I have always been excited to travel abroad; however, when I
received my placement last August at St. Gallen, I was extremely apprehensive. I
was officially traveling to a brand new country on a different continent. Even
though the University of South Carolina is over 700 miles from my home in
Detroit, I am still in the same country where everyone speaks the same language. And although there are four official languages spoken in Switzerland,
English is not one of them. Since the town of St. Gallen is located on the
German border, Swiss German is the predominant language spoken there. How was I
going to communicate with others? How was I going to make friends? How was I going to find the train from Zurich to St. Gallen if I can't speak Swiss German? Friends and family know just how much this scares me. Yet this is a challenge I am willingly accepting.
Despite my initial apprehension, my emotions
towards this upcoming experience have completely changed for the better. During
the fall semester, I met David at the first home football game; a student from the University of St. Gallen who
was studying abroad at USC. We quickly became
friends, as my roommates and I tried to help him experience American culture: I
took him to a sorority function, and he played on our intramural flag football
team. David has promised to help me experience Swiss culture while I am abroad
at his home university. During the fall, I also discovered that one of my
family friends from Detroit has a sister living in St. Gallen. Not only will
this woman be a good connection to home, but I can also practice my Spanish with
her as she is originally from Mexico. And while I am slowly counting down the days to my departure, I am teaching myself Swiss German. At the local public library, I was able to find CDs of ten 30-minute Swiss German lessons, and I am slowly learning all the important phrases, such as "hello," "I am American," and, of course, "Where is the train station?"
