Freunde

Good news everybody: I made my first friends today. After class, I went out to lunch with some people to an Italian restaurant not far from campus. It was great to sit down and talk to people. We went straight from lunch to an intercultural workshop, much better than the ones I've been to in the past. At the workshop, there were people from every continent, I think. It was amazing. We talked about cliche things like are goals and expectations, but we also had a great conversation about what we think best represents our home nation. Before each of us answered, the others tried to guess what we would say. For America, people guessed hamburgers, cowboys, country music, famous actresses, and other things that I guess are stereotypical of Americans to non-Americans. It was fun because we got to say the good things and bad things of each country. As you all know, there are many bad things about America, but we also talked about a lot more good things. The only thing that brought us all together was that we could all speak German. It's kind of funny hearing people from Chile or Japan speaking German. After the workshop, I expected my day to be over because it was almost 5 pm. I was surprised to find out, though, that a couple students were going over to my neighbor's room to hang out and use the internet, so I went with them. Another student met us in the hallway, and he told us that there was going to be a pizza party tonight in the kitchen. Several students were meeting in the entrance to go to the grocery store to buy ingredients, and then we were going to come back and make pizzas together. Let me tell you, after a couple days of not spending anytime with people or talking with anybody, the idea of cooking pizza with total strangers sounds like absolute heaven. None of us knew each other, and we all came from different countries, but we all bought food and cooked together. At one point, there were 6 of us guys putting ingredients on one pizza at the same time. All of the girls were watching, taking pictures, and laughing at us like we were fools. After dinner, conversations died down, but then more students from the floor came in to the kitchen. Natürlich haben sie viel Bier getrunken. We were all getting to know each other, new Erasmus (Exchange) students with old-timers, the ones who are students here all of the time. When conversations started to die, we did what any group of people from mixed cultures does; we talked about sports. Naturally, we started talking about the difference between soccer and football. There was one Australian in the room, so he had to bring Footie and Rugby into the play, and everybody tried to convince one another that they were right. Eventually, we started talking about different accents, dialects, and words that each speaker says funny. A lot of times, there are sounds in one language that don't exist in others, so when those speakers are forced to make the foreign sounds, they sound strange. We each made fun of each other and laughed together. This may sound all kinds of cheesy and cliche, but it was so perfect. As always, I was worried when I first got here that I wouldn't be able to make friends very easily. I was wrong. The great thing about this place is that there is a large international group, and we are forced to be with each other all of the time. We are forced to live together, eat together, communicate with each other, and take classes together. We would be lost without that guidance. I would be lost, maybe not the others. It's unusual for me to be up this late, 11:15 pm, so it's time for me to go to bed. I just had to let you know how great of a day this was for me. Everyday that passes pushes me to realize the importance of staying positive and living life with a smile on my face. It's more important than I think we can know. I say it to you so often, so I'll say it again: Smile today. Who knows how powerful a smile can be to the right person?