Home. A word with seventeen different meanings. The most often used of which is, ‘Residence: The place where a person, family, or household lives.’

A word that, for our family, has described the large white house topped with traditional German red shingle for over six years.

Our House: The large white house to the right.

Our village is distinctly German. It is a smaller town than most, housing only a couple of hundred people. Actually, it’s so small it’s not on most maps, being merely tagged on to a larger town a mile away. It’s a very comfortable town. Everyone seems to know each other. It is a farming village. In our part of town, cows abound. The town sits in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by fields of vegetables.

Countryside: A sample of the area that surrounds our house. But a mere photograph can't do it justice...

The main road is smooth, unlike all the cracked segments that compose the rest of the town’s streets. It is the only road on which it is common to see cars. Almost all of them are passing through en route to other destinations. It took eight months for this road to be paved. All throughout which, we were forced to drive through tiny streets and cramped corners just to drive out of town. It is very dusty here, due to the huge tractors that rumble by. The town’s church is just off the center of town. It houses the ringing bell that echoes throughout the town.

Main Street: Running through the center of our town.

German countryside is permeated by a host of unique smells. A nice one is humidity. That smell just before it’s going to rain. But more often than not it’s manure. Fertilizer. Cow dung. Call it what you will. Being hauled by the truckload past our house and spread around the fields. It took years before we got used to waking up to that in the morning. And, on those rare lucky days in spring, the air smells like peanut butter... sugar beets being ground up at the processing plant a couple of miles away.

Down the Road: The road just outside my window.

Living in Germany has given us a unique outlook on life. It gives us memories and experiences we could never have living in the states. I love it here in the country. Some people can’t imagine a different life than living in the city. For us, it’s the opposite. I think you learn a lot more in the countryside than in the city. How many people know what deer barking sounds like?

We won’t live in Germany forever. But we will always remember our time here fondly. In a way, this will always be home.

William Wellman is a member of the Youth Travel Blogging Mentorship Program.

All photos courtesy and copyright William Wellman