Live Life Outside Your Comfort Zone

Having been In Europe for exactly one month and living with my family now for almost three weeks, I have a whole new respect and appreciation for how difficult it can be to try to assimilate yourself into a new culture, a new language, a new everything. I would say, generally speaking (and yes, I know it can be risky to generalize), but generally speaking the transition from American culture to German culture is probably one of the easier transitions as opposed to, say, going to live in the Middle East or Turkey, India or Asia. But even so, there are still difficulties. I still believe we have a huge illegal immigration problem in the United States, but to those that do it the legal way and actually work to be a successful and productive member of society, I have a much greater respect for how difficult it can be to live in a foreign society.

Having said that, I must also say that every part of being here is beautiful. Difference is a wonderful thing. Now I've been sitting here staring at the screen for the last seven minutes trying to figure out just the write word to describe how I feel since having been here. Sometimes I get frustrated with the language (specifically with German grammar, my brain doesn't process these things nearly as quickly as I would like it to), but when it clicks, or when I can fully understand something that is said to me without having to translate it into English in my head before responding, it feels like a momentous achievement. And aside from the language, I learn new things everyday. Little things. Things that you wouldn't catch if you weren't really paying attention. Things about people, about culture, about food, about everything. So I guess in being here I feel more whole. Like as a human being I am becoming more whole...