Many students move away soon after college. Kate Bombard is an example of this. After graduating in 2012, she moved with her husband (who is in the Army) to Tennessee.
Recently, the pair made the trip across the ocean to Germany. Kate’s husband was already there, so Kate made the trip by herself. She had been to Europe before, but not to Germany. They will be there for around three years, so Kate was excited to get the chance to see different parts of Europe during that time.
“You’re moving to a completely foreign country where you don’t even know the language after all,” she says. “But soon those feelings went away and only left that initial excitement.”
Of course, there are many difference between Germany and the United States. Germans recycle nearly everything. There is the usual bottle and can recycling, but they also recycle things like potato chip bags and styrofoam containers. People also walk or bike everywhere, with most of them being the elderly. When people go for hikes, they use two long walking poles. Houses have solor roofs and there are wind mills everywhere. The last biggest difference Kate found was the food. Germany has much stricter food guildlines, meaning no synthetic ingredients. “I am not so scared of eating McDonalds here as I am in the states.”
When Kate first arrived in Germany, she noticed that people drove very fast. The road signs are also a bit confusing, but after studying and learning them, the signs aren’t as bad. She says the countryside is very beautiful as well. There are a lot of hills and open land. “In the German country what they do is they build up small towns and then leave majority of the land alone,” she says. “Not like the states where theres a house here or there scattered miles apart from one another. Every where you go is picture worthy over here.”