Prost is the first new word I learned this semester, it means cheers, but just as important as its meaning, you must look whomever you are cheering with in the eye. This leads to me being terrified of breaking some unspoken cultural rule, so I make intense eye contact while forgetting to look at my hand and often times the glasses don’t klink and I made someone feel extremely uncomfortable, but at least I wasn’t unpolite. Last semester I went with the Religion Department to Turkey, Greece and Italy, every couple days a new city, and every couple weeks a new country. It was exhilarating passing through so many different cultures, and after 8 weeks in the classroom, we had 7 weeks to see in person and fully experience everything we learned about. This semester I am studying for almost four whole months in Berlin. Being in one city the entire semester is an entirely different experience and exhilarating in an entirely new way. Every time someone on the bus comments about another passenger to me in their local language I nod casually, as if I totally understood what they said, I feel slightly more like I belong here. Every time I return to my favorite döner place I feel more like a regular. Every time I flash my bus pass at the bus driver as if I do this every day, which I do, I feel like I can own this city.
It is hard leaving Furman for a whole semester, I didn’t know how I was going to work out, I didn’t know how I was going to be able to panic call my mom, how was I going to be able to get my Cook-out milkshakes at 2 in the morning, and most importantly what if my host family is awful? All of it makes me want to ask for an apartment and sleep all day. But as part of the full immersion experience all the Furman students have home stays.
Almost 6 months ago I wrote a personal statement for them to match me with a homestay. I wrote 4 paragraphs, 3 about food. The first was about how much I valued a family meal, the second was how much I loved to cook, and the third was about how much I loved to eat. I spent this past summer at Furman and all week long I would think of what we could make for our weekly Sunday dinner, where we could invite friends and we allowed ourselves to buy the fancy cheese and I was able to share a delicious meal with all of my friends. It made me not want to leave Furman; luckily the host family arranger understood me. My host mom and I live alone together and she is a wonderful chef, almost intimidating, and at least one day a week I come home to a full party. A dinner table full of delicious food, and all her friends or children, or her colleagues excited to meet me. I am ushered into a crowd of strangers who are raving about how excited they are for Patsi’s food, and jealous that I get to eat it every night. And during these parties, I nervously clink glasses with strangers, Prost!, who are excited that I am here to learn German and are excited to get to know me.
So with a support system behind me, albeit one that I do not understand most of the time, I am ready to tackle Berlin, my classes, and hopefully I will have time for some fun!