be able to carry on without my "family from all over the world?" I know I have talked about this before but now the matter is surfacing stronger than before.
The bond that immediately forms between two exchange students is really mind blowing. This bond forms without mutual language or morals or values. It´s like two new students from different cities changing to the same school in the middle of the semester but more extreme. Something like this, I believe, can only be experienced with Rotary. Imagine, 30 people from all over the globe melting together into one unity, a group or a team, if you will, ready to take on and conquer the challenges that lay ahead. The moments I´ve spent with these people are absolutely unsurpassed. Their company has taught me to see the world with more open eyes and for it really is. They taught me to understand other cultures and see the diversity and wealth in them. There are few things more precious than sitting at the riverbank at  sunset with these people, listening to Latino music and dancing, without a care in the world. The sheer energy of the Latinos is quite overwhelming and the cheerfulness shines a warming light upon your heart. Around you hear Spanish, Portuguese, German, English and French.
The exchange students automatically form a network of support, knowledge and creative ideas as the exchange commences. Ultimately, it´s not your host family or friends in the new school who are going to be there to help you up if you fall or whenever the world tries to bring you down...it´s the exchange students. We share ideas, dreams, feelings and problems. The international family of love and back up is always reachable 24/7. And what happens in the family stays in the family, that´s a definite.



This family is the thing I will most miss about my exchange. This very group, this all accepting family is free of all prejudice and discrimination. Never before have I encountered anything in this fashion and it has had a colossal impact on my life. I can state, with easy that the opportunity to be an affiliate of this family is one of the best things that have ever taken place in my life.
Each rendezvous with the family contains heaps of unforgettable moments and loud echoes of delight. Every member of the family functions as a conduit of joy and the more there are of us the bigger the flood of gladness is. Each moment spent apart from the family is stuffed with a slight feel on incompleteness and I sometimes see myself as a drug addict constantly searching for this "high". I fear I will be lost for a while when I return up north, still searching for this feeling, drawn forward like a moth to a distant moon. But will be oceans apart by then...by life goes on, doesn´t it?


I´d like to take the time now as the first exchange students who arrived last fall are leaving next week(my love goes out to all the oldies who arrived in January 2011 too), and thank my family from all over the world for the best three weeks of my life on D-tour and every single moment we spent together. I can´t even begin to fathom how my exchange would have been without you and how many great friendships I would never have formed if I hadn´t met all of you.
My most fond thanks to you all. I know we´ll meet again...eines tages.
I wish you all the best in your lives and I hope I can be a part of them in some way, shape or form in the future. Take care, stay healthy and live well. Mi casa es tu casa <3 and I mean it.

<3

love you guys

zum Schluss noch ein Bild vom Omar, wenn er Scheisse baut XD