A Weekend Visitor

This halloweekend, while many of my fellow IES Abroad EU students traveled all over, I welcomed a visitor to little Freiburg. One of my dearest friends who is studying at IES Abroad Vienna made the journey to come visit me. It was the perfect weekend of extensive cheese-eating, spontaneous adventures, relaxing, deep convos, and so much laughter. Freiburg suits a pair like us well. We stopped by the markets and bought loads of cheese and bottles of apple juice for €1.50 then walked through the forest and were awed by the colors of the changing trees. These photos capture a few moments of the many that I cherish from this weekend. When I returned to my flat after sending her off I found that she had left a note on my desk that contained a poem. I'll share it here. I hope that the colors and scenes of the photos and the words of this poem will give you a glimpse into what I'm learning from life abroad. 

Morning Poem by Mary Oliver

Every morning
the world
is created.
Under the orange

sticks of the sun
the heaped
ashes of the night
turn into leaves again

and fasten themselves to the high branches —
and the ponds appear
like black cloth
on which are painted islands

of summer lilies.
If it is your nature
to be happy
you will swim away along the soft trails

for hours, your imagination
alighting everywhere.
And if your spirit
carries within it

the thorn
that is heavier than lead —
if it’s all you can do
to keep on trudging —

there is still
somewhere deep within you
a beast shouting that the earth
is exactly what it wanted —

each pond with its blazing lilies
is a prayer heard and answered
lavishly,
every morning,

whether or not
you have ever dared to be happy,
whether or not
you have ever dared to pray.