Exchange is change. Rapid, brutal, beautiful, hurtful, colourful, amazing, unexpected, overwhelming, and most of all consant change. Change in lifestyle, country, language, friends, parents, houses, school, simply everything. Exchange is realizing that everything they told you beforehand is wrong, but also right in a way. Exchange is going from thinking you know who you are, to having no idea who you are anymore to being someone new. But not entirely new. You are still the person you were before but you jumped into that ice cold lake. You know how it feels like to be on your own. Away from home, with no one you really know. And you find out that you can actually do it. Exchange is thinking. All the time. About everything. Thinking about those strange costumes, the strange food, the strange language. About why you are here and not back home. About how it is going to be like once you come back home. How your friends are going to react when they see you again. About who is hanging out and where this weekend. And in the end, where you are supposed to go, when you are invited to ten different things. About how everybody at home is doing. About how stupid this whole time-zone thing is. Not only because of home, but also because the tv ads or shows keep confusing you. Thinking about what is right and what is wrong. About how stupid or rude you just were to someone without meaning to be. About the point of all this. About the sense of life. About who you want to be,what you want to do. And about what the hell that guy just said. Exchange is people. Those incredibly strange people, who look at you like youre an alien. Those people who are too afraid to talk to you. And those people who actually talk to you. Those people who know your name, even though you have never met them. Those people who tell you who to stay away from. Those people who talk about you behind your back, those people who make fun of your country. All those people, who arent worth your giving a damn. Those people you ignore. And those people who invite you to their homes. Who keep you sane. Who become your friends. Exchange is uncomfortable. Its feeling out of place, like a fifth wheel. Its talking to people you dont like. Its trying to be nice all the time. Its bugs… and bears. Its cold, freezing cold. Its homesickness, its awkward silence and its feeling guilty because you didnt talk to someone at home. Or feeling guilty because you missed something because you were talking on skype. Exchange is great. Its feeling the connection between you and your hostparents grow. Its knowing in which cupboard the peanut butter is. Its meeting people from all over the world. Its having a place to stay in almost every country of the world. Its cooking food from your home country and not messing up. Its seeing beautiful landscapes that you never knew existed. Exchange is exchange student -the most amazing people in the whole world. Those people from everywhere who know exactly how you feel and those people who become your absolute best friends even though you only see most of them 3 or 4 times. Exchange is falling in love with this amazing, wild, beautiful country. And your home country. Exchange is frustrating. Things you cant do, things you dont understand. Things you say, that mean the exact opposite of what you meant to say. Or even worse… Exchange is understanding. Exchange is unbelievable. Exchange is not a year in your life. ITS A LIFE IN ONE YEAR! Exchange is nothing like you expected it to be, and everything you wanted it to be. Exchange is the best year of your life so far. Without a doubt. And its also the worst. Without a doubt. Exchange is something you will never forget, something that will always be part of you. It is something no one back at home will ever truly understand. Exchange is growing up, realizing that everybody is the same, no matter where therere from. That there is great people and douche bags everywhere. And that it only depends on you how good or bad your day is going to be. Or the whole year. And it is realizing that you can be on your own, that you are an independent person. Finally. And its trying to explain that to your parents. Exchange is dancing in the rain for bo reason, crying without a reason, laughing at the same time. Its a turmoil of every emotion possible. Exchange is everything. And exchange is something you cant understand unless youve been through it! HUG THE EXCHANGE STUDENTS! WE DESERVE IT!:)
Posted on: Mon, 04 Aug 2014 12:43:43 +0000
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