Guest Blogger: Maryanne Arceo

Hi!

My name is Maryanne Arceo Flores. I’m a 16-year old Californian, and both of my parents emigrated from Mexico to give me and my siblings a better future. I’ve always wanted to study abroad, when I was younger, my parents always tried their best to take me and my brothers to Mexico every summer so we’d know our roots, so traveling was very interesting to me. This year I was lucky enough to be accepted into the Berlin Culture and Language Program with CIEE, and thankfully, I received the Global Scholarship which was essentially the only reason I was able to participate in the program. So far, the trip has been everything I imagined and more, and I am excited for what has yet to come.

Now, soccer has had a small role in my life. I played competitively for a year, my brothers have been playing for many years, and my parents enjoy watching soccer matches on TV when they can. Due to my lack of further investigation into the topic, I just always assumed that Mexicans and Brazilians love soccer more than any other ethnicity. I was proved gravely mistaken once I arrived in Germany. In bookstores I visited, there were tons of children’s books about soccer, the first German cartoon I saw was about a little girl playing soccer, my host brother gave me an incredibly adorable smile when I gifted him a pair of goalie gloves as a thank you gift. Also, Germany has won 5 World Cup Titles, which verifies their love for the sport. As many of you may be aware, the FIFA World Cup is taking place this summer. Of course, my host family was super pumped for the first World Cup game and they organized a BBQ with their friends and neighbors in order to watch it. Who was playing? Germany, versus Mexico. It was my first weekend with my host family, and in addition, I was gonna meet various of their friends while their favorite team played against a team that holds a special place in my heart; naturally, I was a bit nervous and didn’t know very well how to act.

As the day began, we started to set up for the party. Before people started arriving, my host sister approached me with a gift, a Germany jersey. I was over the moon, to be given a gift like this, gave me a sense of belonging. When I put it on, I felt more like a family member, instead of a foreign exchange student they happened to be housing. Soon enough, guests came in, they were all very friendly and respectful. Some of them asked me questions about how I was adjusting and made pleasant small talk. Right before the game began, there was the singing of the national anthems. During the German anthem, we all stood and they recited it as I listened silently in awe. As it ended, the Mexican anthem began. A friend of my host father asked all the guests to remain standing in respect to the Mexican anthem. I was incredibly pleased and humbled by this, I’m very grateful for such a simple request. During the game, I remained rather quiet. I don’t know much about soccer, and it’s not something I personally like to watch, so watching it with my guest family and their friends was a brand new experience for me. As the game went on, my host father cheered for both Mexico and Germany, and I was incredibly happy because of that. After Mexico scored their goal, I was ecstatic but didn’t outwardly show it. I wanted to be respectful towards the new people I’d met, and didn’t wanna seem overly excited. The game went on, and Germany couldn’t manage to score. Mexico won against Germany for the first time in an official match. I shook hands with the guests and helped clean. Although, I thought it’d be fairly awkward, considering that I was kind of on the opposing side, no one really minded. It was an amazing evening, and I had a lot of fun.

Although an event like this might seem small for a lot of people, for me, it was incredibly important. I was able to bond with my host family over something that both my blood family and they liked, so it gave me a taste of home while I was welcomed into a new one.

Danke, Maryanne, for sharing your experience of navigating between two cultures.

Bis bald!