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Closing a Chapter

I’m sitting in an empty airport. To my right are the soaring double sealed windows that seem to be every terminal’s “unique feature,” complete with the nose smudges of small children, the signature of unseen predecessors left behind from pushing …



Victoria’s Visit

Surprise, surprise! My phone buzzed with a Facebook notification.

“Message from Victoria R,” the preview read.

Oh, I haven’t heard from Victoria in quite a while! We were friends in High School, and now she’s at the University of Michigan


Those first few months

Learning a language while living im Ausland is quite the adventure. It’s simultaneously incredibly difficult while surprisingly easy, completely lackluster but full of hilarious mistakes.

I’ve been asked time and time again what being immersed in and learning German …


Celebrity Status

In the hallways or on the street I’ll hear children whispering, “Ja, das ist Andrew, der der ein Austauschschüler ist!”

And, kids being kids, one or two young students will come up to me and shyly say “Hi Andreuu,” running …



H&M makes Detroit weltbekannt

When meeting people for the first time, conversation usually samples something similar to these two lines;

…Ich komme aus Michigan… (I’m from Michigan)

Ach so! Chicago ist in der Nähe, oder? (Oh, Chicago is nearby, right?)

Most people seem …


One Year from One Word

I was seated crosswise at a faux wooden table, positioned with my back to the rest of the classroom and enjoying the lovely view out the classroom window, which featured the yellow bricks of the courtyard’s adjacent wall.

To my …


I’ll come back fatter

Well hopefully not.

You may think to yourself, “Andrew, how could you let that happen? You left the first/second fattest country on the planet relatively healthy, and you’ll return fatter?”

But hold your judgement, because you (probably) haven’t lived …


München’s Mittelseminar

Youth For Understanding holds Mittelseminars for their exchange students. These seminars, usually comprised of 25 or so exchange students and 5-10 YFU Alumni, give exchange students the opportunity to reflect on the past 5-7 months of their exchange, talk about …


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