However, in order to continue to grow as a speaker and writer, I will need to actively study it. Harry Potter is amazing, but I do feel the need for vocabulary that goes beyond words related to magic! While my French is still strong, I can feel it slipping away a bit. So as my time abroad continues, I aim to work on both French and German more consistently. In Luxembourg, I spoke both French and German! It was fun when I went into stores and did not know if the clerk would greet me with Hallo or Bonjour. Luxembourg has three official languages: French, German and Luxembourgish. I hope that I will always appreciate living in a multilingual context.
For the second half of this reflective journal, I want to think about where I started my time abroad and my time writing to you. When I first came to Germany, I knew I wanted to maximize everything about the experience. I felt a lot of pressure to do as much as possible in my year here because who knew when I would have the opportunity to live in Europe again? I soon discovered that I did not know what "maximizing this experience" would or should look like. Finally, visiting the capital of Luxembourg after living in Europe for three months offered a moment of clarity. It was a moment when I chose to stop taking the proximity of new places and different people for granted and actually decided upon a day to travel and challenge myself with a new environment.
I have realized that, rather than looking at this year as a time period when I must do everything, I would rather look at it as a year to enjoy. It sounds simple, but I think my mindset of "do everything" was holding me back from appreciating the small things.
