Today wasn’t packed with much, apart from last-minute Christmas shopping, food preparation, and movie watching. I prepared a dessert (a Spekulatius Tiramisu!) and it reminded me of my times in Bonn when I didn’t understand the most basic of recipe words. Now as I read through the recipe, I realized that I understood all of it, without Regina pointing things out for me or demonstrating the steps. It made me a bit sad because it reminded me of how long ago that was.

This Saturday was packed with activities, notably a meeting with Herr Todtenhausen, the Bundestag member I’ve been assigned to, and a gathering with the Mädels (my friends from school). My meeting with Herr Todtenhausen (whom Melina and I have secretly nicknamed “Onkel Manfred”) was at 13:30, so at around 13:28, I said my goodbyes to Melina, traveled two floors down, and pressed the doorbell button at the apartment marked “Todtenhausen.” Herr Todtenhausen called something in German when I rang the doorbell (probably something like “coming!

Today was my last day of school. I arrived ten minutes late because I missed my bus from the Wuppertal Hauptbahnhof, where I was hurriedly putting together gift bags for my friends and teachers. We continued watching The Big Labowski in English and then when the class period was over, I gave Frau Köhler her little envelope with a note and some chocolate and thanked her for the year. She promised me something as well, which was ridiculously sweet.

Just two days left of German school now. The speed at which the time the time has flown by strikes me as insane, especially because I can recall many, many days where I was in a lesson in which the time seemed to refuse to pass. But I’ve discovered that I’ve built a routine for myself, which will, of course, no longer be so useful soon. I always head to school generally moments before my first class, especially since the teachers are generally late.

I’ve attended German school for roughly three months now, and the base of every opinion I have ever considered to be true has been questioned. In my study abroad applications, I wrote about how I was trapped in a bubble and I wanted to escape it. Now that I have, I’m coming to realize the extent to which my bubble encompassed everything around me. Back home, it is a well-known fact that my state and my school are incredibly diverse in comparison to some other American communities, with a minority percentage of 49 to 50 percent.

I’ve begun to come home early from school to cook with Regina and Udo. They are very good chefs in the same way my mother is a good chef. Recipes are merely a guideline. All three halve sugar, double garlic, and seemingly haphazardly manipulate the recipe, yet the final product is near perfection. I hope to gain that skill someday. When I told Udo that, he told me that it wasn’t a skill—just overconfidence.

Food has never tasted so good in my life, even the simple things. Today, while I was cutting kohlrabi to make Kohlrabi Schnitzel, I cut a piece too thin. Udo, my host father, took that piece out and cut it into three smaller pieces, and while we waited for the salt water to boil, we ate the cabbage like chips. Perhaps the kohlrabi was unusually fresh, or maybe I was just hungry, but in that moment, it felt as though it was the best thing I had ever tasted.

Public transportation, the obvious choice. But there’s a stark difference. For one, the seats and the floors are incredibly clean. Every passenger silently stares out of the window, not looking away even despite a sound. I got on the bus and watched one woman accidentally drop her bag on a second woman’s toes. Even when the first woman vehemently apologized with a quick “Entschuldigung!” the second woman said nothing, not even looking away from the window.

Today was the first day of going to AiB, the place where I will be having language school. I woke up at 6:45, downloaded an e-Sim with some data to get me by, and ate breakfast (two Toast Brot with Marmelade, which ended up not being enough actually!). While I was drinking my tea, Udo came downstairs and I asked him about the train schedule just to review it. I then asked him about the water and he told me just to get it from the tap (I don’t remember the word for tap water).

I woke up at around 9:30 am to the window opening. It made a loud sound, and it was clearly automatic. When I checked the time, I was shocked. I hadn’t realized that I had slept for so long! I was late for breakfast, which is at 9am. Normally in the States, that wouldn’t matter, but in Germany, mealtimes are incredibly important. Grab-and-go breakfasts simply don’t exist. Mealtimes are a time for slow conversation and spending time with others.