Hi. I'm 22, female, American, studying German in a big German city. Most of my friends here are American too, so I don't get all that much German practice in, but I used to be really good at it when I was doing a 3-month internship here two summers ago. You'll see me and find me to be a very confident person, who can usually make people do what I want. I'm graduating this semester, and consequentially I've been thinking a lot about the future, and how much the decisions I make in the next 10 years will shape the rest of my life. So to put off making these decisions, I'm going to be volunteering in Russia for a year starting in August. Gotta learn some Russian before I get there. But I won't take a language class - I'm too independent for that. I also just radically changed my hair, dyed it a neon color, because after all, when else in my life am I going to get to do stuff like that? Employers don't like that sort of thing.

Hallo. I'm a 20-year-old German girl. I'm originally from a small college town but I'm training to be a dancer, so I moved to a large German city to go to the best dance schools. I dance 6 hours a day in class. Where ever I happen to be in the world, I long for a sense of community. Maybe that's why I miss my hometown so much, where I knew everyone. It would also explain why I loved spending 3 months in Bolivia, where people are much more open, and society doesn't seem to have rules. I'm very good at Spanish because of this exchange trip, and can hold my own in French and English. I worry about how I can make a living from dancing, because I don't really want to be in musicals. The best plan seems to be teaching. I think I could do that for a while.

...And You Will Know Us by the Trail of the Dead is the best band ever. I'm serious on this one. Music is my life, so I know. I'm in a band. We've been playing together for a while. Most of our equipment was lost in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. Guess I should mention that I'm 19, male, and grew up in New Orleans. It's hard to explain the feeling of not having a home anymore. Most people grow up and go to college, or start their own life in a new city. But they can always go home. We can't, because our neighborhood doesn't exist anymore. It's like that quote from Garden State, where Zach Braff says that family is a group of people who miss the same imaginary place. That's me. That's my family. But, you know, it's cool. We're living in Baton Rouge now. I'll start at university Monday, after I fly home.


These three different people are people I met in Munich while I was there on Thursday and Friday. I had a great time, met a lot more people than the ones I just described, and it got me to thinking. I could have been any one of these people. Any one. And in a way, I'm some of them. We share characteristics, interests, similarities. How far are we removed from any one person on this earth? Why don't we like to find out about those differences? Many people shut down when learning about those different from them, and it seems to be inversely proportional. The more differences between them, the less two people are willing to learn about each other.

Anyway, that's just what I was thinking while I was there this last weekend. I did lots of fun stuff during the short time I was there (just a little over 24 hours): met up with host father Claus and had dinner, met up with some Americans that are studying there and hung out, and visited the Deutsches Museum. It's kinda fun being a permanent tourist in Germany this year, because I can do stuff like that - just pick up and leave - and it's fine, because I don't need a car. Yay for public transportation!

Plus, Munich is a beautiful city, and I'll jump at any opportunity to go there.

It's time for me to do something that doesn't involve being on the computer (napping). And soon it'll be time to hit those books and get ready for finals...