Parker O'Connell

Hi! My name is Parker O'Connell and I am a nineteen year-old American from the beautiful locale of Wilmington, North Carolina. Currently, I am living in a quaint town called Hattingen located in the middle of Nordrhein-Westfalen, on the Ruhr River.

My life is what I or maybe even most people would consider a simple one. I learn the German language at Ruhr Universität in Bochum, I play and coach lacrosse for the Düsseldorf Antlers, I am an Ice Hockey Referee for the D.E.B. and sometimes I work at an ice cream shop just to keep my work ethic at a socially acceptable level.

Delving a little more into who I am; I had an excellent childhood and I didn't come to Europe to escape the Government, or to totally reinvent myself into some crazed extrovert as some of the rumors go.. Rather I had the opportunity of a lifetime and this was one opportunity that I was not going to let slip through the cracks.

Ever since I was old enough to read and discover the world through books and other forms of literature, I was obsessed with European history and culture. Whether it was reading a book consisting of dragons as the main characters or the wonderous world of Magic with Harry, Ron and the babe Hermione. I recognized that the setting was always European. This caught my attention because of all the imagery the stories gave me; the bubbling brooks and magnificent snow-capped mountains, fields of the greenest grass and flowers bursting with color(The Sound of Music is an excellent example... just saying) and just how the vibe was always somehow positive even with the history of western Europe over the last 80 years.

World War II was also a gross event that always captivated me. Favorite movie: Saving Private Ryan; favorite book: Under A War Torn Sky (thanks Mrs. Behen, 7th grade English teacher; if you ever wondered where that book went, now you know). I digress, but I always wanted to learn more about the history of western Europe so when I was a Sophomore at Laney Highschool and met this beautiful German exchange student in my Spanish 1 class (shoutout to Mrs. Jordan) of course it was so imperative that I speak with her. Well and behold here I am over three years later. Last September after two years of long distance dating and some weeks spent together in between, I made the flight to Deutschland to try and start my new life with Lara here.