As she gawked at what she explained as the, “mile high grocery shelf”, she stuffed our cart with candy and ice cream and talked about how big the store was compared to her local food market in Germany. M&M’s, Hershery’s bars, Twizzlers, Reese’s peanut butter cups, Kit Kats, Gummi Bears, Butterfingers, Twix, Tootsie Rolls, and Blue Bell Ice Cream made our cart a diabetic’s worst nightmare. She went on and on about the variety and the vastness of the different foods she could choose from. All I could see was the candy aisle at my local H-E-B being raided by this strange five-foot-tall, blonde, blue-eyed, German foreign exchange student. Little did I know, that Lea would change my perception of the world and free me from my ignorance. Lea and …show more content…
Lea was homesick a lot, she agreed that some of the worst, and some of the best parts of her life revolved around the small world she created for herself here in America. The worst moments- being lost in something foreign. The best- discovering herself through her endeavors. She never answered my lingering question until she left, “There are so many reasons why I came to America- to experience a different culture, to learn a new language, and to discover myself. However, the most unexpected and the most important is that I got to meet people like you. People like you left a piece of themselves in my heart, and I can only hope I’ve done the same.” If I was given a plane ticket, I would be sitting on a couch next to Lea in Germany eating Kinder bars, Milka chocolate, and watching a movie that I wouldn’t even understand. All so I could experience exactly how Lea feels in my HEB- overwhelmed by the vastness of this world and to experience different opportunities. I would live a different life, learn a new language, discover myself, and of course, meet more people like Lea. My heart may never be at home ever again. It would be somewhere else, but that would be the price I would pay for the richness of loving and knowing people in more than one