Sunday, August 27, 2017

Trip of a Lifetime


When I signed up for Germany History of Medicine I pictured seeing new cities, trying new food and learning new things. However I never imagined how this trip would change me. I had never taken public transportation before this trip but now I have taken metros, buses, trams, and trains. I have also missed or been late to all those forms of transportation. Before this trip I would have been incredibly irritated after missing something or being late but this trip taught me a lot of flexibility. Buses run late and stops are missed but that just means more memories are made than originally planned. The memories I have made on this trip will stay with me for a lifetime. I’m inspired to travel more and try new things. It’s hard to think of how this trip has affected me since I’ve been home because it feels like only yesterday I was asking a Bonn native how to get to the Mozart statue. I now know that it was the Beethoven statue and that the best gelato in Bonn was right in front of the statue. I’ve gained a new appreciation for the German culture and hope to one day be able to immerse myself in other cultures like I was able to on this trip. I hope when I’m older I’ll be able to go back to Germany and remember all the great times I had in the country. After being home for a while I have grown to miss some of the things I did in Germany. The public transportation is probably what I miss the most. It was so nice to not have to drive and be able to go to so many places so quickly. I never thought I would say this, but I miss the walking. I loved the convenience of walking being able to walk to so many places. It allowed for me to find so many things I normally wouldn’t have seen. This is something I can’t bring back to Texas due to the terrible heat that makes me even walking to and from my car a bad experience. While I can’t walk to a bakery and buy literally the best pastries I’ve ever had in my life, I do have Mexican food and I missed that more than anything while I was gone. I didn’t miss as many things from home as I expected I would while on the trip. I was being exposed to so many new and exciting things that I didn’t have time to miss home. I found myself getting excited over finding a new gelato place or finding new side streets to explore. I have continued getting excited while I have been at home. Sometimes its hard to get excited over new things during the school year when there are so many tests and lab reports, but I want to try to be able to learn as many things in and out of the classroom as I did in this program. In my first blog post I wrote about being afraid to get lost. I got lost quite a few times and would have gotten more lost if it weren’t for friends I made. I’m not scared of getting lost anymore. I know that if I get lost that I can end up at an even better destination or make new memories in the downtime. I once missed the bus I meant to go home and that’s how I found out Professor Waltz took the same bus as me. I was running late on day and ended up discovering that the Bonn HBF had some pretty decent wine.

I hope to continue discovering new things now that I am home and cannot be more thankful for the things this trip has taught me.

Until next time Germany,

Trip oAnne-Marie Metersky

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