Bundesrepublik Deutschland

Bundesrepublik Deutschland’s biggest goal, of course, is to make it to Germany. Once there it would like to visit every German state and have its picture taken with well-known German landmarks. The Brandenburg Gate, Auschwitz, and the Berlin Wall come to mind, but please don’t be limited by those suggestions. While it’s still in the States, Bundesrepublik Deutschland would love to hang out with anyone who enjoys German things!

Our daughter, EchoDerRuhe, has recently turned eighteen, graduated from high school, and is leaving for college this fall (2010). To celebrate the beginning of her adult travels and adventures, our family thought it would be fun to release eighteen Travel Bugs, each representing an aspect of who she is today and/or how she got to adulthood. And yes, it was hard to choose just eighteen, especially ones for which we could create travel bugs! A great many interesting things about her were left out. (Can any of us be described in terms of just eighteen objects?!) While we fully expect her to go places, we know that these eighteen Travel Bugs might not make it quite as far as she does. Still, we think it’ll be almost as much fun to watch them go as it will be to watch her. That being said, this is one of eighteen Travel Bugs released on July 18, 2010.

Like many Americans, Echo is a conglomerate of nationalities. From her father she has Irish, Dutch, Scotch, and Native American blood, and from her mother she has French, Swiss, and German. There’s probably a smattering of other nationalities of which neither parent is aware, but we can stop with German! Best estimate says that she is somewhere between one-fourth and one-eighth German; it’s the biggest portion of her ancestry. So what’s a girl to do when her mother knows nothing of the German side of her ancestry (besides a love of sausages and sauerkraut, a familiarity with the word Gesundheit, and pale skin paired with blue eyes)? Take it up in high school as a language! Echo didn’t just study German for four years, she embraced it! Gone is Mom and Dad, in is Mutti and Vati. Even her Geocaching name is in German! She plans to visit Germany one day (that goes without saying!) and dreams of living there. In the past, she entertained schemes to become an exchange student or attend a German college, but alas, money (or more precisely, lack of it) intervened. Current plans involve finishing college here in the states, but should an exchange student opportunity cross her path, it’ll be Auf Wiedersehen U.S.A., hallo Bundesrepublik Deutschland!