The Adventure of a Lifetime

            First of all, I have never experienced six weeks fly by so fast in my whole life. But wow. Now that I’ve had a couple months to adjust back to my old life, I can’t help but try to intertwine my life and the lessons I learned in Europe into my everyday routine. I’m mostly just thankful for the opportunity to go on this amazing trip and especially to experience it with such an incredible group of people. Going into the program I expected to make a couple of friends but never did I think that after six short weeks I would emerge with so many new friendships. That has definitely been one of the most rewarding parts of study abroad for me.

            Being in Europe, and especially Bonn, almost feels like a dream at this point because it was such a contained unit of people that all did everything together. I was never alone unless I was sleeping, which definitely made any sense of homesickness fly out the window. While I absolutely loved all of the lectures and museums we got to visit, I think I ultimately learned the most from the weekend trips when we were on our own. It’s pretty comical to think back to our first weekend trip going to Amsterdam. Not only did we miss our train but we were absolutely freaking out trying to make plans. By the last weekend trip to Oppenau nothing was planned and while public transportation is always unpredictable, we were much better at adjusting to bumps in the road than at the beginning of the trip. I will always cherish the confidence that this trip gave me about traveling on my own.

            Not only did I learn how to travel, but I also was exposed to so many different cultures than the one I grew up knowing. From the absolute shock of the Red Light District to the overall European culture of walking and biking more places, it definitely opened my eyes to a whole different world. One thing I absolutely loved about being in Germany was the recycling system. Being abroad showed me just how much America has to do with the environmental issues in the world, and being able to help out by religiously recycling and taking public transportation everywhere instead of separate cars makes a lot of sense to me. While I always recycled back home in San Antonio, I’ve struggled to do it in college. However, since coming back this year I realize that the extra hassle is what it takes to save the planet and it’s something I’m definitely going to work on. Unfortunately, the public transportation in Texas is not nearly up to European standards, but you can’t win ‘em all. At least I know now what other areas of the world are doing to help out the environment and also to stay healthier.

            Since coming home I think everyone that I’ve talked to has gotten absolutely over my “one time in Bonn” stories, because there are just so many. I find myself going back through old pictures almost daily and reminiscing on the whole experience. While it can be a little sad at times that life now isn’t quite as exciting as petting elephants and going to concentration camps, it also makes me very thankful and happy to have all of those memories to look back at and think about.

            I’ll forever cherish my time in Bonn and I truly hold my study abroad experience as the best six weeks of my entire life. Hopefully I’ll get to go back to Europe one day and use all of the knowledge (and German) I gained on this incredible trip again.