Madison, Me, Grant, Friday Night, Berlin, January 17th, 2020 
Me and Ayanna, Friday Night, Berlin, January 17th, 2020 
Tattoo that I designed and Mehmet made beautiful, Berlin, January 18th, 2020 
Tattoo that is on my shoulder, The German national flower, the blue cornflower, January 17th, 2020 
My delicious lunch!, January 18th, 2020 
Grant in the alley with me on our way back from the tattoo shop, January 18th, 2020
Last night was wild! But we won talk too much about that. All I can say is that good friends go out with you and great friends get you home safe. If you’ve read all my blogs so far you probably remember that I was very skeptical of making friends and having fun on this trip. Some of that because I was sick, some of that was because I was stressed, and some of that was a bit of an overactive imagination mixed with bad past experiences with friends. But on the free days and some regular school nights, Ive learned that I need to maybe have a little more faith in the people around me! I have laughed harder than I have laughed in a long time, I have smiled a genuine smile, and I have met people I truly care about. Everyday is a new day to experience something amazing with these wonderful friends.
Today we slept in a little! I feel like you have to after the day after day of early mornings and walking 8 miles plus every day. After missing breakfast and taking nice hot showers with water pressure that makes me miss my shower back home, we started on our adventure for crepes. We didn’t make it to crepes… half way to our destination we realized that crepes were good but German food was where the real food was. So we stopped at this little pup and had the most amazing lunch, and large drinks with ICE! You don’t realize how much we take ice for granted until you get ice again after ten days with no ice. It was a revolutionary breakthrough in out food adventures!
Then came the tattoos! Madison got really sick, and Grant needed his homework so he could do his work while I got inked. We journeyed on the M29 to the U8 to the U7 then walked a little over half a mile to the little coffee shop/ tattoo parlor that I’ve been waiting for since before I even landed here. We were in the ghetto, an ATM robbed me, it took 6 hours, but we did it! And I love them! And I love Grant endlessly for sticking it out through the thick and thin lines that are now permanently imbedded in my skin. He will never know how much it meant to me that he stayed. Sara, if you’re reading this, Grant definitely deserves some serious brownie points for this one!
Overall it was a good little break! I wish we could take Sunday off too, but Saturday will do.
Alyssa D’Emanuele 