And so it ends.
This post is an attempt to have logical thoughts, but, let’s be honest, they’re quite scattered.
This past week was our finals (something no college student enjoys) and we’ve all made it our relatively unscathed. We had papers and projects and exams and stress and complaints. But we also had fun trying to pull one another through and breathing a sigh of relief every time we handed in one more test, usually followed by a look of shock because we generally had no idea how we did on the tests.
We had our farewell dinner Thursday evening where we mingled with the friends we’ve made and the teachers we’ve been learning from all semester. We also said our goodbyes to those leaving on Friday to go home, the ones who were continuing to travel for a bit longer, and the ones who would be staying here until the summer. As large as our group was, we still bonded really well. I’ve met some people I’ll probably keep in contact with in the future who have made my time here so much better.
In between stressing over finals and losing our minds over finals, we decided to hit up the Christmas markets and enjoyed the snow that would surprise us some mornings (it’s been a while since I’ve seen snow so I was super pumped for that!). Everyone enjoyed their Glühwein (hot, mulled wine) and we braved the freezing temperatures to wander through the markets after classes to unwind.
There is no question, this was absolutely my toughest semester yet. The balance of wanting to explore every inch of this continent, but also wanting to put in the time for classes was difficult to figure out. It was very different from my college and that gave me yet another challenge (aside from the whole ‘everything is in German’ thing). I did not enjoy that challenge, but I somehow made it through.
And now I’m sitting in my room with my bags half-packed and wondering where the time went, if I did everything I wanted to, and what should I do with those last few scoops of Nutella still left.
It’ll be wonderful to be home again. I’ve been gone for a while now and, though I love to travel and would do it all the time, it’s still great to know I have a place that I can always come back to.
Hopefully I’ll remember to make one more post when I get home to let you guys know about my return.
Happy Holidays to everyone and I’ll see you in the US!
And here’s pictures from the last few weeks. (as usual this site won’t load mine properly so some are missing, but none that are important. I’m mainly hoping IES/Wordpress will see this and address the issue.)
