To boldly go where I haven't gone before

Two more days and I'm gonna be on a jet plane. For as long as I can remember I've always wanted to go to Germany. I'm half German on my dad's side, although I'm about sixth generation American. Every generation of my family lived in the same small community in Missouri until my dad. German settlers stayed there because the hills and coutryside reminded them of home. So a lot of German heritage and culture is still alive there. I remember having German language lessons with my grandmother when I was growing up. I wish I had learned more than just the days of the week and months of the year, but it was a starting point.

I took a year of German in high school and two years in college. I certainly wasn't fluent, but I got to where I could at least understand what was going on. That was years ago though, and now I've lost about 95% of it all. But I've still always been drawn to the country. I'm the only one in my family (on my dad's side) that has never been to Germany. I've talked about wanting to go for years and now it's finally happening.

People keep asking me if I'm excited to go. I have to honestly say that it hasn't really hit me yet. I've been traveling so much the past couple of months for work and other personal trips, plus other work projects, I really haven't had time to think about it. I was in Belgium a couple of weeks ago which started to whet my appetite for Germany. And now that it's right around the corner, it's starting to become more real. I think I'm actually a bit nervous about it.