Have I mentioned that my baby is going off to spend a semester in freaking Germany next fall?
It's not that it's specifically Germany; in fact, I would be way the hell more freaked out if she were going to Prague, let's say, where one of her best friends from high school spent this semester. Of course, he's like 6'4" and looks like a professional wrestler, so he's got some built in security going for him. K is a wee thing (as she calls herself) and they don't even speak English there. (Okay, people keep telling me that everybody speaks English there. And she's just finishing a year of studying German.) But there's something about the U.K, where her sister is, that feels so nice and safe and mother-country-ish. Germany is really really Europe, not some nice distinct island that's juuuust a little bit closer to home.
I'm being irrational, aren't I. I have to book her flight tomorrow after school.
The real question is how my children became so empowered to travel the world. This was never so much a goal of mine; when I went to England 30 years ago it was at my mother's suggestion and she was treating me to the trip; I had wanted to go to DisneyWorld instead, even then. My mother did love to travel, but didn't get much chance until she retired, when she finally decided to join a tour group and go, even though my father didn't want to. My girls must have gotten it from her.
It started when R was in, I think 7th grade, and our Girl Scout council offered an educational trip to ... yes, DisneyWorld. One of the other mothers in the group suggested that girls from our troop could go. It wasn't even expensive, as I recall. But the only takers were Meg (this woman's daughter), Lauren, and R. Off they went.
When they were in 9th grade, the council offered a trip to the Girl Scout World Center called Our Chalet, which is in Switzerland. Again, the only takers from our troop were Meg, Lauren, and R. It was real cheap for a two week trip to Europe, and a great experience. And I wanted her to go on trips without me, since I'd always been the troop leader and gone on all the other trips with her. Off they went.
In 10th grade, Lauren's dad's Boy Scout troop turned into a co-ed Explorer post and the girls shifted over, although Meg dropped out. R and Lauren and a troop of mostly boys went hiking in Philmont in New Mexico and at Floodwood in the Adirondacks. In 12th grade, Lauren's dad said he would take them to the Boy Scout World Jamboree. Cool! Sign 'er up! How much could that cost?
It was in CHILE. IN CHILE. It cost an arm and a leg, but we were already committed by the time we realized and then I was probably too embarrassed to back her out. It was a helluvan experience for the kid. She climbed up the side of a volcano, among other things.
Little sister, in the meantime, asked if she could go on the Europe trip to France and Spain with a school group when she was in 8th grade. Uh, no. A co-ed school group is not the Girl Scouts. I told her she could go in high school, where a teacher I knew took a group somewhere every other year. This too was not all that expensive a trip, and she went to Italy in 11th grade -- about six weeks after she first got sick, and although she had a rough time, it was also the only good thing that happened to her for a year and half -- with a wonderful woman whose husband, a retired principal, was there too and it turned out that all the boys dropped out so it was a group of about ten girls. Good experience for her too.
R's friend Lauren also got the wanderlust and spent her junior year of college abroad in Australia. Jeez. R wanted to visit, and this time she was on her own. She actually did earn the money to go, and went for two weeks in March that year. So I've got a kid who's been to four continents. (That's four, right?) The Hubs, remember, has never been out of this time zone.
Why am I surprised that K wants to go to Germany? I don't know, but I am, I really am. It's part of her regular school, of course, just a semester abroad. I'm very proud of her courage, considering that she had freak-out panic attacks twice on her Italy trip, as good as it was. I wish she wouldn't keep telling me that she always gets lost on public transportation.
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I'm watching Friends
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