Valpo Voyager

Student Stories from Around the World

Date: September 19, 2010

Challenge?

September 19, 2010 / / 1 Comment

I’m praying for a challenge.

After looking at some photos of  individuals participating in other study abroad programs, I’m realizing more and more that there’s something I feel is missing from my experience.  After some questioning and prayer over the past couple of days, I was in a state of bafflement as to what could possibly be missing with regard to my experience.  I have my boyfriend of five years, two dear sorority sisters, and some new and emerging friendships taking place.  I’m even meditating on this at the most beautiful café in Reutlingen, drinking a cappuccino!  What more could I want?

But maybe that’s it–I have (most) everything I could want with me in Germany.  This very blessing has reaped so many benefits thus far and I thank God for them every day.  However, now that I’m almost a month into the trip, I’m ready to start bringing in an element of sacrifice or challenge every single day.  There have been (laundry) and will be (low-rated hostels) days that present several challenges and require of me certain sacrifices, but when the day does not call for it, I want to pursue it. Whether this pursuit is emotional or physical in nature is not of importance, what is of importance is that I am pursuing a greater purpose.

This idea became increasingly clear to me as I took a long run among paths I had yet to travel.  The sun set as my body shed goosebumps and I realized how truly lucky I was to have this experience–to be able to run along these paths–to be able to run at all.  It was a weird feeling to feel both blessed and guilty all at the same time.  I didn’t know what to make of those feelings I was experiencing, but I do know that my feelings of guilt could be energy toward action.

They say God works in mysterious ways, and I’m willing to bet that calling me to greater challenges is all a part of His plan.  I don’t know how or what this entails, but I know He prevails.

Here’s to a new perspective, and many new experiences to come!

In between two hectic cities, there were a few moments of peace.

September 19, 2010 / / 0 Comments

The past two weeks have been absolutely crazy. With the class, we all went to Berlin for the entire week going to museums, palaces, and a concentration camp. By the end of the week my feet hurt, my thoughts were filled with historical information, and my whole body ached for sleep. In a brief overview, I visited the Checkpoint Charlie Museum, Neu Palais in Potsdam, Sachsenhausen concentration camp, Deutsches Historisches Museum, Jewish Holocaust Museum, Pergammon Museum, the Berlin Wall, and a lot of random tourist sites. With all of the rain that occurred that week, it made the time absolutely draining but totally worth it. The Berlin Wall at the East Side Gallery was especially amazing.

After all the craziness of Berlin, a couple of the girls decided to travel down to Wittenberg before going all the way to Augsburg for the weekend. The small town atmosphere was a welcome change after all the hustle and bustle of the capitol city. The entire town of Wittenberg was such a quaint area that was entirely devoted to Martin Luther. The Castle Church and the City Church were relatively easy to walk to and venture inside. I stood right over Luther’s grave and got a picture in front of the infamous doors where the 95 Theses were supposedly nailed. To imagine that the basis of my religion started here almost 500 years ago was truly mind blowing. Walking through his house made it all the more real since I was able to see one of the Bibles he had copied hundreds of years previous. It was, simply put, peaceful.

And then… more craziness. Probably the craziest of all craziness: Oktoberfest. Being there on opening day of the 200th Anniversary of the festival was most definitely the busiest day we could have picked to go there. People were everywhere, and we were lucky to get a table outside. We deserved it though since we got into the festival at 8:30am. Beer was officially served at noon, and the craziness just got crazier. We met some awesome people from Koln and elsewhere, and overall it was a great time to socialize with everyone. Although I am officially the most exhausted from traveling as I have ever been, every minute was worth it. Now to rest up for the next adventures in Dresden and Leipzig come Friday!

Once Traveled, Twice Shy

September 19, 2010 / / 3 Comments

Now that I have my first (successful) trip to the European continent under my belt, here are a few tips I can offer after the valuable lessons I learned from my trip to Munich this weekend:

1) Research, research, research: The only information I had actually looked up about Munich before I left was the address of my hotel and what time my flights left. As soon as we stepped off the airplane, I realized this was an awful idea. I had no idea how far out of the city of Munich the airport was, and had totally misjudged the taxi fare, among other things. We also had a free day on Friday that we had planned on using to explore Munich, but we soon realized we had no idea of anything to do in Munich, other than Oktoberfest. With no access to the internet, we aimlessly wandered around Munich, finding little to do, and being pretty disappointed.

2) Brush up on the language: Coming to Germany, I had the assumption that almost everyone would be able to communicate with me in English, at least well enough to get around and get everything done. I assumed wrong. Although most people could at least talk to us enough to give us directions, we had some bad experiences with the bus systems, taxi drivers, and some of the hotel staff from where we were staying. When I go to France in a month, I will be sure to bring along a book of common French terms in order to make this much less of a problem. Luckily, we didn’t end up in any dire situation where we needed to know the language.

3) Pack once, recheck your packing, and pack again: Although some European airlines, such as RyanAir and EasyJet are cheap, it is only worth it to not check a bag and just pack a carry-on. Both airlines have strict restrictions as to how big your bag can be, so no matter where you’re going, you have to pack extremely light. The 100 mL liquid restrictions are also a pain, just like in the United States, so plan to spend some money in a drug store when you get to the airport (after they confiscate all of yours). Through our hurried packing, worried about not having enough clothes, we also forgot our electrical adapter, and therefore weren’t able to use any of our hairstlyers the whole weekend. Boo.

4) Enjoy the culture as much as you can: Oktoberfest was quite the experience, and its’ reputation aside, it gave me a really good insight to German culture. We met a lot of great German people, as well as others from around the world, who we compared lives and customs with, and it was really interesting. We also had the pleasure of enjoying German food and shopping, and it was very insightful. No matter where you are, it’s important to have a lot to remember it by and compare it to.

Traveling is a blast, and I look forward to my trip to Portugal this coming Thursday. Although things can get a little complicated at times, the experience you have is always ultimately worth it in the end!

Cheers, Julie

Guten Tag Munich!

September 19, 2010 / / 0 Comments

Enthusiasm and anxiety. I’m not sure which I felt more of when I stepped off the Easy Jet plane for my first taste of German Air. I was thrilled to be in a new country for the first time, well sort of. Visiting when you’re two years old doesn’t count in my books! After all, this was me embarking on a brand new experience with four of my closest friends – all of whom had never been to Germany before either. The anxiety had set in as soon as I looked around the airport and only saw signs written in Deutsch, which, for a person whose extent of knowledge of the language is “hello” and “bless you”, can certainly be daunting.

I refused to let that stop me from being adventurous and making the most of my two day trip to Germany. My first task was finding an ATM, because without any Euros, I might as well have just camped out at the airport for 48 hours. Fortunately we found one rather effortlessly and then set off in search of a bathroom which luckily for us the German word for “Toilette” is similar enough to the English term in order for us foreigners to figure out. After taking care of business – and raving over how clean the bathrooms were – we headed off to find a taxi. We didn’t take long to find one that could seat all five of us, but unfortunately the driver’s knowledge of English was just as basic as my knowledge of German, which admittedly, is terrible. We wondered if our entire trip would be similar to this.

Somehow we still managed to reach our bed and breakfast in the southern part of Munich, however. From then on my initial feelings of emotion after getting off the plane were unchanged. The following morning I found myself extremely excited to go tour the city and get a taste of the country’s culture- as well as their famous schnitzel’s. At the same time, the anxiety of not knowing any of the language or where a single thing in the city was remained in the fore front of my mind. My first trip to London felt like a piece of cake compared to this. Fortunately for us, we had several maps of the city and bus and train routes to help guide all of us, even if they too were all in German.

If wasn’t for the friendliness of the people it could have turned out to be a difficult weekend for all five of us. Instead, almost everyone was willing to try and give us directions and offer us advice on where to go and what to see. I can’t count how many people, even with their broken English, made an effort to help us. It was their friendliness, along with the fascinating sights in Munich that made it a weekend to remember. We were even fortunate enough to be able to attend the 200th anniversary of Oktoberfest, which is another story for another day!

Prost! (Cheers)

Host Family

September 19, 2010 / / 1 Comment

One of the big perks of my program is that we stay with host families, which greatly increases the Spanish we are exposed to and forces us to speak in Spanish. Last summer I went to Chile, and while that’s where I really became fluent, I would have learned a lot more had I not been speaking English in the dorms our group stayed in.

My host mom and dad are on the elderly side, super kind, a little quiet at times, but very reasonable and communicative. At first I was concerned they weren’t going to speak to me much, but I soon learned that they are more used to students with only a few classes of Spanish experience. I have to ask them to repeat themselves often, but we understand each other pretty well most of the time. On the first day of orientation my host parents walked me and some other students that live near me to the Centro de Lenguas Modernas, which turned out to be about a 20 or 30 minute walk (Google maps). We’re all ready to have super calves by the time we leave in December.

In Spain, meals are between 8-9AM, 2-3PM, and 9-10PM. Sometimes people have a “merienda” around 6 or 7, which is usually a coffee or a beer with tapas. Lunch is the large meal of the day, dinner is lighter, usually just one plate and maybe a salad. Meals are when I interact the most with my host parents, Ascension and Miguel (I think, still haven’t gotten clear on his name…). Miguel always has the TV on during meals. While at first I found this annoying, it’s really a blessing in disguise because it’s a great source of conversation, and great exposure to the language as it’s spoken naturally. I can’t wait to be able to understand the awesome Spanish soap operas on Univision when I return to the states.


My typical lunch in Granada.

When I mentioned to my host mom that although I don’t eat red meat I do eat chicken and turkey, she of course thought I realllllly love chicken and turkey. I don’t think I’ve had a lunch or dinner without a bird in it yet!

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