These past two weeks in Germany have been amazing. The trip was sometimes fast-paced and stressful, but overall rewarding. I learned new things everyday whether they were words, cultural differences and findings, or how to deal with living with a big group of people for such a long time. As someone who likes their alone time, it definitely took time to get used to group travel.
My favorite places to visit were Stuttgart and Heidelberg. Stuttgart resembled a German San Francisco, in the opinion of all the students. We stayed there only one day, but I wish we had more time to explore the curving streets and busy night scene. It was absolutely gorgeous! In Heidelberg, we had a city tour and learned about all the famous people who used to live there. The University of Heidelberg is still a strong standing educational facility that many students worldwide go to. My favorite part of the Heidelberg visit was the Schloss of Heidelberg and the bridge we crossed over at the end of our long day. The Schloss of Heidelberg are the red rock ruins of a huge castle that was partly destroyed and rebuilt ages ago. Now, it's a famous tourist attraction, but echos of medieval living still resound through the empty halls and crumbling stone. We also visited the Friedrich Ebert Museum that day, and we learned about his presidency in the pre-Hitler era as well as his restoration and unification of Germany.
At the beginning of this trip, I said I would learn about history, make friends, and get someone's social media contact. I'm happy to say I did all of those things! I learned about history, the history of Germany, Friedrich Ebert, and many other topics. I made friends with a German university student and got her social media contact; We have already been talking on and off since then. This trip helped open my eyes to a different kind of culture. I'd been to Canada and Mexico, but never anywhere in Europe, so it was definitely very different. I enjoy it here and can definitely see myself living here fairly comfortably in my future. I can connect well with most of the habits of the people of this culture, and that gives me confidence in my ability to fit in here. In conclusion, I love Germany and I'll definitely be coming back. :)
Comments