Where has the time gone?

Upon returning to the US, I managed to eat every food I missed during the 6 weeks abroad within 2 days.  This included Mexican food, Babe's chicken house,  and Texas (not German) BBQ. I ate more within my first two days back than I ever did while in Europe, and I quickly realized this is why American's are known for being slightly larger and unhealthy. My first two days in Europe I face timed my mom and told her I was going to starve because my host home's portion sizes were tiny.  This may have been a slight exaggeration but it proves the point that our portion sizes are not the same as theirs.  But, while eating out I did manage to find some foods that I loved. My absolute favorite was Goulash. I am pretty sure I ate it 4 times while abroad. I guess that's one thing I learned, goulash is the greatest thing ever and I need to find a restaurant that has it, or maybe try and be a chef and make it myself.  Option one is probably the safer option. Okay, thats enough talking about food... I could spend an entire blog post comparing the foods, discussing my favorites and least favorites, and discussing which country had the best food I visited, but that isn't the point of this blogpost.

I knew going into the program I wanted to be immersed in the culture, but I did not really know what this meant.  While there I sometime felt like I wasn't that immersed, and instead was the obvious american tourist. But, now I realize I got a completely unique experience that I would not have gotten any other way.  While in Germany, I had to find my way to the AIB on the first day of class, which was a challenge to begin with, but by the end of the trip I felt like a pro at using public transportation, not only in Bonn, but anywhere.  My roommate CheyAnne may laugh at this because my sense of direction walking was completely terrible, but this is the case in the States too, there is no changing that.  In addition to the lifestyle of using public transportation, I feel like my knowledge of the world outside the US changed.  I always liked to think of myself as a culturally sensitive person, and tried to learn about and understand other people groups, but I realized there were a lot of things I neglected to consider.  My biggest realization is how self centered the United States is, and I fall completely guilty of this too.  So much of our society is based on what we accomplish or earn, and how lavish our lifestyle is, and we don't consider keeping up with news in the US, much less world news and events.  This realization came throughout the trip whenever people would find out we were Americans, which wasn't that hard, and asked us who we were voting for in the next presidential election.  Yes, this election seems to be the laughing stock of the world, but they followed it more than I did.  I don't want to be that person who stays focused on themselves and their country, but I also realized I didn't even focus on my own country enough, I was too focused on myself and college.  Studying abroad made me look at the bigger picture of the world.  While in Germany, a lot of things about the German lifestyle and attitude inspired me.  First, I love that eating out is not a thing.  Families cook and eat at the table every night, or almost every night. Some people do this in the US, but my family was not like this. Second, I noticed how caring of other people they are while walking past the refuge housing on the way to the AIB every day.  Regardless of politics, the German people actively did something to help these people who had nothing.  German's, and European's in general, also seem to take life slower than we do, and really live in the moment.  This is something I could especially learn from, as I am constantly worrying and thinking about the future.

This may sound weird, but I feel like a grew up a lot while abroad. Yes it was only 5 weeks, and yes I did not change in age, but hear me out.  While abroad you are kinda thrown into it all.  I knew nobody going in and am a more reserved/shy person.  Yet, I had a blast abroad and met so many amazing and different people.  Second I grew up as a result of all the planning, or sometimes lack there of, that went on in those six weeks.  I traveled with just CheyAnne on the free weekends, succeeded.  Sure, sometime we didn't make a train reservation early enough and had to take 3 different trains in the middle of the night to get somewhere, but we got there and that's all that matters.  Yes, in college we live on our own, but being in a foreign country is totally different.  Then there is money, you come in with X amount to spend on the trip, eat out at Italian restaurants your first week there, and then realize this isn't going to work.  So, you find your way around the grocery store and buy lots of gummy bears.  Okay, maybe I didn't grow up that much.  But I learned to be independent and put my self out there while abroad.

The excursions we went on, and lectures we got to listen to in those places about the people who actually lived or frequented there, were by far the highlight of the excursions.  Like Dr. Wasser said, it's incredible to get to lecture about Freud in Freud's house.  I don't think I fully realized the magnitude of these events until I returned to the state's.  One lecture topic I really enjoyed was the bioethics/euthanasia lecture.  These topics are so fascinating and it can be hard to grasp what all happened.  But, I remember hearing something along the lines of this: the worst thing we can do is dehumanize the people who did those horrible things (for example the Nazis), because then we think it is impossible for us or any other person today to actually repeat the events.  These events show us the flaws in humanity and it is vital to understand what these people thought and why they did it.  We cannot solely classify them as crazy and let that be the end of it.  I love this perspective and is one of the main things that I took away from the study abroad trip.

To summarize this lengthy post, here are some key points.  Did I eat lots of food? yes. Did it open my eyes to the rest of the world? yes. Did I learn my way around Europe? By moving vehicles yes, by my own feet no. Lastly, did I leave a changed person? absolutely.

Since I have returned, life has picked back up again.  School has started, I started working for the first time, and the stresses of college came back full force.  Right now, I am just trying to focus on my grades, getting my resume together, and figuring out when I am going to take by DAT.  But I need to remember what I learned in Germany, which is to not focus too much on the future, and to keep up with what is happening in my country and the world.  My college bubble won't be here forever.

The final post :(
Megs

I will return to Germany one day, no matter how long it takes. Okay, now that is all.