I called my dad later that day, telling him everything that went on, and then I mentioned "oh yeah I ran into Dr. Musser today. Oh yeah I said hi, yeah it was for this study abroad program thingie.... they go see German vet schools and hospitals and learn about all that stuff, but oh gosh NO I could never go and do that. Only crazy people WANT to get in a plane and fly across an ocean. Did you know you can't land a plane on water?" Instead of humoring my concerns my dad said "OH MY GOSH SARAH!!!! You should TOTALLY do that!! It sounds SOOOOO COOL!!!!" Holy moly that's where it ALL really got started. I kind of realized hey, it would be cool to go to Europe, a once in a lifetime chance to travel while I'm young and don't have anything else to worry about. I applied, got accepted, managed to figure out the money situation, and everything was set. But then of course my boyfriend had to tell me "Wow Sarah, I've always wanted to go to Europe, we should go early and travel together." I was screaming in my head "We've been dating FOUR years and you JUST now tell me this!" I spent forever trying to figure out planes, travel plans, TRAINS (WHOA trains.... a whole nother world), and foreign hotels, all on a college students budget. I was totally overwhelmed. Plus we started our initial trip meetings, and gosh I was sure no one in the group was going to like me and everyone already knew someone and I wasn't going to have hardly any fun at all. Boy was I wrong.
Traveling with my boyfriend was A-mazing. We went to London, Paris, Berlin, Bamberg, and Amsterdam. There are so many stories from that trip, I wish I had longer to tell all about them.
(Yeah that's him watching the World Cup game from Fan Fest in Berlin. Oh yeah and that's def the Branderburg gate behind the TV screen. Crazy huh?) Anyway, traveling with him was amazing. I definetly learned a lot about being confident and not being afraid to ask a total stranger how to find something. I also wasn't afraid of looking stupid, I mean hey, I'm just a dumb American and I'll never see you again because I am in Europe! Even through traveling around was a blast, I still wasn't ready for the shock of the program. My boyfriend left from the Amsterdam airport and all of a sudden I realized.... I'M IN EUROPE!!!!!!!!! ALONE!!!!!!!! NO CELL PHONE!!!!!!!! WHOSE IDEAS WAS THIS??????????????? I freaked out a bit. Not as much as on the plane ride to Europe (it takes a LONG time to get across that ocean, and planes are not as big as they look. My dad calls them cattle cars with wings for a good reason). I had to go back to my hostel alone, get all my stuff together alone, walk back to the train station with all my crap alone, and then take the train into Germany alone. I was a bit sad. Once I got into Duesseldorf I really clicked on my German (I used in a some in Bamberg because its a small town and not everyone knew English) because now I was living in Germany. LIVING!!!! Even if it only was for 5 weeks it was still living.
I made it to the AIB safely, paid my cad driver, and there I was. I was SO nervous! What was I thinking when I signed that paper! My host mom spoke very good English even though she didn't think so and after picking me up and taking me on my first trip on the Autobahn she showed me around the house and into my room. It was a very nerve racking time because I've always tried to be very courteous and I hate to make others feel uncomfortable but I am usually very warm and friendly but I had heard so much about the standoffish Germans I was afraid to come out of my shell for fear of offending her. But boy did I throw out those notions fast! My host my was so incredibly nice and always wanted to make sure I was comfortable and happy. We really started to talk more at the 4th of July celebration we had at the AIB, which I think was the first sign of everyone wanting us to feel comfortable. I love the U.S. and the 4th of July is a very important holiday and I really feel like they recognized that even though it was American, it was important to us, even if we were in Germany.
Well, this is starting to get long so I'll try to sum everything else up pretty quick. The details of everything we did are around here somewhere in the blog. We went on some crazy trips, did some really fun things, learned about Germany frat boys, saw the most incredible sights, and I met four of the most A-mazing women ever. We are the female straight version of the Fab 5. I didn't think I would become close with one person, I became close with FOUR! Kristen, Melissa, Kit and Stuart are girls I probably never would have imagined I would love so much. Even being the mom of the group I always had a blast and I can't imagine having a better time than I did. We wandered through the red light district of Amsterdam together (We had to cover Stuart's eyes a couple times.), we partied like real German's at the vet frat house together, we took care of each other on the Munich bike ride, drooled over the Eigelstein's waiters together, sang the War Hymn at the biergarten like true Aggies, and we made friends with almost everyone on any train we got on. Oh yeah, and we shopped! I really feel this whole trip brought out the absolute best in me. I would say I changed, but I feel like its just that who I am was able to come out more, and now I'm not afraid to show who I really am. I got to be curious and caring and nerdy and a medicine freak (seeing open heart surgery... MOST overly emotional medical moment of my life, I saw a man's hear beating... in his CHEST!!!!), and I got to have a lot of fun with the best girls ever. Don't get me wrong I really love everyone that went on the trip. Seeing Greg at my med school interview made me feel so comfortable and at home, going to Chrissy's ring dunking and then Derek's was super exciting, having Becca and Erin in my molecular genetics class always makes for an interesting time (ROW 6 Baby!!!), and running into Mas at random places always makes me smile (or maybe its his funny laugh, I dunno). In fact I call everyone that went on the trip my German friend, which is pretty confusing to all of my friends that didn't go on the trip. I definetly idenify with friends at home not understanding. All of a sudden to them I had a new group of friends that I was crazy about and wanted to see that they didn't know. And I've been through a whole life experience that they've never had. And I KNOW I drive them crazy when I say "OH gosh!! When we did blah blah blah in whatever cool country we were in at the time." I have very few regrets over all. I wish I hadn't gotten sick (yeah don't get sick in a foreign country, they don't have a CVS with all the medicines you know and love), I wish I had taken more pictures, and I wish I had bought more souveniers. Oh yeah, and I wish they hadn't told everyone not to wear t-shirts. I brought all these plain polos because the study abroad people said OH NO Don't look like an American. I hate to break it to them, but you can't help it!!! The second you get there you have American written in day glo orange on your forehead. (okay I had ONE time where some one honest to goodness thought I was German. I was pretty excited about that.) But that's it. The trip was worth the money, the time, the tears... everything. I can't imagine my life without having done this trip. When I left I said oh wow this is so cool, a once in a life time opportunity. But now I know it wasn't once in a lifetime because now that I've been... I WILL go again. I can't wait to travel, I get excited about looking at new places to go, I even enjoy being a little bit spontaneous! Dr. Wasser and Dr. Musser were incredible the whole trip, as was Miriam. They all wanted us to go out, have fun, and learn about ourselves and Germany. There could have been no better group to go on this trip with. I am so blessed to have been given all of this. Now that I'm at the end, I want to cry again. It would be so much easier to just be able to plop my brain out onto the computer so that everyone could feel the happiness and memories I have because of this group and program. So as the girl who didn't want to leave Texas, much less the U.S., let me tell you, JUST GO!!!! You'll never have as much fun and learn as much as you will on a study abroad program. If I can do it, you can too. You'll love it, or my name's not Sarah Morris :)
And here's a few pics to show just how cool it all was.
The first is the Dom in Cologne.
Then its me at the Marksburg castle. I met some nuns there on the walk up. REAL nuns! They needed someone with German skills to help them out. So I tried. Dr. Wasser said I get double points since I'm not Catholic.
And that's Stuart in Munich being silly. When is that girl not silly?
And that's at Dachau. It was really hard to put into words the emotions I felt there.
And finally, that's a bunch of the girls at the Biergarten in Munich, posing with the Ompapa band. They were so cute in their Lederhosen!
No comments:
Post a Comment