Re-Entry

My goodness, how the time has flown!  I wanted to save this last blog post as a reflection, final thoughts, and summation of my experience in Europe.  I studied away during J term two years ago at Holden Village (an old mining town way up in the cascades), and I know that there are some short term impacts and long term impacts that take some time to come emerge following re entry into regular life.  Basically, I can offer my immediate reflections now, but ask me a year from now how this trip has changed the way that I think, or my goals, and I will be able to give you a more comprehensive answer. For now, here we go.  

The major impacts of this trip are 1) I am inspired to continue to play, listen to, and learn about music and its history after seeing first hand so many spectacular concerts and historic places. 2) I am inspired to learn more about the structure of the European countries and how their political, economical, and social models function, 3) I am inspired to, at a minimum, become bi-lingual.

If I had to boil down the trip even further to one lesson or takeaway, I would say that this trip provided me with a monumental experience for comparison.  As I mentioned in my first blog posts, even though the societies of America and Germany Austria, and the Czech Republic are all developed and modern, this was the first experience for me to notice all of the minute and not so minute differences between my life growing up, and my life for the last month.  College has been a time for me to learn to think critically about everything, and spending a month in Europe gave me ample time to compare all of my experiences in America to a different culture and society.  Everything from the difference in the light switches (they are squares, see below) to the incredible transit system (also below), to the absence of plastic zip lock bags, and the way that almost all the cars are diesel, are not trucks but actually cars, and have manual transmissions.  Basically, every moment was engaging and provided something to think about, and something to reflect upon.

Experiential learning, and immersion are the best way to learn, and I encountered that firsthand.  There is not substitute for the feeling of complete incompetence when all you want is some food, but you can read nothing on the menu, and speak little more than "please" and "thank you" and the numbers 1-20.  There is no substitute to seeing and visiting a castle that has housed royalty, seen battles, and withstood thousands of years of time.  This trip has truly been life changing, and I cant wait to continue learning and exploring the world.  This was the end of our trip, but this the event that has inspired my curiosity to learn new languages, and explore the world (and check out those free masters programs in Germany).  Ready or not, here I come!