It's a bird...It's a plane... Yeah, just another plane (or 3)

Well, just like that our trip to Werne, Germany is over. There were some days during my trip it felt like I would never get to go home, but now looking back it really did fly by. I found it extremely hard to say goodbye to my host family this morning just like I did with my family in Nashville 3.5 weeks ago. It is amazing how comfortable and normal it starts to feel being in another country with a family you barely know. But it honestly starts to feel like home. You get used to your daily routine and you get to know your host family and the people around you and it makes you sad that you can't take it all back with you. No amount of souvenirs will ever be able to capture the feeling you have while you are there or be able to explain to your family just how amazing it really is.

I also know that I have grown so much in this experience. Not only do I feel much more confident with travel and being able to navigate foreign cities, but I feel so much more prepared to be a teacher. I don't think I will ever feel like I 100% know everything I need to, because teachers should always be learning new things, but I feel like I have learned so many valuable things while in Germany. It has definitely helped me to work on my skills with ELL students. Being in a school where the kids barely understand you (or don't at all) has really made me think about how I will communicate things to my kids back home who don't speak English. Using a lot of hand motions and rephrasing certain things to try to help them better understand are very important skills to have in those situations! I have also realized that I will need to have some sort of attention getter in my classroom. It was impossible sometimes to get the class back together after having time to work or talk to a partner. The teachers would just yell and it wasn't always effective. Having something like a chant or clap that the students know and will quickly respond to is going to be very important for me as a teacher.

This trip has also really opened my eyes to international travel and other cultures. Before coming to Germany I was so nervous because I thought everything would be so extremely different that I would always feel lost and confused. There were definitely differences! However, there are so many things that I thought would be difficult that were very easy to manage and adjust to. Ordering food is a little difficult when the menu is in German, but you figure certain words out over time and get better at deciphering certain things. Riding a bike all the time is overwhelming when you first get there(and exhausting!) but you learn to love the time you get outside in the nice weather and your legs eventually get used to it. The big one is communication. You think that you wont be able to talk to anyone and you will be completely on your own while you are gone, but somehow it works. You find people who speak some English and can help you out, or you point to things and mime to try to get your point across. Sometimes there is some miscommunication, but you work through it and everything is fine.

In the future, I would be much less nervous about going abroad. It has been an amazing experience and I still can't believe how lucky I am to have been able to do this program. To be able to student teach abroad is going to have such a huge impact on me as a teacher and as a person in general. I am so thankful for the things I have learned, the people I have met, and the relationships I have built over the last few weeks and really hope that I get the chance to come back in the future.