I just spent the last 2 hours having dinner with my guest-grandpa, and then sharing pictures of my life and where I've gone and what I've seen, and hearing stories from his life and where he's gone and what he's seen. Cultural Exchange. Learning from one another, and what we've been through, to see that, despite the huge geographical differences, we are all unbelievably similar.
First things first, I feel at home here. Despite the unhealthy air and the other difficulties, I've really come to enjoy Dietrich's company. He is pretty much my grandpa, and it is awesome. A big help on this has been my improvement in the language. I can have conversations with him and we'll both understand what the other is saying, and this has been a HUGE help.
But back to the point. Never would I have imagined that I would feel at home in a former East German city, talking to an older gentleman, from a completely different world as me. Without this program, I would have never experienced something like this to this capacity.
I don't know where I'm going with this. It's hard to explain this, feel, this experience that I'm blessed to be going through. And it's not just with Dietrich. It's the whole thing of feeling comfortable in another world, and having the people around you to make it not feel like another world. Damn, this is total gibberish, but makes sense to me. If I were an English major, I would be able to describe it better.
The point: I can definitely see the extreme value of this program, just through interactions with the various people I encounter.
Original Publish Date: January 29th, 2014