BONNito Viaje

The Garwood's had a sweet welcome home message for us at the family farm :) It's been two weeks since our adventure returned us home. Life has taken on a more familiar routine as I come home to my family, drive my car, order Chick-fil-A (in English), and use bathrooms for free. Yet there is an element of mourning woven into my return to "normalcy." No more do I enjoy the cool summer mornings, or rush across train platforms at the mercy of the DeutchBahn, or spend weekends traveling to a new country or castle or museum. My return was inevitable, and the sadness does not persist. Part of the Hero's Journey- that our trip modeled- includes the joyful return to the normal world: a return with the acquired elixir.  If this were a fictional novel, the elixir might be some potion or sword or maybe even a ring. However, my adventure was not magical in the same sense, and so my prize gained at the end of this journey looks very different. Instead, my elixir lies in the for...

After six weeks abroad, the time finally came to say tschuss  to Germany. What bittersweet feelings come with this farewell! My experiences have felt surreal, wrapping me in adventure and new knowledge every single day. Going home, while desperately anticipated, comes with an element of disappointment as the overt adventure ends, and "routine" life begins again. I have much to be grateful for, though, and my many new lessons will continue to serve me in the time ahead.  We ended our program in Berlin, which was a very different atmosphere than our other excursions. The city carried a heaviness that was muffled underneath attempts at satisfied modernity and colorful progress. Understanding the history of such a place helps to interpret the feeling soaked into it; our excursion shared a great deal of landmarks that have left echoes of an irreversible history undoubtedly felt by its residents as well as its visitors. Germany has a very challenging and unique history, one we prim...