I guess none of my friends were expecting me to go to Germany this summer and neither was I. I was the one who went to summer school in France when I was 15 and then went to high school there later just for good measure. Oh sure, I studied German as my third (well actually fourth) language when I was in France, with good grades too, but I guess the only reason for that was that I spoke Norwegian better than my teacher spoke German. And the knowledge didn’t stick anyhow, I namely just made the rather big mistake of spelling Deutschland without the s. A mistake that was pointed out to me in about every social media available and will not be made again. I swear.
It’s not that I’ve never been to Germany. I have. I was 7 and the Berlin wall was still standing. I liked it too, Germany that is, not the wall. I remember a giant mall with lot of high-tech stores, and leaving there with a purple Alf radio (remember Alf from outer space?), a double-Teenage-Mutant-Ninja-Turtles-CD and a mom with a slightly thinner wallet.
Apart from that and huge stacks of history books, I have to admit that my relationship with Germany up until now has been virtually non-existent. Good thing then that there’s the FIFA world cup to take me there! (Oh wait, soccer? No one ever said anything about soccer! Well that’s just another thing to add to the list of stuff I know virtually nothing about.)
Joke aside, I am really looking forward to going to Augsburg this summer. I’ve decided to travel with as open a mind as possible, letting the city itself show the way and then the white papers to be filled from the experience. I don’t want to decide beforehand what to do, because I know I’ll only limit myself and fret about the stuff I’m not doing, instead of opening up for bigger ideas.
As for bringing something from Norway, I think the most logical thing would be a poster of the Women’s National Soccer Team, so that I can learn their names somehow.
See you soon!
Kaja Marie
