just john

Today is my last day at work in Germany for 2007. I took some time to read back through some of my earlier blog entries from the beginning of this adventure. Aside from the emotional roller coaster, what really stood out was that I had no spell check. Sorry about that. I was a champion speller before I started taking a foreign language.

The first three to four months here were simply a long chain of disasters. Something I'd learned before and have heard since happens to almost everyone who moves to a foreign country. A notable exception is Indians. The integration specialist told they just seem to be naturally happy all the time. For the rest of it's a fast moving spiral down into, and back up out of, culture shock. In three weeks I crammed a new job, home, language, and major acquisitions into the crash course that is moving to a foreign country. Over a couple of months I stabilized it into a steady routine I could live with. Although I'm still constantly adapting, I've discovered that there's really no situation that can't be coped with given the right amount of patience. I think the current slow-down in blog entries is a combination of my increased comfort level and that there's not much of note going on these days. I guess they'd call me culturally integrated.

Language is still, and always, a challenge. I'm communicating and mostly understanding but I still feel like the village idiot. I know my grammar is not always right and my sentences are usually short and simple. Complex shades of meaning are still out of my grasp and new situations sometimes result in a German switching over to English to help out. Something I don't think foreigners often encounter in the US.

Tomorrow I'll be flying home. I mean my real home, not this temporary state over here. I've missed it terribly. Though the communication is seldom, I am glad to hear, through Bill, about the number of people who want to see me while I'm there. I really miss everyone more than I ever thought I would. Germany has some great qualities in it's people and the countryside, but I know this is not permanent and they simply can't offer up a substitute for my friends. I could stay here permanently if I could bring Bill and about 100 or so people but that just makes logistics incredibly complicated. I'll instead settle for this as my half-way point.

I've got one more January through December of everything Europe has to offer. That means just twelve months to go for friends to visit, to see things I haven't yet had the chance to, and to keep drinking German beer.