Final Blog

            Life is definitely a lot different after coming back. A week after returning, I got to walk the stage for my bachelor’s degree with Alexa. It’s amazing to think that I’ve been friends with people in different countries. This trip has made it easier to expand my horizons and now I’m even considering graduate schools outside of Texas (which I would have never done before).

It feels like we got back a long time ago, but it’s only been two months back. I can’t believe I used to walk around Germany like it wasn’t a big deal. I always had a fear of being abroad because I didn’t know if I’d be able to adapt, but I feel like it took me longer to adjust being back to the US than it did to be over there. I don’t remember everything that happened while abroad, but some stuff comes back to me in pieces.

I remember:

• Getting a pretzel from BackWerk every day.
• Taking a boat tour and eating giant pancakes in Amsterdam.
• Getting sick in Vienna and staying sick for three weeks.
• Struggling to get up the hundreds of steps in Prague because I felt like I had the knees of an elderly woman.
• Walking through a small local market square in Luxembourg with Michelle.
• Seeing Big Ben from the top of the London Eye.
• Falling off my bike in Paris and getting a new scar on my right knee.
• Throwing pennies in the fountain behind St. Patrick’s Cathedral with Clare and Stephenie.
• Singing 500 miles with Rachel in Lisbon.
• Laying on a beach in Barcelona during spring break.
• Bike riding through Brugge and drinking some of the best hot chocolate in the world there.
• Playing concentration in the museums in Berlin.
•  Attending mass in the Koln Dom.

            Europe used to feel so far away, but when I hear about it in the news I feel more connected and more involved. I got the chance to visit 11 countries and now I know a little more about life outside of the United States.

                        I am so grateful to Dr. Wasser for being there for us the entire semester and being the best professor that we could have possibly had. We had several lectures with him every single day and they never got boring. This was an incredible opportunity and I’m grateful to have gotten this chance. It was truly the best way to finish my undergraduate career and I am definitely missing everybody right now.         

Tldr; save the bees.