What do you expect?

Often times, the anticipation of a trip is as equally exciting or more exciting than the actual trip. Our junior year in high school, the year we had the exchange, was the best year of the four. No doubt this was in large part due to our exchange experiences. In fact, after our Germany trip, senior year was somewhat anti-climactic. 

I don't recall much of the time between the Germans visit and our trip to Mainz. I do remember that many of us had to schedule final exams early so that we could leave for our trip in early June. I also recall getting our yearbooks on the bus, so we brought those along. 

One thing I have slowly become used to with travel is that what you anticipate and what you experience are often very different. I really can't recall what I imagined beforehand. With the experience in particular, there was so much to figure out, comprehend and understand, there wasn't a whole lot of room for reflection. A journey might be better or worse than you reckon, but it will never be as you imagined. 

I think it's safe to say that our expectations were high and that for most of the month we visited, our expectations were exceeded. Perhaps nowadays, travel between the U.S. and Western Europe is very similar, due to the shrinking of the globalized world. Thirty nine years ago, globalization was much younger. Yes, McDonald's was there. Yes, music had long transcended the Atlantic. Other things, however, we still quite distinct. Germany, in fact West Germany at the time, still used the Deutschmark. All the little things that were new to me and most likely all of us. German cars, like the Opel. Yes, there were a few of those here in the 70s. European style door knobs, bedding, windows without screens, streetcars and busses, toilets and tiny refrigerators. It was very difficult to find ice or still water.

I'm not sure what happened to the clipping, but there was a small story about our exchange in the local paper while we were there. They relayed the story of Peter and I, desperate from our class instruction to validate our tickets when we boarded public transit that we tried to stamp our fare cards in the ashtray of the train.

One thing I vividly recall was how unsure and disoriented our exchange partners seemed, especially the first week or two of their stay. So much of everyday life was new to them. That really hit home when I observed the same students, just a few weeks later as they so confidently navigated places that were so familiar to them. In my sixteen year old mind, the Germans seemed 'uncool' when they were in the States. What I understand now is that they were just experiencing a bit of culture shock and it upended their confidence in themselves. 

No doubt it was the same for us. And of course it went beyond understanding the pepperoni meant something different there. How do you use the telephone? Where do I pick up the bus to go home? 

I'll attach a scan of some of what the Germans wrote in my yearbook that June, as we departed for our flight back to Chicago.