Eine Menge hat sich geändert, aber das ist halt so. Ich bin glücklich wieder bei meiner Familie zu sein, aber auf der anderen Seite fühle ich mich schlecht. Ich habe meine besten Freunde in Amerika zurück gelassen, um wieder zu meinen "alten" Freunden zurück zu kehren. Sicher bin ich nicht die einzige, die so fühlt, aber es kann keiner meiner Freunden verstehen.
Ich werde nächsten Herbst wieder zurück fliegen und alle besuchen, sofern sie in Oregon sind. Meine Gasteltern sind nach Salem gezogen, dass heißt, ich kann nie wieder das Haus besuchen, in dem ich ein Jahr gelebt habe. Ich vermisse Oregon sehr, aber meine Freunde & Gastfamilie noch viel mehr.
Die letzten Nächte war Joline oft bei mir & wir sind abends durch Hillsboro & zur Schule.
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| Abby, Joline, Sophie & Ich |
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| Joline & Ich |
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| Ivy (Thailand), Roosa (Finnland), Joline (Deutschland), Marie (Japan), Ich, Victoria (Dänemark) |
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| Mit Quent, Roosa & Jasper auf dem Mt. St. Helen´s |
"A year has passed and now we stand on the brink of returning to a world where we are surrounded by the paradox of everything and yet nothing being the same.
In no time at all we will reluctantly give our hugs and fighting the tears, we will say Goodbye to people who were once just names on a sheet of paper to return to people that we hugged and fought tears to say Goodbye to before we ever left.
We will leave our best friends to return to our best friends. We will go back to the places we came from, and go back to the same things we did last summer and every summer before, but with no idea how to proceed. We will come into town on that same familiar road, and even though it has been a year, it will seem like only yesterday. As we walk into our old bedroom, every emotion will pass through us as we reflect on the way our lives have changed and the people we have become. We will realize that the things that were most important to us a year ago don´t seem to matter so much anymore, and the things we hold highest now, no one at home will ever understand.
Who will you call first? How will you explain your exchange year to your friends? What are you going to fill your time with now? What has everyone been up to in the past few months? And how long before you start really missing how people from your host country differ from home? We start to realize how much things have changed, and that the hardest part of being an exchange student is balancing the two completely different worlds we now live in, trying desperately to hold on to everything every moment all while trying to understand what it all is we have to leave behind. We now know the meaning of true friendship. We know who we have kept in touch with over the past year and who we hold dearest to our hearts.
We´ve left our world to deal with the real world. We´ve had our hearts broken, we´ve fallen in love, we´ve helped our best friends overcome heartache, stress, and death. We´ve had to be helped through the same things as well and we´ve stayed up all night on the phone just to talk to a friend.
There have been times when we´ve felt so helpless being hours away from home when we knew our families or friends needed us the most, and there are times when we know we have made a difference.
Just days from now we will leave. Just days from now we take down our pictures, and pack up our clothes. No more walking through the streets just to take a walk. No more speaking our second language everyday. We will leave our friends whose random e-mails and phone calls brought us to laughter and tears. We will take our memories and dreams and put them away from now, saving them for our return to that world. The world where we learned to grow up and be our own person. Just days from now we will arrive. Just days from now we will unpack our bags and have dinner with our families. We will return to the same friends whose random e-mails and phone calls have brought us to laughter and tears over the year. We will unpack old dreams and memories that have just been put away for the past year.
In just days we will dig deep inside to find the strength and conviction to adjust to change and still keep each other close. And somehow, in some way, we will find our place between these two worlds. In just days"
