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"My Turn:
Traveling is real knowledge"
On the early morning of August 21st, I boarded my plane to Germany. The
day had started with a wonderful Floridian sunrise. At the International
Airport of Miami, I was hugging my parents and sisters for the last time
until the New Year approach. For some reason, I was shaking, but not
because I was nervous, but because I was excited to get on the plane that
was awaiting me. Once I got onto my connection plane to Amsterdam, I was
thinking what I really thought of the German people. So many random ideas
that I had, occupied my mind for eight and a half hours straight during
the plane ride. My entrance to the Amsterdam Airport was like entering a
stranger's house. I had never seen anyone of the Host family that waited
for me. As I greeted and hopped in my host family's car, I realized that I
had a completely different point of view of the German people. But most
importantly, during my exchange year, my impression of them changed on a
day-to-day basis.
"Just because your smart doesn't mean your smart enough" was something
that I learned during my dramatical exchange year. In Florida, I was in
the top twenty-five percent of my class, but in Bueckeburg, I was at zero.
I felt like a caged bird, where people saw me suffering but no one was
willing to let me out and fly. Sadness was the feeling that flowed through
my body and spirit as I woke up to get ready for my first day in my new
German high school-Gymnasium Adolfinum. When I arrived, I even noticed
people staring at me, though I had not spoken to them. It's one of those
stares that you know they are wondering about who you are. Once I received
my schedule and my school tour, I met with my English teacher. As soon as
we went upstairs to go to my new classroom, I was for some reason looking
to the floor. I just simply couldn't look up. I felt like a mouse close to
an elephant when I entered my new class. He immediately began to speak
German and I began to wonder why I left my world to come to another place
where I was completely lonely and clueless. The answer to this confusing
question was waiting for me at the end of my adventurous year.
As I lifted my eyes with fear to look at my German classmates, all the
students in the class, literally, all the students were brownish-blonde
headed with blue or green eyes. They all stared at me like I was an alien.
It was the queerest feeling I had ever experienced. Of course I stood out,
because I am tanned and my hair and eyes are black. So by the time my
exchange year was over, everyone in school, in the small stores and, on
the street knew who I was. Around in December, people began to ask me
where I was really from and why I came to Germany. My friends especially,
thought I was from Turkey. Okay Turkey. How on earth did they get to think
such an awkward idea? When I asked them why they thought that, they
informed me that the majority of the people in Germany that are tanned
with black hair and black eyes are Turkish. Currently many Turkish people
are causing a lot of social problems and because of this, Germans have the
tendency to dislike them. It was at that moment that I learned that if one
does not travel, one does not really learn how or why people in different
places think or believe. Like the speed of a humming bird's wing, was the
speed of my exchange year.
When I returned to Florida, I knew that I was ahead of everyone. My old
friends felt bad for me that I had to repeat eleventh grade but, what they
did not know was that I was the one feeling bad for them. I knew that they
were ignorant in many aspects of life. I didn't care that I had to repeat
eleventh grade but, the experience that I gained is worth more that the
credits I lost. When I said good-bye to my friends, was when I concluded
that traveling is real knowledge.
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