The End

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I have learned a lot on my study away. I have studied, I have soaked in as much information as Sara and all of our tour guides gave to me. I also learned to let go a little. I learned that the walls I build up could maybe use a little less boarder control. I learned communication skills, for the people that I interacted with in Germany, but also in my relationships I had with the people that were back home. Sara said on the first day of class that everyone has nerves, but this was truly a chance of a life time, so live in every moment.

If you are here from the beginning, you know that the beginning of my trip was a little rocky. One because our planes were experiencing some extreme turbulence, but also because I got really sick on my way over. I had a sore through, a horrible headache, I kept having heat flashes that turned in to nausea and dizziness. As anyone could probably guess, with my nerves already being pretty high, then getting sick on top of it all, I had very low hopes for my trip to go well.  

I stayed home that second day. I just couldn’t do it. I wasn’t able to eat, and moving was a whole task of its own. So, I slept. I stayed in the little hotel room by myself. And my hopes for my trip hit rock bottom. I was ready to go home. I didn’t feel good, I didn’t know anyone, and I felt so alone. I called my mom crying, and told her I made a horrible mistake, and my dad joked and said he was hopping on a flight and heading over right away. Parents always have a weird way of making everything ok. Obviously, I stayed in Germany, and thank God that I did.

When everyone came back that night from the adventures of the day, they gave me the whole run down. They told me about the cool tour guide, and how people got lost, and I basically felt like I had gone out with them. Madison Rose was kind enough to think about me while she was out, and brought me some amazing German medicine. I will say, taking medicine from a girl you barely know is a little unnerving, but not being able to read any of the text on the package, that was a different kind of scary I hadn’t experienced before. However, it worked like a charm. I was still super sick but I was able to eat and that night five of us went out and got some fake Italian food and had a great night.

Madison stuck it out with me the whole rest of the trip, and we had a rollercoaster of a time.  

I was determined to make the most of this study away. There is literally no better way to learn about the history of a country than to be in that country. Every day I took pages and pages of notes. I am an art education major, and Germany is filled with the most amazing art. I think in my future as an art teacher, this experience will give me a different perspective and even a leg up for job applications. To be able to memorize images and artists is something that nearly anyone can do with enough practice, however, not many people are able to witness the art first hand, and that is an experience I am so grateful that I was able to have.

 Charlottenburg was probably one of my favorite days. It happened to be my first day out on the town, but the artifacts that filled the palace just blew me away. I saw rooms that I had seen in my text books, like the Golden Room that was used for balls and large events. It is decorated in the Rococo style that I personally find so beautiful. I saw fine China that filled an entire room from the ceilings to the floors and a little more scattered here and there. There was the portrait of Napoleon Crossing the Alpes. It just might be the most well-known portrait of Napoleon Bonaparte, done by Jacques-Louis David.

The day we went to the German Historical Museum was another phenomenal day. On that day particularly, we were on a guided tour through the section of the museum that exhibited outcome Germany was faced with post-World War II. However, we were able to explore the museum a little bit after the tour, and I was able to see the pieces of German history that were from the very beginning. Grant and I explored, and I was able to see a painting I had seen a million times before in print or online, but never in person. Liberty Leading the People by Eugène Delacroix. However, I was a little skeptical that is was the original, only because it was put it a rather odd spot in the Museum, and everywhere I looked online said that it was located in the Louvre Museum in Paris, which makes more sense, since it is a painting about the French Revolution. Either way, it was amazing to see, and it was very rewarding that I was able to identify the artist, the title, and the context just by glancing up at it. I guess my art history teachers have been doing a good job!

So has Sara. If someone showed me the Berlin Dome, or the Tv Tower, any of the buildings on Unter Den Linden, I could tell you all about them. I have a mental timeline of the history of Germany permanently engraved in my brain, all the way from 1200 through to reunification in 1990 and a little bit past that.  

After this trip I feel like I have learned more than just academic materials. I usually have a hard time letting people in, and making friends. I have a streamlined goal and usually if someone is not in the same boat as me, and I separate myself. Being with students for 17 days though, doing that would make for a very lonely trip. Through a sort of forced closeness, I have realized that sometimes when people have personality traits that don’t mesh with yours, you balance each other out. It’s an “I’ll keep you wild and I’ll keep you safe” kind of thing. We definitely had a few of those moments.  

I definitely would want to go on another study away. I was prompted by another professor to look into the study abroad to Florence for a semester. In the beginning of my time in Germany, I was sure that was never going to happen. Looking at my trip now, however, I think that is something I definitely would like to do!