Foreign Love

This isn't your typical love at first sight, and it's surely not something you hear about everyday. I am going to take you back a little bit to give you some insight into how this all started. So buckle up, grab a coffee, and get comfy.

During my senior year, 2015-2016, at Shepherd High School, I was one of the students selected to host a German exchange student, and in "exchange" I got to go to Germany in the summer of June 2016. My exchange student arrived on October 15, 2016 with the other exchange students. She stayed for two short weeks, and then they went on their way. But the impact of this experience stayed with me. I learned so much about the culture, the language and the people of German nationality. You could say I was hooked, and that's putting it lightly. When June came around, I was a bundle of excitement and nerves. I had never been abroad before, and two weeks in Germany seemed like a dream come true. And it truly was. I had the time of my life, met some really nice people, and learned some more of the German language. I even think I maxed out on how much bratwurst one human being should eat in a two week period.

I was torn when we had to leave for home. Tears were shed and promises of seeing each other again were shared. I had every intention in keeping my promise. So when I got home and started college at Central Michigan University in August 2016, I started looking at internships, jobs, and study abroad opportunities in Germany. The feeling that I had to go back was stronger than anything I had ever felt. The place had become like a home to me, and there was a pull that I couldn't shake off. You know that feeling when you get a song stuck in your head? It was like this but wouldn't go away.

As my first year at college dragged on, I kept in touch with my exchange student via FaceTime and messaging. She had mentioned to me she was going to become an Au-Pair in Australia that coming summer; the summer of 2017. I was intrigued, so I asked her what exactly an Au-Pair was. She told me that an Au-Pair was a young person who went to another country to stay with a family to help take care of the families child/children, and to help with household chores. AKA, a nanny. Sort of. I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to go back to the place I fell in love with. I did some research, got registered on a website, and started looking for families who needed an Au-Pair. Around April 2017, a family from Germany messaged and told me about themselves. They sounded like a wonderful family! They had horses, chickens, cows, dogs, sheep, and most importantly, one four-year-old daughter. Her name was Carla. I messaged them back and said I would be very interested in setting up a time to Skype and talk to them. A couple days later, thats exactly what we did. That same day we mutually decided that I would travel to Germany the next month and become their Au-Pair. It seemed as if that month dragged on and on. I set up a countdown, and soon enough, it was the morning of the day I left. I got up at 6am on May 21, 2017. I got on a train in Lansing and went to Chicago. My plane would leave at 3:25 PM from O'Hare International. I was a nervous wreck because I had never traveled alone, only with the exchange group the previous summer. I found my terminal, got held up in security because my bracelet had metal on it and wouldn't come off, and then almost couldn't find my gate. It was a pretty eventful afternoon. The flight was eight hours just to Berlin. When I got to Berlin, I had 45 minutes to get on my next plane to Frankfurt, but I somehow made it. My host mom was waiting for me after I got my luggage, and then she took me to a small café in Frankfurt. She was very nice, and her English was very good. We later arrived in Momberg, which is approximately one hour and 20 minutes away from Frankfurt. I met everybody, and Carla seemed really excited to see me. The first week was okay, but a little busy.

If you've stuck with me this far, I applaud you. This is where my life changed.

I decided to get the Tinder app while I was there, more as a joke than anything. In my bio I wrote, "Somebody please take one for the team and marry me so I have a reason to stay here." It was in all honestly a joke. But a couple days later, May 29, a guy messaged me. He was sweet, cute, and his English was superb. His name was Hendrik. We messaged on WhatsApp for a few days, and would talk about our day. We had decided to meet each other, so on Sunday the following week, he came to pick me up. He brought my host mom a bottle of liquor as a gift (this is pretty common) and then we left to get lunch. We found a Turkish restaurant and had schnitzel and fries, then walked around the city of Neustadt. The landscape was absolutely beautiful. Mountains and hills everywhere! I couldn't believe how green it was. About an hour later we got ice cream, and I couldn't believe the one I got came with liquor. Now...you're legal to drink at 16 in Germany, so this was all a little different to me, as I'm 19 and the drinking age in America is 21. When we got back to the car, he surprised me with a gift. It was a German cookbook in the English language. I had told him that I wasn't sure what to cook my host family, and he remembered this. This was the sweetest thing anyone had ever done for me! He dropped me off later that day and drove home.

We continued messaging, and he had told me that his parents invited me over for a barbecue because they wanted to meet me. Oh boy. The next Sunday Hendrik picked me up and we drove to his house about an hour away. The barbecue was very good, and his parents were so lovely! Their English wasn't to good, but neither is my German. It all worked out though. We spent the next few Sundays together, going to the bar and playing billiards with some beer, getting dinner at different places, swimming, playing mini golf, teaching me to drive a stick shift, shopping, and just enjoying each others' company. In July he took me to the Schlitzlander Trachtenfest. It's a festival in his hometown with great music, beer, carnival rides and vendors. It was the coolest festival I had ever been to. I think we rode bumper cars 20 times! He had also gotten me more surprise gifts, like books, a gameboy, and he bought guitar hero because he knew I liked to play it. The Sundays also consisted of lunch with his family. So it was his mom and dad, and him and I. They were the funniest people and the most adorable couple. Every lunch had me laughing until I almost cried for some reason. I would stay at his place Saturday nights, and he would take me back on Sunday nights. Sundays were the day I got to take off each week. We were dating at this point. But then the worst happened. Things weren't going well with my host family, as in they were making me do things that weren't in the contract we both signed, and they were being very controlling. In the end, we decided to end the contract, after two and a half months of being there. Hendrik and his family of course offered me a place to stay with them while I figured out my plane ticket home. It was the saddest two weeks of my life. But we made the best of it. We went shopping some more, took a couple of road trips, played beer pong, stayed up late eating pizza, and watching movies, and of course, had lunch together everyday with his mom and dad. I was about to leave the guy I had been dating for two months. The guy I loved. We both knew it would happen, but not this soon. On August 6, he drove me to Frankfurt for my flight at 11 AM. We spent the whole morning together before I had to leave for home 4142 miles away. When it was time to go to my terminal, we both just looked at each other. I don't think we could believe what was happening. We hugged, kissed, and said goodbye. I had never knew of a heartbreak like this. He had become my rock and the person I could turn to.

After a nine hour flight to Detroit, I got home and came back to the real world. Hendrik and I still write everyday. And the best part? He's going to be here in seven days to stay for three weeks. Today is September 14. Its been a month and eight days since I've seen him. And when he gets here, I don't think I'll let him go.

To bring the story round circle, my first experience in Germany made me fall in love with the country, and it's ultimately what made me decide to go back. If I hadn't gone back, I wouldn't have found the guy of my dreams. It was the beginning of the beginning.