The Bee Movie - Berlin Edition

Our time was coming to a close and we were heading to Berlin. Fast forward through the slightly stressful train rides that included dragging our luggage around with us and we were there. The capital of Germany. Now the bus tour that we did was a huge let down, I wish the bike tour would have been possible but what's done is done. It just felt like we got a glimpse of all these important building and monuments but we didn't get to really see them or appreciate them in any way. The tour guide was fine but I found some of her jokes to be borderline offensive. We were in a place where so much has happened. Many of them terrible things from a dark time in history; to me it is not the kind of thing that you make light of or make jokes about. After the tour we checked into the hotel and then went to explore the surrounding area a bit.
The next day is the one that was the best day that we had in Berlin. It was the My Berlin Day where everyone got split up into groups and went with a different guide for a unique perspective of Berlin. My group was the Bee group. We spent the day with a woman who was an artist by trade but was also a certified bee keeper. We met her in the cemetery where she appeared out of the trees smelling like lemon grass, and for the longest time we all thought that she wasn't wearing any shoes. So super organic lady. She took us through the cemetery and back to the spot where she kept her bees at. The cemeteries in Berlin were different than any that I have ever seen in the states. It was beautiful. Full of flowers and trees; it really looked more like a park then anything else. There was nothing morbid or sad about it, it was nice, the kind of place that you could just stroll through during the day. The bees were in a corner back behind some trees, not around any gravestones, they just had their own spot. She taught us about the different bees and how colonies form. Teaching us about the queen and the workers. We learned that honey is really just regurgitated, dehydrated nectar and that pollen is used to feed the babies in the hive. That giving royal nectar to an egg can create a new queen, and many more fun facts about bees. She opened up the boxes and pulled out panels to show us the honeycomb and passed it around so we could all see it up close. Needless to say, I got much more comfortable with bees that day. I've never been that person who would scream and run away when a bee was near, but that didn't mean that I wanted them 4 inches from my face - which is what this day entailed. The bees were surprisingly calm though. They didn't seem to mind being lifted from their home and passed around, so long as we didn't squish them on accident. After we put the bees away we sat in a circle on the ground and tried different things. We tried pollen and learned how it can help your allergies to eat your local pollen, we tried honey (of course), and some propolis- a type of "medicine" made from another part of the hive. We each dropped a few drops of propolis into our mouth and were automatically reacting to it- not the taste, that was fine- we were reacting to the fact that it was 90% alcohol and that our tongues were now numb. I mean, no wonder if you take you don't get anymore sore throats... but if it works it works. We also collected some stinging nettle to eat on rice cakes with beet spread (it was delicious).
After our time there we made our way to an urban garden for lunch. The garden makes one meal a day so whatever is on the menu is what you get. After we ate and learned about the garden we went to another bee hove for desert. We took a spoon right to the honey comb for some fresh honey. This was the best honey I have ever had, it tasted like wildflowers and oranges to me. I had never had anything quite like it. It was the perfect end to an amazing day. We made our way back to the hotel to work on our presentation for that night.
Getting to hear about everyones days was definitely a highlight of the day. Everyone had a very unique but amazing experience throughout the day and it was amazing to learn about all of it. After the presentations it was off to the Brandenburg gate, then the World War 2 memorial, and then to an Indian food restaurant with amazing mango coladas. The war memorial was something that I am glad I got the chance to walk through. Waling through it at night just added to the magnitude of it. It is an ambiguous monument which allows everyone to pull their own meaning from it, that design gives it a lot of power and the ability to impact people in very individual ways.
Our final day in Berlin we went to a museum of the history of medicine, where we met tiny Tim and learned way more about medieval medical procedures than I ever wanted to. After that it was off to the tram to head out to the concentration camp on the outskirts of Berlin called Sachsenhausen. Visiting Sachsenhausen was a very hallowing experience. To see a place that was the center of death and suffering. Where people were gruesomely mistreated and killed. It was slightly surreal to see this place that you have always learned about and knew was real, but your mind could never really imagine it. Its something that is hard to wrap your head around, even when you are standing right in the middle of it and seeing it all. This reason is mainly because it is something you don't want to believe in, we don't want to know that humanity has the ability to be that heinous. That humans could commit such nefarious acts. It stands as a reminder that we can. That humanity is as cruel as it is kind; but dont we need a reminder? Isn't it important that we have this standing memorial so that we never make the same mistake? Seeing this place was something that I will be forever great for. It shifted my perspective on the world in a way that is final. Another thing in a long list of experiences that changed me while abroad.
After the camp we went straight to the Lebanese restaurant where we all enjoyed our last meal together. Laughing, trying new foods (stay away from the chicken liver), sharing bottles of wine and talking about how we didn't want to leave. The belly dancer came towards the end of the meal and it was the perfect ending to the dinner. Everyone dancing, clapping and cheering one another on.
We all went out together after that. One last time all together. It was a fun, gold romper kind of night full of dancing and a few broken glasses. The next second I was groggily throwing everything into my suitcase at 4:40 am and rushing downstairs to the taxi. I rode with Kylie and we smiled at the memories we made as we headed to the airport. We hugged everyone goodbye at the airport and went to our separate checkins to fly away. It didn't really hit me until I was surrounded by strangers, in line to get my plane ticket. I realized that I was leaving a place that I had fallen in love with and that this experience was over. It was ending that there was nothing to be done but to leave. So there I was, tired, in need of a shower and crying in line in the airport. I got a few weird looks and offered a tissue by the nice lady in front of me. I eventually pulled myself together. Got lost looking for the gate, finally found it, German airports confuse me but I was able to find another group of confused Americans who were looking for the same flight so we made it in the end. Tried to say Howdy to a person all decked out in Aggie gear only for him to give me a strange look and then ignore me completely. 2 hour layover where I didn't get any work done, got on a plane with the Frankfort soccer team (disappointed to say that I did not get to sit by any of them on the 7 hour flight back to Dallas), watched 4 movies and did not sleep at all. Cried when I saw my parents at the airport and stayed awake through dinner. By the time I crawled into bed at the hotel I had been up for a straight 24 hours. It was 3 am German time and I had been running on a few hours of sleep to begin with. I slept like a rock.

A few says back in the US now and I miss Germany. I miss my host family and walking everywhere all the time. I am happy to have water and air-conditioning again, but thats about it.
I wish that I could be in Germany again, that I could rewind and start from the beginning. I wouldn't change a single thing about my time in Germany, it was an amazing experience that I got to go through with new close friends that I grew to love very much. I am so thankful for the time I got to spend there. I know that I will be back someday, but it won't be the same. Maybe in part because I won't be the same person that went there a few months ago. If this trip has taught me anything, it taught me that we are changing constantly. From one day to the next we are profoundly different in a way that can never be reversed. We will forever continue to grow and change and thats ok. That is good.

Thank you Germany for the memories and the friends that you have given me this summer.
Auf Wiedersehen for now