Predeparture: Preparing, Practicing, and Packing

“Hey, would you wanna go to Germany next year!?” -My mom, 2024. 

Little did I know the impact that simple question would have on me.

My name is Ally, and I am thrilled to say that I will be on the 2025-2026 CBYX (Congress-Bundestag Youth Exchange) high school program! I will be spending 10.5 months in a new country, with a new family, and a new school, all in a foreign language I don’t currently speak. As a 15-year-old I will leave my family of eight, my friends, and my home state of Montana to experience life in Germany. 

My goal for this blog is to share my experiences with prospective CBYX’ers to better prepare you for a year in a foreign country. I want to share the challenges, the ups, the downs, the excitement, the experience. My hope is that it will inspire and prepare you for a year abroad. 

Back to the story. 

9 months, hours of forms, a flight to Denver, and weeks of anxiety after my mom dropped that comment, I find myself waiting. Waiting and waiting and waiting for The Call.

….

Until one day in March I get a call. Actually, I missed the call. But, 3 minutes later, I frantically called back. 

“Is this Ally?”

“Yes!?”

“Congratulations on your acceptance to the CBYX program!”

I remember reading last year's CBYX blog posts and one of the writers saying she screamed. “That’s weird,” I thought, "I mean, she couldn’t have been THAT surprised, right?” But there I was dropping my phone and crying and saying to the guy, “are you SURE?” 

And now, with just 3 weeks left until departure, the dream of a lifetime is rushing on me like a tidal wave. The logistics are overwhelming. Plane tickets. Suitcases. Clothes. Forms. Passport. Bank statements. 12 months of contacts. Credits. New phone (with 2 SIM cards!).  I am preparing myself mentally to be gone, but it is tough because it just 

It doesn't feel real AT ALL. Host family. School. German?!

I’m spending a lot of my time learning as much German as possible (I’m using Duolingo, Mango Languages, and various textbooks). I’m trying to just practice, practice, practice. It’s crazy to think that in just a few weeks I will be completely surrounded by German speakers. The thought of going to German school with a working vocabulary of 400 is terrifying and thrilling at the same time -more than enough to motivate my best language-learning efforts. 

Packing is going to be interesting. So far, I’ve ordered a Euro Charger and… actually that’s pretty much it. But now, with just 2 weeks left until departure, it’s crunch time.

All that to say, I am feeling the pressure of the ever-decreasing time before departure. August 6th is drawing ever nearer, but somehow it still seems agonizingly far away. Certainly, the life of the predeparture student is not for the faint of heart. It can be summarized in three simple steps. We prepare mentally. We practice our German excitedly. And we pack like crazy.