As is well documented all throughout this website, I have spent almost a whole year apart from home as an exchange student in Kentucky. Those months have influenced me beyond boundaries, have shaped and formed me into the person I am today; more than any other events in my life ever have.

When I returned to Germany in the summer of 2006, I really rather would have stayed in Kentucky. I hated being back in my old life where everything was boring and regular. I soon lost the daily fight against depression as a result of constant unhappiness, as a result of my broken, aching heart. I have never enjoyed life as much as I have from July 2005 to June 2006, nor do I believe that I ever will again. Thus, the story I’ll be telling here is simply called The Best Year of My Life.

Today, almost two years after my return, I still miss my Kentucky life every day with every single pore of my mind, body and soul. But I don’t have an outlet for all these feelings; nobody here can understand how amazing my Kentucky experience truly was nor do they want to listen to my glorifications of a country that, in the public European eye, has crashed down from the top within the last few years - and I don’t expect them to.

Instead, I’m going to look through old diaries from 2005 and 2006, dig through boxes and boxes and boxes of Kentucky souvenirs and re-live that fabulous life I was blessed to live for eleven months. Come along with me, if you’d like.

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I had wanted to travel to the United States for as long as I can remember and I don’t have a clue what started it all. I do remember, however, that European and especially German music, fashion, film and TV of the 90s were hugely influenced by the American culture. Everything American was suddenly cool and hip and in style and everybody loved that great country far away across the big ocean. I suppose, that’s when I first realized that there was something out there that I wanted to see and experience first-hand.

I was just starting fifth grade by that time and couldn’t wrap my mind around the aspect of traveling just yet. Going on vacation with my family, sure, that I knew. But I certainly didn’t even dream of the possibilities that lay ahead of me.

By the beginning of ninth grade, I started watching Friends which, at the time, was America to me. It represented everything I wanted to experience, the perfect life only reachable in the United States. At this point, two years of high school English lay behind me and I was captivated by the new language. I had had high school French for four years by then but my knowledge of English quickly caught up and outran French in huge steps. I wanted to speak English in everyday life and I wanted that American Dream to be my dream.

I caught snippets about so-called international student exchanges here and there. I learned that they made traveling available to students just like me and I wanted to do it, although I had no clue what it really meant, what it would entail. But I wanted it - and I have always been very stubborn about things I set my mind to; so I talked to my English teacher about it and she provided me with different magazines, websites and organizations to turn to. From the very beginning, EF seemed to be the most reliable, traditional, cost-efficient, fun-looking place to go.

I became interested, more and more over time - and, man, there sure was enough information to satisfy my thirst. I found out that student exchanges usually last eleven months, that students stay with a host family and have to attend high school as any regular kid would, that the best time to be an exchange student is throughout the eleventh grade, and that EF charges 6,500 euros ($ 10,200) for the so-called High School Year anywhere in the United States. That includes high school fees, general organization (preparation meetings before the year abroad etc.), and of course the two-way international flight. Going to the UK, France, Ireland, Costa Rica, Japan or China would be cheaper, going to Canada, Australia or New Zealand would be even more expensive.

None of this mattered, though. I wanted to travel to the United States, come what may. My parents agreed to spend most of the money they had saved for me since my birth on this adventure which was a risk well taken because it all worked out so beautifully in the end. However, in late 2004 when I made the final decision to embark on this impossible, crazy journey I didn’t know that yet.

Student exchanges were the new thing to do during this time and crazy reports on TV were supposed to scare me away; worry me that my host dad would install cameras behind mirrors to spy on me while I was changing, worry me that I would be (ab)used as an unpaid nanny or cleaning lady, worry me that I would go through at least three host families before I would find one that fit me well.

But I wasn’t scared. At all. Looking back, I don’t remember ever feeling unsure about the High School Year or the fact that I would leave behind all my friends and my family and the life I had always known. I never ever doubted my decision.

I was accepted to the EF exchange programme in early 2005. Along with general information about myself, a letter to my future host family, a health certificate, different forms from my school here and recommendation letters, I of course had to apply for a J-1 visa (the one every exchange student needs) and then send everything to EF. For the visa I had to pay a visit to the American embassy in Frankfurt, Germany which is a three-hour trip from where I live.

The day of the embassy visit is engraved into my memory like not much else, I remember that day vividly: it was extremely hot and Frankfurt was stuffy and crowded, the embassy looked pretty behind bars, walls, fences and guards and there was a line of people from the front gate, down the entrance driveway onto the street which had been freed off traffic by the local police, down the sidewalk, and zigzagging between the giant, beautiful oak and chestnut trees lining the street.

To be continued…

I started watching Gilmore Girls last night. Which is why I posted this picture of Alexis Bledel that makes me incredibly jealous because OH GOD WOULD YOU JUST LOOK AT HOW PRETTY SHE IS? My friend N has a couple of seasons on DVD and she’s always told me how much she liked the series. And since I’m getting really tired of re-running Friends episodes and Prison Break and Lipstick Jungle is still on hiatus and Gossip Girl only comes out every Monday AND I NEED SOME RELAXATION EVERY SINGLE NIGHT AFTER ALL THE BIOLOGY STUDYING, I was looking around to find a new TV series I could obsess with.

I also looked at Heroes but I just couldn’t get myself to start getting into it, what with all the supernatural stuff going on? I don’t think I’d care for that. I also considered starting on One Tree Hill but… Well, as you can see, one highlights complex biological theses in one’s notes, the mind wanders.

So anyway, Gilmore Girls seems pretty awesome so far. I love the mother-daughter-relationship and the French guy working at the hotel and all the humor in it. So I ended up ordering season one and two on DVD from amazon.com, they should be here by Friday.

I also ordered Gossip Girl novel number 10 (I just finished number 9 and already own number 11 for reasons I can’t explain) and the first of the Twilight saga, just because everybody’s made such a big deal about it. I can’t think why I would like something that has vampires in it since I hate anything surreal like that but then again I hated historical novels and then I got addicted to The Pillars of the Earth.

So. Can’t wait for Friday.

Picture source: here.

The last Biology class, the last History class, the last Social Sciences class, the last French class, the last Math class and the last P.E. class of my life lie behind me now.

This is an emotional rollercoaster ride.

I am grieving.

Two days to go.