Week 6: My Plan for Finding a German Husband in 6 Weeks Didn't Work :/

(Yeah I was kinda hoping to find my German soulmate so I could stay in Germany forever, but whatevs. We'll see what weirdo life throws at me.) 

Our last few HoM ad Neurophys. of Music lectures were on Monday and Tuesday of this week. It was very bittersweet; no more cool knowledge about how music is both received and processed by the brain and all about important medical facts both past and present. Wednesday was the beginning of the end, the last excursion before beginning our journey back home. Its funny how within six weeks Bonn, and basically Germany in general, can feel like home-how much comfort and happiness a place can bring you just within a few weeks. The end of the hero’s journey was nigh. The journey didn’t quite end with our departure from Berlin but continued until we all safely arrived at our homes. Most of us had very extended ends to our journeys due to horrible weather and delayed flights. Anyway, back to Berlin. On my last day in Bonn I went shopping for some last-minute Bonn souvenirs-a couple canvas bags, a t-shirt, and a mug. I walked around for a little while soaking it all in one last time before leaving for an indefinite amount of time. It took me quite a while to pack all of my things and allocate things to try to make travel a bit easier. I only slept for two hours that night by the time I packed and showered. Getting my ridiculously heavy luggage down the stairs was quite a doozy. I felt bad waking up my host mom at 5 am, because my extra extra large luggage was too heavy for me to carry above the steps. We had said our goodbye’s last night, but that moment was the actual last that I saw her. I was planning on catching the 5:22 am train, but all my dilly-dallying and staring at my host room and house made me miss it. Well, all that combined with the extremely hard time I had dragging my crud around made me two minutes late to the platform. Because I had to arrive at the station to meet everyone by 6 am, I was on the verge of losing my mind. I had to do something. Acting fast and with a tiny sense of hope I asked a random German woman who was riding her bike to the station if she knew where the taxis stopped. She told me they stopped across the tracks. Well, I walk there and they are nowhere to be seen. I had to ask several more strangers for help and guidance before one called a taxi for me. He didn’t speak English, but as soon as I said “taxi” he sprung into action. He used my phone to call a buddy, I guess, and the buddy came within a few minutes. I said, “Thank God,” about 10 times. $20 and 10 minutes later I arrived at the train station at 6:03 am with huge weight of anxiety lifted off my shoulders. The five hour ride to Berlin was pretty smooth, but the transfer to our hotel was pretty rough. My two ridiculously heavy bags and my small carry-on were hell to lug around even though my friend Michael helped roll around the carry-on at times. (Side note: NEVER AGAIN, AM I PACKING SO MUCH. I KNOW HOW TO PACK SMALLER NOW. I DIDN’T EVEN USE THREE PAIRS OF SHOES I BROUGHT AND USED MOST OF MY CLOTHES ONLY ONCE.) I actually thought to myself a few times, “oh my god, I don’t think I can walk anymore…i don’t think I can go any further omg,’ because my legs and arms felt like they were going to fall off. I also felt pretty winded and weak. I was SO relieved when we arrived at the hotel and were able to store our things and have quick lunch. Dr. Waltz (praise him) took my luggage so I would not have to wait in line for so long before having lunch-pretty sure it was to speed things up in general, but I still appreciated it. That afternoon we toured the Charité museum and had a city tour with Dr. Wasser’s favorite Scottish lad, Ryan. Our all-merciful and kind Charité museum tour guide, Tiny Tom, noticed that several of us students in the group were dozing off in our seats as he spoke to us and did not get mad. The Charité was another museum that I probably could’ve spent all day or several hours touring. The collection of fetal deformities alone was very enthralling and interesting. Because the descriptions for the specimens were only in German, I had to use my Google translate app, which has the capability of translating whatever you’re looking at using your camera. Brian thought I was taking pictures and told me, “I don’t think we can take pictures here.” Yeah, I definitely wouldn’t be taking pictures of the specimens I saw; it would have definitely been socially unacceptable to take pictures of human body parts and of deformed human fetuses. I was trying my best to both listen and rest my eyes. I know I missed out on a bunch of cool info. After our stint of sitting at the Charité we had a couple hours of walking to do with our Berlin city tour guide Ryan. I am very glad that the Berlin tour was built into the schedule. We most likely would not have had any independent time to tour Berlin on our own. The city of Berlin and its history are truly captivating things. Our second to last full day in Germany, Thursday, was mostly spent touring the city a bit more. The tour guide for my group, group C, was a doctor of contemplative practices who we referred to as Nico. Nico had everyone in our group pay very close attention to sounds, sounds of both the city and nature. We spent quite a bit of time in circles giving little updates about our most recent feelings, thoughts, and significant sounds we were hearing. We took the metro out of town and walked maybe 30 minutes or so to Teufelsberg to visit the abandoned US spy station there. The spy station was nothing close to what I was expecting; the whole complex was covered in top-notch graffiti art and discarded, repurposed objects. The station somewhat seemed like it could pass for a post-apocalyptic settlement or something and reminded me of a few settlements I had seen in a video game I like to play (Fallout 4). The area nearest the tallest tower had a small herb garden that visitors could pluck and eat from. The tower we were supposed to tour was closed to the public; I am not sure when or if it will open again. Nico was such a fun guy. He wanted to dance as soon as he heard the music that was being played near the small bar. After we finished doing some play fighting he took us to the bar so we could refresh ourselves and was hoping to dance a little bit but we had to start heading back to the city for lunch :///. We finished our tour at around 3 pm and had to quickly grab some lunch and get to work on our My Berlin Day presentation. (side thought: I was a little sad that I didn’t have any time to grab any souvenirs while the other groups did. :c ) After everyone was done presenting about their Berlin Day tours, I headed out with my little group of buddies. We decided to settle for a slightly pricey French restaurant that was near some sort of opera festival. Admission into the festival area had already ended, but dozens of people were still gathered outside of the tall, white, opaque, temporary wall placed around the festival. Families, couples, and singles brought their camping chairs and drinks and just enjoyed the music that could still be heard. At the end of the performance there were fireworks and one the large, Neo-classical buildings was lit up in red, white, and blue; I thought it was weird that Germany seemed to be celebrating the United States’ Independence Day. On our last day in Germany we were taken to the Sachsenhausen Memorial, the site of the Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp where approximately 50,000 people lost their lives. Even though it was a work camp, Sachsenhausen was still a home to the monstrosities of the Nazis. They would “clean house” by the thousands when the camp was full of prisoners. They would pretend to measure prisoners’ heights but would instead shoot them at the back of the head from a hidden compartment behind the ruler. Nazi women would often be just as cruel. The wife of Sachsenhausen’s commander was very fond of a macabre type of art-portions of tattooed human skin. Our tour guide told us that the commander’s wife would have the prisoners lined up to present their tattoos to her while she sat comfortably in a chair. If she saw a tattoo she liked, she would point at the prisoner and her husband would prompt execute the prisoner and harvest that area of skin-BARBARIC. Our later visit to the Musikinstrumente Museum brightened the day quite a bit. Our tour guide was INCREDIBLY and SURPRISINGLY talented; she absolutely blew us away. She told us that she had only mastered less than a handful of instruments, but since she knew how to play almost every instrument she presented to us, we were nonetheless BEYOND impressed. The most awe-inspiring moment of the tour was when she played the old, super bulky cinematic sound-effects keyboard. She played several familiar works including the Harry Potter and Pirates of the Caribbean theme songs. Once we were able to tour the second story of the museum we saw the large compartments that housed the pipes and other instruments that were being operated by the cinema keyboard. After our jam-packed day of more unique experiences we had a teeny tiny break to freshen up and dress ourselves up for the last supper of the program. That night within and of itself was a night to remember. It did make me wish that I had partied a bit with a few of our groups party-goers cause holy cannoli that night at Merhaba was fun-30 of us dancing and drinking and enjoying each other’s company. We definitely owe all the fun to the belly dancer, though. I had never seen a belly dancer perform in front of me, and for an older woman (in her 50s maybe), she was in fantastic shape and was also very talented. I was put in the dancing mood and was pretty delighted that she invited me up to dance with her; I had been DYING to SHAKE IT a little bit. About half of us danced with the belly dancer, including Dr. Wasser, Dr. Waltz, Brian, and Alexa. It was wonderful to let loose and to see our professors and program helpers do so as well. We were definitely a large group of very fun people that evening. My friends and I ended the night a bit early and headed home pooped and content with our night. I was pretty exhausted and had a ton of rearranging to do so I didn’t have to pay $200 for an extra checked bag and a heavy bag; surprisingly, I only had to pay $75. My heavy bag was still heavy but only by seven pounds instead of 15 pounds. After four hours of delays once hitting land in the states I finally made it home (well, sorta…my mom and I were staying the night in Houston and meeting some relatives in Spring, Texas for lunch and shopping). I didn’t have to look very far for a little taste of Europe. Just across the street from the restaurant I was eating at with my family were two little shops-The German Gift Shop and The Little Dutch Girl Gift Shop. An older woman working at The Little Dutch Girl is actually from Koblenz!! Both of our faces lit up during our conversation about Germany and Koblenz. Her granddaughter was there working or helping or something and will one day visit Germany as per her grandma’s hopes. I told the granddaughter about the spring and summer HoM programs since she is apparently planning on attending A&M in the fall. I found it a bit funny how just hours after I left Germany I ran into two Germans working in two stores right next to each other. I thought, “ha wow…small world,” which obviously is not the case; this world is a VERY large one, but thanks to my experiences I was able to connect with people not so very far from me in ways I wouldn’t have otherwise been able to if I had not visited Germany. The joy and excitement that Germany had brought me had decided to linger for just a while longer to remind me that I am in fact not as far away as I think I am.