5 weeks

Five weeks. Five weeks is all it took to open my eyes and discover a side of myself and the world that I never knew. We all like to think that as we've grown up and are approaching college graduation that we've got everything figured out and we know exactly who we are. However, as I have learned this is not accurate at all. While this trip has not made me change my professional choice, it has opened my eyes to a side of myself that I never allowed to show.

Through this program I was given the opportunity to spend weeks with people I had only briefly seen at the two meetings we had before departure. We knew nothing about one another and we only knew a little bit about the places we would be visiting. However, after five short weeks I became very close to these girls and learned a lot about the world. The girls and I would talk and share our views and opinions. We also had to deal with a lot of attacks and things happening throughout the countries we were traveling too as well as knowing of them happening back home. One thing we don't realize or maybe we just choose to ignore, is that the violence happening is going on everywhere, not just in America or just the Middle East. These attacks are happening constantly and in a new city every time. It has never effected us personally, so we never pay much attention to the violence occurring in other places besides home. Only when we were here and traveling did we realize the severity of the way the world is headed. It's sad that our generation is coming to a point where we are scared to go into very crowded places, we hear of a shooting or an accident and are no longer in shock. It's becoming such a common thing and that is not good for the world.

I have gained a new appreciation and understanding for "foreigners". You never realize how it feels or what is is like to be a foreigner in a country until you are one. In the greater aspect, we all want, respect, patience, understanding, and a chance to be normal in an unfamiliar place. Throughout my trip I had encounters with so many nice, kind, respectful people; however, I also had several encounters with rude grumpy people. Those not so pleasant experiences made me miss home. I can only imagine what it is like to be a foreigner who has permanently moved to a new land and is struggling to fit in because so many are against allowing foreigners to settle in America.

Americans are stingy and proud people. We think we are the best in EVERYTHING and in EVERY WAY. We don't seem to want to be open to new ideas. We keep our noses in the air because we've been a top nation for so long. However, there are actually other countries with better ideas and systems than what we have. If we would stop being so conceited and actually take other ideas into play we might could solve a few of the nations issues and have a smoother system in which more citizens were happy and got along.

Berlin was the last leg of our trip. I had several emotions throughout my time there. I was confused, angry, sad, happy and all those in between within one day. I still don't quite understand how the German people allowed so much tragedy to happen to them twice. As we went to the different historical sites I was astounded at how the Germans treated the sites. People were smiling and laughing at sites where horrible things occurred. I don't know if they don't understand what happened or if they just don't care, but it hurt me to watch it. I feel like growing up in the American school system, they failed to share all the details and information with us about the events that occurred in Germany during WW2 and the time after until the wall finally fell. These events, while not all directly impacted us, are important ones to know in order to prevent history from repeating itself. The way certain groups of Americans act toward immigrants and other non-American citizens and ethnicities show a need to be more fully informed as to past events. We treat one another so harshly and with such hatred and it is truly sad what the world is coming too.

This was a slight rant and I apologize. It also kind of jumped all over the place, but it was what was on my mind from different aspects of my entire trip. I will have one final post once I have been back in the states for a while. Hopefully I will have more eye opening aspects once I am back home.

Until next time!