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The study abroad adventure I chose was to Berlin, Germany. While spending a month in Berlin I learned an immense amount about the Cold War, WWII, the Holocaust, and their current culture. Attending many museums and interactive exhibits I learned more than I could have imagined I would before I left.

I gained a large sense of independence while abroad but, I did have a unique experience. I was in the hospital for the first week of my study abroad, so I got quite a difference experience than many other study abroad students. I was able to get through being in a foreign country, being extremely sick, and being away from everyone I know and love and I was rather proud of myself at the end of it all. I learned that I can handle whatever life throws at me and still make the best of the situation because I had a blast after I felt better and for the remainder of the trip.

My view of the world has greatly changed and because of this trip I feel as if I am more adventurous. By the end of the trip I was impressed with how well myself and the group adjusted to the German culture. I realized that other cultures have some things better than we do and some things worse but it was fun to be apart of another culture for an entire month and fully submerge myself. I did come to find a greater appreciation for the things we have in America like free water, free public restrooms, and people who enjoy being polite to strangers, that are not found so commonly in Germany.

I realized how universal English is as a language and honestly felt somewhat ignorant not being able to speak any other languages. I have respect for all those people in these professions that have to know English because of the variety of clientele they interact with on a daily basis. I saw one interaction between a German salesman and an Italian man where they switched to English to be able to communicate with each other. I found this amazing and really helpful to my adjustment into the culture with everyone being able to communicate or at least enough to get by with me. 

We used public transportation (and walking) to get most places while in Berlin. When I say I’m impressed for our navigation skills, this is because it was something that was really hard to grasp at the beginning because it was something we were not used to. We were able to get most places without getting lost, of course with the help of our phones, but nonetheless we had gotten down most of the travel patterns by the time it was time to leave.

One thing that was a struggle and very frustrating being an American was having to pay for water and the restroom. Every restaurant you go to did not have water for free, it was sold in a glass bottle. I was extremely impressed with their recycling habits and environmental friendliness though. They would recycle all their bottles and they get money back for recycling plastic bottles at the grocery store. This made me want to be more economically friendly and watch what I do more closely.

This transformation has made me more open to accepting people for who they are and all the baggage they carry. Everybody has their own load they carry everyday and being able to accept people and help them will benefit me in my future career. I am studying to be a PA so I will be interacting with all sorts of people and being able to not pass judgement and just help their injuries for what they are will be beneficial. The language skills I learned while abroad will also be helpful when trying to communicate with any patients that speak German. Being able to provide some basic communication before an interpreter arrives will be better than none if it is an emergency situation. This trip as a whole has made me a better, well-rounded person who feels more confident and independent than ever.

The last neighborhood I explored was actually outside of Berlin in Oranienburg, Germany (May said this was okay at breakfast) after we visited the concentration camp, Sachenhausen. From the concentration camp we walked through the neighborhood to find somewhere to eat. On the walk there I noticed that the houses were very close together and had very small yards like in the ones we saw in Feldheim on the sustainable village tour. These 2 places where we were more out in the country are the only places where I have seen houses with yards instead of apartment buildings. They all had beautiful landscaping and with small trinkets within their yard such as windmills, gnomes, water fountains, and rock landscapes. I saw multiple houses that had these beautiful purple bushes (pictured below) that reminded me of my grandma because that was her favorite color, so naturally I had to take a picture to remember these, and I have also only seen these in the countryside. When walking we saw these 2 guys from different yards talking to each other over the fence and it reminded me of the show Home Improvement. It was nice to see neighbors taking time out of their day to talk to each other because I feel like in Berlin there is so much hustle and bustle that people typically do not tend to do this. I certainly got more a small-town vibe and it was refreshing to be in the peace and quiet. I felt more relaxed here and like people were not always in a hurry to get somewhere and were racing towards me on the street. I actually saw very few people walking around while we were sitting (compared to in Berlin) at the restaurant and we didn’t pass many people on the street either. We did see 1 big group that seemed to be walking from the concentration camp, it was a school group. I could not figure out what language they were speaking but they looked very similar to how our group would dress and act.

The restaurant we went was an Italian Place called Donna Rosa on Bernauer Straβe. It was about a 10-15 minute walk from the concentration camp to this restaurant and the area was beautiful. The architecture of the buildings was similar to Berlin’s in the way that it was a lot of multiple story buildings all connected together. I would say though that in this neighborhood the architecture was more simplistic on the buildings, there was a lot that were one color, usually a light yellow or other light color, that stretched further than 1 building like you see here in Berlin. Usually the whole connection of buildings was the same color which I feel like is rare here in Berlin and every few feet the building has its own color and new design. There was some different architecture along the buildings but the color usually stayed the same for longer.

There was a definite language barrier at the restaurant because our waiter spoke mostly Italian. He said something that my Spanish helped me figure out what he meant which was “de la casa”. When we had asked for olives as an appetizer, he was trying to tell us that those were on the house or a house specialty, we weren’t exactly sure. He was very nice though and would try to make jokes and be funny as frequently as he could and that we could understand. Everyone that we interacted with here was very nice and friendly.

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