I never imagined that seven weeks would go by so quickly. Although I was ready to reconnect with my friends and family back in the U.S., it was so much harder leaving London than I expected it to be! On my last night, I walked from Piccadilly Circus to Green Park, past Buckingham Palace and down the Royal Mall, through Trafalgar Square, by Downing Street and Westminster Abbey, and ended by the Houses of Parliament and Thames River, facing the London Eye.

I thought that for my last post from Berlin I would share a few insider tips about places to see in this wonderful city. For this collection, I focused on special places that are easy to miss rather than giving a summary of the main touristy sights (which you should still see if you do come for a visit!).
Park Inn

I’ve been home for one week, and I go back to school in one more week. It’s been filled mostly with telling and retelling the same stories to different people, but I’m glad to be back. It’s tough to say that France made me appreciate the fact that I’m American or that I live in the United States, because that’s not quite exactly what I realized. I think a better way of putting it is that I came to appreciate things that are truly American: the Blues, William Faulkner, the BioShock video games.

This whirlwind of an adventure has come to a close too soon. The only 6 and a half weeks I spent in Siena have been some of the most amazing weeks thus far in my life. I never thought it would be possible to learn so much about Italian language and culture, Siena, food, and myself in a single summer. Since being home, I’ve already had many people ask me what I miss most about Italy; that would be the food.

I’ve been at home for about two weeks now, but I have a few last words of advice for those going to Berlin this fall.

First off, if you read my first post, one of the things I was most concerned about was living in the home stay. I can tell you, you have NOTHING to worry about!!! IES Berlin does a fabulous job of picking the hosting families, and everyone had a great time. I loved my hosts; they were so kind, funny and really tried to make me feel welcome.

Italy is obviously known for many things, but food might be the number one. There is pizza, olive oil, tomatoes, and PASTA! Some believe that pasta was brought over by Marco Polo from China, but they’re wrong. Instead, pasta in various forms have been around since the Etruscan times, as shown by the frescoes in Etruscan tombs. Thereafter, pasta was written about during the Roman empire and in ancient Arabic texts. This all occured before Marco Polo even came back from China.

I think it takes a 9 am flight to really appreciate how large the Madrid Barajas airport is. It’s actually astounding. And I’ve been everywhere; I’ve been all over the world and I’ve never experienced an airport so large. Luckily it is the crack of dawn, and no one is really here yet so it’s not so much overwhelming as irritating. Why must you be so big, Barajas? What are you trying to prove? It’s only 8 am and my knees already ache from walking.

On Wednesday afternoon, Jackie and Lindsay and I were signed up to visit the Museo del Prado. The sign-up process is a perfect example of soft paternalism (or something), in which the Self makes a decision that is deemed to be good for the Self, such as visiting a museum and therefore forcing cultural exposure. The process to opt out of this museum visit would require a visit to the IES office, and inevitably having to speak Spanish to someone. Thus the Self does not opt out of the museum visit.

We spent 2 days in the Paramo; one at the paper tree forest and another hiking around Chimborazo. The first time we stepped off our bus in the Paramo was near the paper tree forest. This was the strongest winds I have ever felt in my entire life! I would guess 60 mph winds pushing you, pulling you, doing everything it could to get you off the mountain. Living in Wyoming I thought I would be prepared for winds like that but I just can’t express enough how strong it really was.