In the U.S., we normally use the word “gymnasium” to refer to an indoor place where people play sports, but in Germany, this word is used to refer to college-preparatory middle schools and high schools. Germans also pronounce the word "Gymnasium" differently: it is pronounced with a hard "g" as in "gut" and the "a" in the middle of the word is pronounced like "ahh" instead of "ayy." Try it out: Gym-nah-si-um!
Now that you know a little bit about where I’m living and what I’m doing, you might be wondering why I decided to travel all the way from California to Germany.
My hometown in the U.S. is San Jose, California. From a young age, I was interested in travel and different cultures because my mom’s family originally came from Japan and my dad’s family originally came from Iraq and England. As a kid growing up in the U.S., I always dreamed that I could travel to these far away places one day.
I am also very curious about traveling to different places in the U.S. Because I wanted to experience living outside of California, I went to college all the way across the country at Fordham University in the Bronx, New York. The snowy weather in the winter and riding the subway instead of driving a car were big changes for me since I grew up in sunny California, but I learned a lot just from traveling in my own country.
I got interested in traveling to Germany because I studied music history and philosophy in college. My main instrument is the double bass, and I enjoy studying and playing music by German composers, such as Johann Sebastian Bach or Ludwig van Beethoven.
