Integration?

So, one of these days I'll actually get around to posting the pictures from my travels through Italy and Denmark. I just wanted to write this post really quick about a very exciting event that happened to me the other day: I forgot I was in Germany.

No, I'm not amnesic or developing very early-onset Alzheimer's. When I say that I "forgot" I was in Germany, what I mean is that for a few moments I wasn't aware that I was in a foreign country. Even though I've felt comfortable in Germany ever since I got here, and especially felt at home in the past 2 months or so, I'm still almost always conscious of the fact that this is not in fact my homeland. Little things keep me aware of this (besides the language, of course): the way a building looks, the size of the streets, a smell, even the vegetation. All combine to remind me that, while I may love Germany, it's still foreign to me, meaning that I in turn am foreign to it. And I hate the feeling of being a foreigner/tourist!

Therefore I was very excited by this "forgetting", momentary as it was. It's a sensation that I can't really even describe, but what basically happened was that I was just going through my routine. Getting off at my bus stop, glancing towards the grocery store and bakery and pondering if I needed anything, and then turning around to head into my dorm. What was special was the absence of my usual thoughts, such as "I bet I totally stick out as an American because I tripped getting out of the bus" or "I wonder if the store is open? Let's see, it's 6, so maybe? Dang these german stores and their weird hours!" Rather, it felt as normal, automatic, and banal to me as walking across campus at Wash U to go to class or driving down Monroe Street in Spokane. And that's exciting.