Travelling is one of the most exciting parts of life. The best part of this summer's adventures was travelling. As part of the program, we got to see a number of cities, other than Darmstadt. We tour Oppenhiem and tasted the Oppenhiem wine. We visited Frankfurt, Heidelberg, Ruedesheim, and many other cities. With my internship, I got to see Mannheim and Heppenheim. The final days of the first four weeks were spent in Berlin. I travelled outside of the program to Munich, Miltonberg, and Wuertzberg.
The best time I had was the weekend I travelled to Switzerland with Bruce. Germany was awesome... but Switzerland was like a dream. We stayed in Interlachen for the third weekend into the program. We spent a whole day just rambling through the mountain trails above Lauterbrunnen. It was gorgeous! We spent part of another day on a cruise around the Brienzersee (Lake Brienz). I wish I could have put more pictures from the trip into my photo album, but I had to stop somewhere. After we left Interlachen we spent a few hours walking around Bern, the capital of Switzerland. I fell in love with the city and decided I want to live there some day. I even found the house I will live in.
The weekend in Berlin blew me away! There were so many exciting projects going on, as the country attempted to put the two pieces of the city back together and move the capital back in. There was so much emotional turmoil in the city, too. It seemed like the whole city had something to say about the communism, the wall, WWII, or France. There was a monument every ten feet to tell somebody how sorry the country was for what had happened to them, or how happy they were since the wall came down. On the morning of the last day, we visited the Checkpoint Charlie Museum, and my stone-cold exterior gave up and I nearly cried like a baby.
This summer was amazing and, dare I say, probably changed my life. It undoubtedly challenged my perspective on about a great many things. It was the most worthwhile thing I could have done with my summer. The experiences I had and the memories I brought home with me will stay with me as long as I live. But don't take my word for it. No experience is the same from person to person. Go out there. Travel, study abroad, take the opportunities while they are there.
Take
the chance to change your life.
Sometimes you have to start from the outside
to work your way in. You have to get outside
the world you know, to start looking at it
from a brand new perspective.
You
only have one chance to live. Don't
wait around for the next one. If you want
it, the only thing that can get in the way
is you.