My final thoughts...

The Balu that I was fortunate enough to have a discussion with was Christoph Fischer. He is in his late-20s and is working towards his PhD in Law. He began working with the Balu und Du program in October. He is paired with an eleven year old boy named Mark. Mark was described to me as a smart young boy, the reason he was in the program was because of his family. His parents are divorced and he lives with only his dad. His mother and disabled sister live away from them. This has caused him to be veyr introverted and isn't very motivated ot do many things. Christoph, however, seems to help him greatly. The two of them meet every Wednesday afternoon for a few hours and hang out. He told me that they do normal activities such as soccer, table tennis, movies, or just talk. To keep with the aim of the program, Chris tends to avoid doing homework with him. But, he did teach Mark how to swim which is great. The way Chris talked about Mark and his relationship with Mark made me feel unprivilaged. I never knew that an organization like this could exist and friendships could emerge from them. I wish that the mentorship program with the children at Florida High was more hands-on. This experience makes me want to apply for a program such as Big Brothers, Big Sisters.

What was great about this time spent with Chris was how relaxed it was. He is a very intellegent person and was fluent in English. We were able to hold long conversations and compare more than just the mentorship program. We discussed how the school systems, especially University level, are different for our two nations. He was willing to show us (Sara Bazzigaluppi and I) the Judicial Library for the University of Osnabrueck. For Sara it was exciting because she plans to attend Law school, but I was also interested. It was really nice of him to take us around and show us a part of the campus that was not in our tour. He was able to tell us all about his life and not be too guarded.


I was pleasently surprised at my experience in Germany. We filled out the evaluation forms but I would like to reiterate what I had written. The tours were amazing. I feel as though I was able to get a good sense of the culture and able to see that not all of Germany was the same. I am some-what of an architecture lover so to see these buildings that are older than our nation it was incredible. The churches were all so beautifully built. The building that really made my jaw drop and caused me to be speechless was the Dom in Koln. This was not part of our schedule and only Michael and myself saw it. This cathedral was larger than any other building I had. Once again, it was being renovated so it was depressing, but that piece of architecture is undescribable. I could not believe how beautiful it was, and then I got closer and was even more astonished. The detail in all of the statues and all of the arches was just incredible. This piece was what put me over the edge to say that I WILL, FOR SURE, BE BACK TO GERMANY AS SOON AS FINANCIALLY POSSIBLE. I loved this trip, all of the participants and all of the staff, both Florida and Osnabrueck staff.