Week 6: Saying Goodbye

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 primarily studied from the perspective of medicine on this program. However, it is inevitable to travel the country without coming face to face with the remnants of loss, grief, and hatred that have left scars deep beneath the cobblestone. It is sobering to visit such significant locations in Berlin, witnessing the remains of a wall that separated and killed so many people, despite being so thin, the square where fire consumed page after page of controversial books, the monuments, faceless and tomb-like, for murdered Jews, and the lonely, evocative sculpture of a mother mourning her son. 




While the city offered a different atmosphere than perhaps some of us expected to end with, the final farewell to the program was full of laughter and sweet tidings. Having explored so much together for six weeks, our group got very close! We had started out as strangers, and now are bonded by brilliant adventures (and mild amounts of chaos). I am grateful that the end of our new friendships is not in sight, because we will all be back in College Station soon for many reunions and story-telling! I will forever be amazed at the incredible personalities and intellects I encountered from the girls on this trip. God has been so good in who He's blessed me with during this adventure of a lifetime, constantly teaching me about others, myself, and the world around us. 

Tschuss for now, Germany. 

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