A friend told me once when I was at my first German immersion May Term in Camden, Maine, that life was full of Abschlussfeiern (good-bye parties). It was the last day of our 15-day experience, and everyone was furiously exchanging addresses...real snail-mail addresses, not email addresses. It was, after all, 1988.Yesterday, we had our Abschlussfeier: a gathering here at the apartment with frankfurters, cheese, salad, rolls. Ironically, it was essentially the first meal we had here as a group that September evening before orientation began when most everyone was just getting off a plane, exhausted, starving. We had starving students last night as well, many saying that it's time to go home because their money's dried up. Some things never change with time--it was the same for me 18 years ago.
After an afternoon of hanging here, watching Peter Pan (Nikolas' choice), and eating, most everyone headed to Augustinerbräu, a raucous beer hall on everyone's list of places to go on a nice summer evening. Eightteen years ago, my Abschlussfeier which was also held at my place happened to fall on the first day of sunshine in what had been three straight weeks of miserable weather. My landlady, Frau Ballwein, was gracious enough to let us host some 35 of us. We started at noon and the last people went home at midnight.
In 1991, leaving people you'd just spent a chunk of time with might mean that you wouldn't see them again. Letter writing worked in only a few cases and that for only certain lengths of time. Today, through Facebook, I've connected with about 18 of the 40 people who were in my group. I was largely motivated to contact people because my resident director, Herr Roggenbauer, lives in Salzburg now. He remembers the group fondly and often wondered aloud about where all the "kids" may be now.
It's been a great time getting in touch with these people. Marriages and births, of course, have taken place over the years. Sadly, even one of our 40 left us before any talk of reunions could take place. Kevin Greene, a great kid from UMaine, went on a 5-mile jog one morning, something he did a lot. He came back home, walked through the doorway, and collapsed.
My students are also on Facebook and I'm already connected to them. Unless they defriend me or unless Facebook goes totally screwy and makes it difficult for people to stay with them, I don't anticipate losing touch too easily. I look forward to hearing about their career choices, their marriages, their parenthoods, their travels. It was a great bunch of kids, each one very different than the other, but each one unique and interesting in his or her way.
I feel for them--I remember my year AFTER Salzburg. Your experiences are still fresh in your mind, you want to share stories with old friends from home and show them photos. But people are only interested for a few minutes-- you get the feeling that they don't want to hear any more. In many cases, people just won't understand why you went away in the first place. You heard songs all year, English ones, that were popular in Austria, and no one's ever heard them in the U.S. You complained about the food in Austria, but once you're back home, all you want is a currywurst with fries. Around October, you're walking to class remembering that just months ago, your walk to the Universität took you across a picturesque river and past as castle.
But there was a reason why we were coupled up with them just like there was a reason why Herr Roggenbauer led us to Salzburg in 1990. I know now why I had to come all those years ago. For my kids, it might be years before they truly understand why they did. But they will.
