Last Post 🙈

Hello everybody, 

Just a quick last post about the last couple days. We all landed safe in Germany on Sunday morning and even my 4 suitcases came back safe. Some of my friends and family came over and they were all glad to see me again ☺️ All my clothes and everything is still all over my floor in my room and I don’t wanna clean it up. I feel like if I leave it I can just throw it back in the suitcase and take the next plane back to America even thought it will never happen. Not never but in the next couple months 😜 it’s crazy that my 320 days in the US are already over and I’m back to reality 😂😂 I already went to volleyball practice and to school to get all the stuff I have to make up and yeah now it’s just the time of re-integration to my old life. 🇩🇪

It’s officially over..

Hi Folks, 

Today is the day I never wanted to come.. The day I’m back in Germany knowing that all my friends and my family is sitting 4.331 miles away and I won’t see them anymore. Saying goodbye to them was defiantly the worse moment in my life! I left them 16 days ago and I already miss them like crazy! I didn’t cry on the day I had to say goodbye to all my friends because it didn’t feel real at all. It felt like giving them a normal hug and I wanted to say „See ya“ but as soon as I was sitting in the car knowing that I won’t see them again I started crying. Everybody snapped me saying how much they already miss me and I had so many tears in my eyes that I couldn’t even read what they were saying. It was my last night in my new home, it was my last time saying good night to my family, it was my last time sleeping in my room, it was my last time waking up in the morning seeing their smile. It was my last time for everything. When my German mom said “Let’s go Anna, we have to go” I said “Wait, where do we have to go? My home is here.” but this time I didn’t get a choice we had to go… The whole way to the airport I was crying and snapping my sister and everybody. The whole time we were on vacation in Boston, New York, Quebec and all those beautiful places everybody wishes to visit, I just wanted to go back. When my dad asked “Where do you wanna go next“ I said “Home” but it was impossible to come back to Wisconsin and it would have been harder to leave again. I didn’t even want to put my hair back down (believe me I had to shower sometime) because my mom braided it for me and I knew she will never do it again in a long time! I still feel empty and my heart still hurts and it just feels wrong! When I was sitting on the plane reading my goodbye book I had to start over and over every time because I couldn’t do it. Sitting here in Germany and people are talking German instead of English, people are calling me Anna instead of Kern and nobody laughs anymore when I say Snickerdoodle or veggies, when I wear my shower bun. Everybody just tells me “It’s okay.. You will come back sometime.. You can always visit.. We will still be in touch..” and so on and so on… But it won’t be the same. I won’t get to play volleyball or softball again, I won’t get to be part of the high school anymore, I won’t get to see everybody every day in school, nobody will ask for my help in Calculus anymore.. I will be a guest every time I come back and not a student or athlete or exchange student or anything. Nobody in Germany will understand when I show them a picture from my exchange year, when I tell them how much I miss America, when I start another sentence with “When I was in America…”. Nobody makes fun of my accent anymore, nobody makes fun of me anymore when I still don’t know how to get from my house to Barron after a year. I can’t go on four wheeler rides anymore or go tubing with my friends and family.. Sometimes I wish I would have never done this year just because I would never had to deal with those feelings now. But it was the best year of my life and I would always do it again and again. If somebody would ask me „Do you wanna go to Wisconsin?” I would jump up, pack my bag and I would be ready in an hour to leave! The whole time during the road trip it seemed like I’m on vacation and I will be returning to my home afterwards but when I landed in Germany, I knew there was no back. 😭 I learned that it doesn’t matter if you spend your exchange year on the beach in California or in San Francisco, all that matters is with who you spend it and not where. An exchange year is like a roller coaster ride! Both have up’s and down’s, they can be scary and beautiful at the same time and they both go by too fast and in the end, you are sad that it´s over, proud that you survived and you just wanna do it again. As soon as I was sitting in the plane and the doors closed I knew another chapter of my life was over. Somebody just closed the book. Nobody asked me if I was done with the chapter, I had to. I never realized that is it over until I had to write my Germany address on papers again instead the American one, until I calculated tax on stuff where is it already included, until I planned my goodbye-party and my German friends already planned a welcome-back-party for me, until I missed America even though I was still there, until I wanted to order something online and I realized it won’t come in time anymore. Those are the moments you just want stop the time, turn around and go again! Thank you to everybody who made my year amazing and memorable! Miss and love you all ❤️

Party, German Family, Goodbye, Road Trip

Monday: We got ready for my party all day. I had a friend (Hannah) over and she helped cleaning the house. We also went on a quick bike ride in between. The weather was good. It only rained for a couple seconds My friends started coming at 6pm. My dad made chicken for my party. There were 50 people here..It was so much fun! They went in the pool, hot tub, had a fire, trampoline, volleyball, played bean bags and Jenga. At 7ish one of my moms friends asked me if I know those 3 people next to her and after a minute I realized it was my German Family. I introduced them to my family and all my friends here. Most of the people from my party left around 11 because they had to work. I stayed up until 2 with Kylie.  

Tuesday: We ate breakfast all together, my mom braided Kylies, my German moms and my hair in pig tails, got our stuff ready and we went on the lake all day! My parents both went tubing with us. We stopped at a restaurant in the afternoon. At night we played bean bags, volleyball, had a fire, went into the hot tub and so many other fun things. 

Wednesday: We had breakfast together, I packed in the morning and then we went on a ranger/four wheeler tour. Afterwards we showed my parents my school and Walmart. Then we went out to eat together where I gave them my goodbye present (photo book, picture frames, letters) and me and Kylie went to an exchange students Goodbye Party together. When we got home my brother had for work for me and my grandma was here. Me and Kylie watched a movie and cried together the rest of the night. 

Thursday: We had breakfast sandwiches. And then the time was there. The moment I never wanted to come.. I had to say goodbye. Kylie had to babysit today so she came home with the kids so I could spend my last minutes with here. After saying goodbye to everybody which was the hardest thing to do in my life we left for the airport at 7am. We flew to New York and we are staying in a hotel there. We went to Manhattan to the Empire State Building. I have been crying all day because I still can’t believe that my exchange year is over and that I will never see these lovely people again. It was defiantly the best year of my life. 

Friday: We slept in and then went to New York City and explored the city all day! We got back at 2:15am. 😭

Saturday: My dad and I left our hotel at 8 and went and got a rental car. Then we drove all the way to Cape Cod. We did a little break at a beach and then we got to hotel at 10pm. We stayed up until midnight because it’s my brother’s birthday on Sunday. 



Sunday: We went into The Pool in The Morning and then drove to Boston and went to The City.

Monday: We went back in The City for a Sightseeing-duck- Tour. Then we drove to Ellsworth/Bar Harbor, Maine. (6hrs Drive) 

Tuesday: We slept in and went whale watching. 

Wednesday: We went mountainbiking, slacklining, in the pool and out to eat. Btw we are still in Bar Harbor, Maine. 

Thursday: We got up at 6 in the morning, ate breakfast and drove 6hrs to Quebec, Canada. We went to the waterfalls, out to eat and played sand volleyball at the beach. 

Friday: We sleept in and drove to the city to rent bikes. My brother and I got a tandem which was so much fun! We drove around and explored the city. Then we went back to the hotel chilled for a little bit, went in the pool and went to a shopping mall. Afterwards we went to  Vieux-Quebec again and to a trampoline parc. The parc was so much fun too! 

Saturday: We drove to Montreal…Well kind of.. We are sick of seeing the city all the time so we booked a hotel outside of Montreal somewhere with a lake and parc so we can kinda relax and do fun stuff! We went to the lake, paddle boarding, canoeing and did a roller coaster thing and went to a festival with Live music!  

Sunday: We went hiking today but it was more like climbing 😂😂 and then we went swimming again and we did a barbecue. 

Monday: We drove an hour to a rafting place and went rafting all day. It was the highlight of our trip! It was so much fun! Afterwards we drove 5hrs to Toronto and got to the hotel at 2am 😂

Tuesday: We woke up, had Breakfast and then went to an amusement parc all day! It was so much fun and they had so many roller coasters!

Wednesday: Niagara Falls 💙

Thursday: We drove to Pine Creek in  Pennsylvania and went hiking there.

Friday: We went tubing in the morning and my parents did mountainbiking. Then we drove 6hrs to New York and ate in Buffola Wild Wings. The last 30min to New York we probably missed the right turn 100 times and it took twice as long 😂😂 When we got to the hotel we had to get cash first so we don’t get rested tomorrow at the bridge when we don’t have cash 😂😂 and then the cops were at the hotel because somebody had drugs. A last day full of action in the US! 💙