The One With The Introductory Post

I'm leaving the country. I am leaving the country. I'm boarding a plane and leaving the United States. No matter which way I put it, it hasn't quite hit me yet. How can a person wrap their mind around something that is so unknown, so unreal? I keep trying to run the words through my head, yet I know that it is impossible to grasp the adventure I am about to embark upon. But let's back up for a minute.

     I will be keeping this blog as a way to keep in touch with friends and family, as well as to record the memories I make during my year abroad with the Congress Bundestag Youth Exchange and YFU. As one who fancies herself a bit of a writer, I think that preserving my experiences in words will also be a great way for me to keep my English skills fresh throughout the year. The self-critic that I am, I will most likely look back on this post in a year from now and smack my head against the computer in disgust. But I digress. Apart from keeping my writing skills up to snuff and connecting with people back home, I hope this blog is mildly entertaining to read and serves to invigorate a sense of adventure and worldliness within my (three and a half) readers. I will be writing primarily in English but will throw in some fun vocab words and titles in German for good measure. I can't make any promises, but I'd like to turn out around 3 to 4 posts a month- permitting that I don't resort to my somewhat lazy nature.
     So back to where this post began. In 48 hours, I will be attempting to say goodbye to my dad in Chicago before going through security for my first ever international flight to Frankfurt. Most likely I will be in a tear-puddle state of my former self, but will trudge past the TSA agents screaming about liquids and gels, purchase a Time Magazine in case I don't pass out from exhaustion (I will) and eventually get to my seat on the plane. Only then will it really sink in; I'm going to live in Germany for a year.