This girl is on fire - literally

Monday we had our bioethics lecture which was unlike any other lecture we had had and ended up being one of my favorite class days.  The guest lecturer was open to hearing all opinions and ensured us that there really was no right or wrong answer to the difficult questions he was asking so it was really interesting to hear what my classmates had to say about how they would handle these situations, and also pointed out some perspectives towards these problems that I may not have thought about on my own.  We got out of class for the day early (thank you Dr. Wasser) and afterwards I went to Tacos for the first time with Sammi and Kelbi and got some fun drinks and talked about how we could not believe this trip was already practically over. 

Tuesday we had our final day in class and we got out early again so all of the girls were able to go get a drink together one last time before going home to our host families and packing everything.  At my host family's house they made me one last traditional German meal - I can't remember the name of it, all I know is that they were squishy potato ball things and were actually really good.  We finished off the night by walking to the neighborhood gelato shop and got espresso and gelato.  I went to bed early that night since I still had to pack and saying goodbye to my host family was a lot harder than I thought it would be, and I actually had to fight back tears since they really are not the crying type.

Wednesday we headed off to Berlin.  I finished Waltz's test on the train ride there which I was pretty happy about since I didn't have to think about it for the rest of the trip (even though I know I answered one of the questions incorrectly and didn't feel like changing it, oops).  We dropped our stuff off at the hotel and went out to get lunch.  After this we went to the Charite museum and got a tour from tiny Tom who was my favorite tour guide from the trip and got gelato with Dr. Wasser.  We finished the day with a city tour from Ryan which was really enjoyable.  Berlin itself is a really awesome city and it helped that Ryan was very knowledgable and I liked listening to his accent.  That night after getting back to the hotel, we went out to dinner, played card games, and some of us went down to the river and talked before heading in for the night.

Thursday was the My Berlin Day which I liked way more than I thought I would.  We started our tour with Mohammed, who was a Syrian refugee, taking us around to the places in Berlin that we went to the previous day with Ryan, but instead of only talking about Germany's history, he drew parallels to how these places represented similar circumstances occurring in Syria.  I had known a little about what was going on in countries dealing with civil wars based on what I had seen on the news back home, and I learned more from my host family, but hearing a first hand account was different since it made what these people were going through more tangible.  I loved all of the different presentations from everyones My Berlin Day because every experience was so unique and really showed how diverse Berlin truly is.  After the presentations we went out to dinner, met up with everyone at the hotel and walked around Berlin again.


Last day :( We had two tours and they were actually my favorite ones for Berlin.  The Sachsenhausen tour was a really somber experience, and pretty disturbing but I think a really important part of the trip.  The House of Music was completely different and actually so much fun.  Our tour guide was really funny and talented and I loved hearing her play all of the theme songs from some of my favorite movies on the piano that I forget the name of.  Our farewell dinner at Merhaba was a little bittersweet until someone pointed out that we could literally all see each other again in College Station.  The food was delicious and I loved when the belly dancer came out and started dancing with everyone.  I was in a corner so had to lean over the table to watch and in the process caught my hair on fire because of the candle on the table.  It smelled soooo bad and I felt bad for anyone who was sitting around me, but it was actually pretty funny and I needed a hair cut anyway.  We all said goodbye outside the restaurant and this was a great way to end a perfect trip.