If I had to sum up this Germany trip in 2 minutes, it would go a little something like this.
Imagine you have to spend six weeks in a foreign country where almost everything is in a language you can only slightly comprehend. Imagine you live in a hostel with thirty people for those six weeks, and still have to get along great after all that time. Imagine you’re in class for four hours a day and then head back for three hours of homework each night. Imagine 95-degree days with no air-conditioning in sight. Imagine being stuck in an elevator 20 stories up with 6 other guys on one of those same 95-degree days, and imagine the mirror in the elevator steaming up from all the heat in that tiny box.
Now imagine that this experience was one of the best you’ve ever had.
How could this be, one might ask? Well, imagine that you got to see parts of the world you’ve never seen before, experienced a different culture firsthand, tried new foods and drinks, bonded with the 30 people on the trip, and made memories that will last a lifetime. This has been my overarching experience that I will remember from Germany- not so much the homework and tests, but the different place and the experiences that that brings, as well as getting to be here with people I will go through the next 3 years at Calvin with.
That is how I would sum up these past six weeks here in Berlin.