All good things must come to an end.

I intended to do my last post on my final day in Germany, but some unexpected travel changes made that impossible. I've been back in the US only a matter of hours now, so I'm still in the European frame of mind (and timezone). We spent this week in the northeastern part of Germany. It's capital city, Berlin, seems less foreign than the other areas we visited. I think it's because urban areas have a lot more shops and businesses that are worldwide, and thus more recognizable. I was more interested in visiting the rural, less global areas. Regardless, Berlin is still fascinating, with plenty of interesting stories and historical sites. I always enjoy seeing the Reichstag, but I'd like to know more about what goes on inside. Germans always talked about American government, neglecting to mention much about their own. They probably assume I don't care, but that's part of the reason I went to Germany, because I do. Even though Americans get a disproportional amount of the blame, we all make assumptions about people like that. Funny enough, I thought the pub crawls were one of the best ways to meet people from other countries and get to know more about them and the home counties. I enjoyed finding out not only what stereotypes they reinforced, but what stereotypes they had about us as Americans.

The excusions from Berlin were some of my favorites. The trip to Dresden was really pretty and getting to see part of Germany which had to go through life behind the iron curtain for a big part of the last century. The parts of the city which haven't been renovated since then still had soviet-style boring buildings. I was strange to think about living through that. I'm thankful that I didn't have to. Our program director said that was one of the problems in Dresden; they had renovated the main part of the city, but had left many of the surrounding areas unattractive.

The trip to the Molecular Medicine segment of the Helmholtz Institute in Berlin was really interesting. I knew enough of about stem cells and genetic techniques to follow along with their presentations and actually ask a few pertinent questions. I don't know if research is an avenue I want to pursue, but if I do, it would be in a related field. The potential benefits from it are enormous. I was really glad we got to see research labs which could contribute to future life-saving developments. I am interested in going back to Germany to a place like that for an internship. I'm thankful for the things I got to learn about Germany during this trip, but given the amount of history there, I could spend much more time there. My personal interest in Germany along with it's central location in Western Europe make it my prime place of interest for another trip across the pond. Hopefully it will come sooner than I expected.

As for now, I plan on readjusting to everyday Texas life, hot weather, and life/school responsibilities. The trip home was much less exciting than the trip over there. It's interesting when the place you're going to is a mystery, and it just seems like a chore when you're going home. I think I was one of the very few that was actually sad to leave. I enjoy being home, but there's still a lot of Europe for me to see. I plan on heading back as soon as my bank account will allow.