Guten Tag! Welcome to the Academy German Exchange 2016 blog! I am honored to begin this blog of our 22 day trip across Germany, France, and Switzerland. This trip is going to be a time of learning, growing, making mistakes, getting lost, and trying new things. I can't wait to see how each of us develop a greater cultural presence and a global mindfulness that can only come from true immersion.

Group picture of us all

As the trip continues, a different person will blog each day’s activities for our friends and families back home to read. The purpose of this blog is to inform our pals across the ocean and to create a digital scene for remembering our incredible trip. There will be some days that are packed with info, and there will be some days that may be shorter, depending on the day’s activity. It's also important to remember that this blog doesn't serve to tell the entire story of our trip; each of us may take away different things from an activity, and some of us will do/see different things entirely.

But today, July 7th, and in the subsequent days leading up to today, the general mood has been that of incredible excitement and hectic worrying. For many of us, this is our first time traveling outside of the United States. As we begin to pack for such a lengthy stretch away from home, even the smallest of questions get blown way out of proportions. Ask Frau Fraser (soon to be Frau Haugh) and she can attest to the fact that we have asked her more questions in the past few days than the past three years of class. Because this is the Academy, and ambiguity frightens us.

"wow, Jack sure likes plaid"

And finally after three years of dreaming and hours of last minute packing, we’re finally at the airport! After a cliché picture, we’re ready to go through security! A few shoeless minutes later, we’re headed towards our gate! After another practice head count, we had an opportunity to roam the airport until our boarding time. Some of us took this time to explore the wonders of O’Hare International Airport! Did you know that it has its own children's museum and yoga room? O’Hare is a mystical place!

 "O'hare urban garden"

The airplane was cozy and long. 9 hours is a pretty long time, but we made it through! The seats were loaded with a bunch of movies and games, so we had plenty to do! Sleeping was especially hard because it was only mid-afternoon Chicago time, but we knew that it would be 7am in Germany when we landed, and we were going to need the rest! Most of us got at least an hour or two, but the few unfortunate ones are pushing through!

Picture of Jack, Wavey, Heather, and Katia

"4 hours in, and poker is still just as fun"

Landing in Berlin was awesome! There wasn't too much to see in the airport. Hate to glance over any part of our trip, but the Berlin airport wasn't a major highlight of the trip, besides the inefficient security process.

Picture of scenery

Our connecting flight to Zürich was short and sweet. Especially in comparison to our flight to Berlin, it felt easy and breezy!

I could continue for hours, but sadly I'm passing the torch off to Adna to detail the rest of our first day! Stay tuned as she talks about our first time meeting our German exchange partners!

Adios (so cultural, eh?)

Jack Riley