Lessons From Language Camp

As Phoebe Bridgers once sang, I am “somewhere in Germany”, but I can definitely “place it”. As I write this, I am sitting in my room at Kloster Hedersleben, a monastery in East Germany that is over 319 years old. Today is August 28th, which is exactly twenty days since I left home to commence my exchange year. A sense of dread wraps itself around me as I realize that we only have ten days left together before the cohort goes its separate ways to live with host families. While I am ecstatic to meet my host family, I know that being hundreds of miles, or rather kilometers, away from the people that I have grown close to during this camp will be very difficult. 

If I had to choose my favorite part of the past twenty days, I would think of things like the sprawling farm fields where my friends and I go for walks, the nights we spend in our Kloster room laughing until we’re silently shaking, or exploring nearby cities on our weekend excursions. However, my answer would be the opportunity to spend a period of time adjusting to life in a foreign country with people who are experiencing the same thing. From learning to navigate the Deutsche Bahn to shopping at the NP Supermarkt in German, we shared many of our firsts in Germany together. This softens the blow of the less-picturesque side of exchange—homesickness, loneliness, culture shock—and also serves as a support group for the rest of the year.