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Today our three students in Belleville will begin their regular first week.There may still be some feelings of jet lag and the newness of it all may at times overwhelm their senses.
I remember a preparatory meeting here where we spoke of the importance to suspend one's judgement for the first 24 or even better 48 hours in order to avoid any initial negative imprints that would slant one's perception for the rest of the stay.Did they follow this time proven advice? Did they keep all channels wide open?Were they able to calm the internal dialog?What mental sorting styles are they using?Are they looking for similarities between our two cultures or do they enjoy sorting for differences?
As I pondered the above thoughts a more disturbing one kept me awake.I wondered if we here at DAFK were really doing these kids and their families a favor by sending them to the USA - a country that clearly has been in major distress about so many issues for what seems to be almost a decade or more?
And as a certain sadness began to set in about all the negativity we hear,see and read about the US - a place that once inspired me so wildly as a student in the sixties and early seventies and later on in my professional life as well - I reminded myself that reading about a country is always much less objective than living there for a certain amount of time while gaining one's own often uplifting experiences as our three kids are now doing.
This then led me to todays picture.It shows our 2005 students with their host friends free and easy at a Borders bookstore in Belleville.All are smiling and you sense there is happy energy all around.This then is the great gift for this years youngsters as well: as their first regular week unfolds they are invited to create some eighty plus inspiring days for themselves and those around them - so that we here in Paderborn may hear and read about nothing else than their happy unfoldings. PS can you tell the German kids apart from their American friends?
