Beginning of the End
It's unbelievable that I have less than 3 weeks left in Germany. I've done a lot since the last time I posted, so I'll try to sum everything up.
I visited two of my friends studying at University of Edinburgh in Scotland the second weekend in May, since I was possibly going to attend this fall (I deferred last year). It was amazing to see them after so long (almost 2 years since we met in Nice) and I fell in love with the city. I was only there for a few days, but I saw a lot and had a really good time. I emailed University of Wisconsin-Madison in April and said I wasn't going to be attending in the fall because I decided to study in Europe, so while I visited Edinburgh I was deciding between the university there and Maastricht University in the Netherlands. It was a really hard decision but I'll be starting in Maastricht this fall getting my BA in European Studies. So I'll be back in Europe in August!
I had my local AFS committees EOS (End of Stay) camp in May as well, where I got to see and say goodbye to the other AFSers in my area. It was in Tübingen this time so it was a lot better location wise than the other camps. I also went to Europa Park for a day in May which was amazing...
We had a two week break the last week of May and the first week of June, and I was lucky enough to make a trip to the North Sea with my host family. It was great to see another part of Germany and I'm so grateful to my host family for making that happen. The weather wasn't so great and it was a lot colder than southern Germany, but it was really pretty... There's a lot of farms and fields and it's really flat. There are also tons of wind turbines which was cool to see since there aren't many in the U.S. We ate a lot of fish and spent time near the beach and around the area. We went to Norderney for a day, which is an island off the coast, and we also did a little walking tour in the tidal area along the beach. Overall it was really nice, even if the weather wasn't great.
I had my end of stay camp for CBYX/PPP in Berlin from June 10-14th. I took a train Wednesday morning to Berlin and arrived alone with the other CBYXers from the Northeast. There were 48 of us at the camp, and it was incredibly busy. The first day we arrived we went on a bus tour of Berlin, which was pretty much the exact same thing I did when I went to Berlin in October. It was still really interesting, but after traveling for about 6 hours I was exhausted, and so was everyone else. On Thursday we went to the American Embassy along with all the other CBYXers from around the U.S. We had to wait a while to get into the building, but we were met by donuts and American soda (my first root beer in 10 months!) so that was really nice. We were addressed by the American ambassador to Germany and got to listen to an acapella group from Harvard. We were there for a while, but it was really nice to meet and talk to the other CBYXers from other areas in the US and to compare our experiences. We also talked to people working for the foreign service, which was really interesting and something that I'll maybe look into. It was kind of similar to what we heard at the Department of State in D.C, it seemed a little like they were trying to get us interested in working for the foreign service. Overall it was really interesting and something that I would never have been able to experience without CBYX. Afterwards the AFSers all went to a museum together, the Topographie des Terrors (The Topography of Terror), which is a museum on the history between 1933-1945 mostly detailing the history of oppression under the Nazis. We had a guided tour through the museum which was definitely more detailed than a normal tour would have been so it was really interesting. During our free time we generally had more AFS oriented activities about readjusting in the U.S and reflecting on our time in Germany. On Friday we got up at 4:30 am to get ready to go to the Bundestag. We were all lined up in front of security around 7 with all the other CBYXers, and took a huge group photo in front of the Reichstag building. We were lucky enough to see a debate which was really interesting, but I think everyone was so exhausted so it was a bit difficult to concentrate... Afterwards we had a little reception (with well needed coffee) and then a questions session. It was all really interesting and an amazing experience. Afterwards we made out way over to the Kanzleramt where we would be meeting Angela Merkel. We waited there for a pretty long time, and there was another reception with food and drinks, and then we all got into a group and waited for the Chancellor to come. Once she arrived some people really freaked out (a few even cried). She gave a short speech for us and then a CBYX student put on a performance for all of us. Afterwards we took a lot of pictures and then she went back to work. Afterwards we were able to take a tour of the building (apparently something not everyone can do!) and got some amazing views of Berlin. Afterwards AFS all went out to dinner at an Indian restaurant and then back to the hostel. It was a long but amazing day, and definitely a once in a lifetime experience.
Saturday was all AFS activities and we spent the whole day at the hostel, except for a couple of hours of free time. At night we had an AFS "prom" and then the next morning we all headed back to our host families.
Overall Berlin was absolutely incredible, but it would have been great to have a little more time to see more things... We were really busy the whole time and for a lot of people it was their only chance to see Berlin, so it would have been nice to have an extra day or so.
It's unbelievable that I only have two weeks left... It's going to be really busy and definitely very sad, but I'll make the best of it. I think I'll post another blog once I get home about leaving and the DC camp. There's definitely a lot of mixed emotions relating to going home. I'm really sad to be leaving, but at the same time so excited to see my friends and family again. I'm so happy that I got to have this experience, and I'm so grateful for my host family and for AFS for making this possible for me.
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