I wish German had been offered in my high school. I took Russian and Spanish, and now am taking Arabic... but one of my good friends who also took Russian enrolled in the army just out of high school (he JUST got out), the army shipped him off to Germany, and he met this wonderful girl there and they are going to be married when he graduates from the U of Louisville.

Side story (I have so many): while in Germany, he was in a head-on collision on the autobahn, his turbo Jetta against a Jeep. The Jeep driver wasn't wearing a seatbelt and died... my friend was, and ended up with the engine coming through the firewall and crushing his legs - he couldn't walk for months. After he recovered, the dead man's family sued my friend, and he was found guilty, but only of the most minor offense possible. Nevertheless, he served solitary confinement in the army's brig for at least a month. So Germany was a mixed bag for him...although he traveled to like every country imaginable.