Monday, August 11, 2008

Good Morning, Vietn...I mean...TEXAS!!!

The first day back...ahhh, feels so good. My mom asked me what I wanted for breakfast this morning and my response was "Anything but toast." I downed my blueberry pancakes and cheesy eggs with a big glass of COLD milk. Still feeling the high of an amazing trip while going through the motions of normal life feels quite surreal indeed. My luggage is on its way back to me (since wonderful US Airways lost it in Philidelphia), so I still haven't felt the need to unpack, do laundry, and re-pack to head back to school. Parts of me already miss Germany though. I think its the fact of knowing that I won't be going back for a while and I feel like I was starting to connect with certain things there. I'm going to miss my host family and the house that I called home in Germany.

At this point, I'm really wishing I had blogged more regularly while in Germany because it would have documented the trip much better than my current sporadic blogs. Sharon asked me on my last night in Berlin what my favorite part of the trip was, and my response was "program or not program?" "Both", she said. Well, my favorite part of the program was hands down Bad Oeyenhausen...the whole day there. It was absolutely awesome, not only getting to see surgery, but actually getting to see the facilities and the people (staff and patients) there. My favorite part of the trip not with the program was driving with the Mercedes through the Swartzwald (Black Forest). I've asked other students what their favorite weekend was, and many of them replied that same weekend--the one where we all split off and did different things (Austria, Switzerland, Neuschwanstein). I think its because that was the first weekend when everyone just decided to relax and take a couple chill days. I'm pretty sure I liked the Black Forest trip the most because the scenery was positively stunning and also because we didn't have a set plan. Pulling over on the side of the road for photo shoots and hiking trips was acceptable...we had no place to be other than the train station at the end of the day. I hope my pictures and random jot-downs in my journal (which are as irregular as my blogs) are enough for me to remember the awesome time we had in the forest.

I hope my pictures and random journal entries will be enough for me to remember the awesome time we had in Europe. I know certain memories of the trip will fade, but I hope that by telling stories of our adventures I'll be able to remember most of what happened.

I'm off now to do laundry (since my bag came in the time it took for me to write this blog), disperse presents, share pictures, and tell my family about the last 5 weeks of our lives. Until we meet again, TSCHUESS!!!!!

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