This is it...

 

My family dropping me off
at the airport in Austin

Wow. I can't believe that this is it. That the greatest experience of my life has now been over for 7 weeks now and has been 6 weeks since I came back to the United States. Hearing everyone talk about how life changing this trip was supposed to be, I really didn't understand what could be so life altering. I thought there was no way doing this could actually change the person I am, but boy was I wrong. The first change came with learning how to live with roommates. I am an only child and even when I started college, I have always lived by myself in a studio apartment. Now all of a sudden I had to share a house with 5 strangers (our 3 host family members and my 2 roommates). I was never used to leaning on others for walking home, leaving to travel, or just when we were going to eat dinner. I also never got the opportunity to just walk out of my bedroom door and have 2 people within steps to joke with, laugh with, and live with. I am now a much more considerate person especially after learning how to talk out a shower schedule and ask before just going down and using the shower. Now I am back in my studio apartment, actually missing having someone to talk to whenever and having the comfort of knowing there is someone right there with me.
   

Bonn BBQ

      The biggest change, in my opinion, that happened was when I learned how to appreciate my family and friends and no longer take time with them for granted. Having been away from my family during the school year was so nice for me cause I just spent the last 18 years of my life with my parents. I had their sole attention for my whole life due to being an only child so I really enjoyed my freedom at college. The one thing I looked forward to though was my summers. That was guaranteed time with my family that would cure whatever homesickness I had. Boy do I take every opportunity I can to call and see my parents and fiancée. I have never missed my family more than being across an ocean with an international cell phone plan that didn't allow phone calls and only allowed text messaging. I had to wait until I had wifi access to make free messenger calls and the time difference between here and there made it virtually impossible to talk to my family during the week. My entire attitude towards my family changed and I am forever grateful for that cause now my family and I are closer than ever. It was also quite literally life changing because I realized I never wanted to spend that much time without my boyfriend, and apparently he felt the same way because he flew over to Austria with my mom and dad to visit my great aunt for the first time (for me, my dad, and him). Before I knew it, he was down on one knee proposing in the town my family is from. So thanks to this study abroad, I left with a fiancée. Anyways back on track, I cherish time with my family so much more thanks to this trip.

Interlaken, Switzerland on top of
Heidi Klum (Harderkulm)

     Another big change is the way I view any new person that I meet or see on campus or anything. I had a bit of a negative preconception coming into Germany that my mom had told me about from her experience being in Germany 24 years ago. She had a lot of bad experiences with Germans pretending that they didn't speak English, until she brought her mom (my grandma) over to translate and then the Germans would pop right out and speak clear English even though they had just told my mom that they didn't speak or understand English. I was very nervous and scared coming in that I didn't know any German and that every native there would be mean to me and I would hate it there. But that was another thing I was so incredibly wrong about that. Actually being in Germany really changed my perspective on that. There's only 2-3 times the entire 6 weeks I was there where a native got frustrated with me because I couldn't speak their language. But they were never rude or mean, they were just a little frustrated and snippy, which is understandable. I definitely get frustrated really easy when people here don't understand me when I feel I am speaking so clearly. I am more patient than ever when people may not understand me the first time or maybe even the second time. I know now after this experience that I need to slow down and appreciate the diversity we have here and welcome those who wish to experience what we get to experience. I loved seeing the excitement in some of the natives faces when I would at least attempt to learn and communicate with them in German. It just made me more excited to learn the language. And shockingly a lot of them wanted to practice their English so I didn't have to worry or stress about pronouncing something wrong or messing up my words.

Shadowing at the Clinic

Seeing my family for the first time in Austria
after 6 weeks

     This was by far one of the best experiences of my life. I feel like I have learned so much about the world when I have really only visited 2 countries on this trip. I even got clarity on the medical profession I want to go in to. For as long as I can remember, I wanted to be an orthopedic surgeon. Now, I am looking into surgical technician programs for when I graduate. I learned about this while shadowing at the clinic in Germany. That was one of the best experiences and it was really life changing because it has now set me on a different career path. A surgery tech gets to assist before, during, and after surgery and gets to be in a bunch of different surgeries in different departments. My favorite thing about the clinic was getting to be in 3 completely different surgeries in a matter of 5 hours. My life has definitely changed after that. I learned so much about the history, the culture, but most importantly, I learned the most about myself. I was so scared to begin this journey on my own, but now it just makes me want to go out and travel more. Heck I might even go down to Costa Rica for the Christmas break for a few days cause I still have the travel bug. I am so ready for more life altering experiences whether they're good, bad, or both. I am forever grateful for this trip, and I am so excited about the great friends that I found on this trip. #Gayrats4life

Before the classical concert with
the fam