Wow. How long has it been since I've posted here? 6 months almost? WELL, I am about to fix that.
I never made a final post about Berlin and I know it's very late to make one, so I'll keep it short.
BERLIN WAS AWESOME.
We went on a boat tour for our last hurrah as a class. The ride itself was scenic and very nice, even though it rained for a while. The food was great and there was a lot of good conversation. We played cards and a group of friends even made superlatives for everyone. I got "Most Likely to Become a History Teacher" because of my multiple tutoring sessions with the majority of the students. Our History teacher, Fransizka, was just not doing that great of a job, so I thought I'd help. She had a very unique style of teaching that wasn't really teaching. We were expected to read then just remember and figure out literally everything on our own. The only reason I knew it what-so-ever was because of my high school AP classes. YAY, HISTORY.
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I accompanied the group to the airport, not to leave, but to spend a few hours waiting for my dad. He arrived and we went on our genealogy hunt. It was very, VERY cool. We saw the old farm, old house, church, and burial sites of quite a few of the Twietmeyer family members (my grandmother's side of the family). We stayed in a town called Vilsen which is where my dad's great-great-aunt lived. It was ADORABLE. Cobblestone streets, corner stores, asparagus for sale on every block, one train station, and lots and lots of old people (my favorite).
The yellow house is our hotel!
We visited all of the places in the pictures along with many more:
I never made a final post about Berlin and I know it's very late to make one, so I'll keep it short.
BERLIN WAS AWESOME.
We went on a boat tour for our last hurrah as a class. The ride itself was scenic and very nice, even though it rained for a while. The food was great and there was a lot of good conversation. We played cards and a group of friends even made superlatives for everyone. I got "Most Likely to Become a History Teacher" because of my multiple tutoring sessions with the majority of the students. Our History teacher, Fransizka, was just not doing that great of a job, so I thought I'd help. She had a very unique style of teaching that wasn't really teaching. We were expected to read then just remember and figure out literally everything on our own. The only reason I knew it what-so-ever was because of my high school AP classes. YAY, HISTORY.
...............................................................................................................................................
I accompanied the group to the airport, not to leave, but to spend a few hours waiting for my dad. He arrived and we went on our genealogy hunt. It was very, VERY cool. We saw the old farm, old house, church, and burial sites of quite a few of the Twietmeyer family members (my grandmother's side of the family). We stayed in a town called Vilsen which is where my dad's great-great-aunt lived. It was ADORABLE. Cobblestone streets, corner stores, asparagus for sale on every block, one train station, and lots and lots of old people (my favorite).
The yellow house is our hotel!
We visited all of the places in the pictures along with many more:
The town the Twietmeyers are from is called Hingste, which is associated with Verden. It's one of those typical farmland places where you never see anyone on the street, there's only one church for the whole place, and you wouldn't be surprised if a horse-drawn carriage came around one of the windy streets.
Here's some pictures from our adventures.
Here's some pictures from our adventures.
After that whole deal we took a quick day trip to Berlin that ended in a 7 course meal!
Yay more pictures!
Yay more pictures!
Anyways, the plane ride back was long, of course. I still miss it over in Europe. I plan on going back FOR SURE.
Fast forward six months and I'm back at school. I am taking 5 classes this term along with my promotion to Student Assistant in the School of Business office. The job is 20 hours per week, so you could say that the stress is real.
Because of my wonderful experience in Berlin, I have signed up to be a Study Abroad Ambassador, which is basically an advocate for students to go abroad and have the time of their lives like I did.
I really hope I can hold it together for this term. I've only had two breakdowns in the almost 3 weeks I've been here, which is an accomplishment for how overwhelming it has been so far.
I plan to try and post another update soon because typing out everything is really nice for me. Re-reading my blog posts from Berlin have been keeping me sane today.
You guys are the best.
Because of my wonderful experience in Berlin, I have signed up to be a Study Abroad Ambassador, which is basically an advocate for students to go abroad and have the time of their lives like I did.
I really hope I can hold it together for this term. I've only had two breakdowns in the almost 3 weeks I've been here, which is an accomplishment for how overwhelming it has been so far.
I plan to try and post another update soon because typing out everything is really nice for me. Re-reading my blog posts from Berlin have been keeping me sane today.
You guys are the best.