any questions?

so the students here have been asking me questions since i got here:

where are you from? (michigan)
do you like germany? (umm, yeah.)
did you vote for bush? (no.)
are you married? (umm, no.)
do you speak any other languages? (ixnay on...wait, does pig latin count??)
what's your favorite color? (green.)
do you have any pets? (yes!! hi, Boy, i miss you!!)
is it true that the hamburgers at mcdonald's are bigger in the US? (umm, sorry, really couldn't tell you...)
are the people bigger? (well, yes.)
do you like soccer? (uhh, sure.)
how old are you? (24)
do you speak german? (sometimes.)
what are your hobbies? (ummm...?!?! i think that's my favorite question. first of all, when's the last time you used the word "hobby"?? and really, unless drinking coffee and bumming around ann arbor count as hobbies...do i have any?!?!?)

yeah. that's a reenactment of my first 4 weeks here. it's like the first week of college all over again. "hi!! what's your name? where are you from? what's your major? what dorm do you live in?" though, if you'd told me then, that i would end up majoring in german...(shaking head)...

i remember some guest speaker in high school giving this speech, where he just kept animatedly repeating the question "how do you get THERE from HERE?" at the time, it was just kind of funny, because he was so serious and trying to be motivational, and we were all just sitting there, bored to death, poking each other, and mouthing the question along with him and rolling our eyes.

my question is rather, how did i get HERE from THERE?!?!?