Takeaways

There are many wonderful “takeaways” I’ve gained from this travel abroad experience but, so soon after parting ways with everyone, the ones at the forefront of my mind are friendship and community. Signing up for the trip was all about the destinations for me, I didn’t live in an honors dorm last year and prior to this study abroad I had only done one credit within the honors college, so I wasn’t around other study abroad applicants. In the pre departure class everyone was relatively quiet as it was almost everyone’s last class on Friday afternoons, but being popped into a foreign country with each other was an amazing ice breaker.

I love that the study abroad covers such a broad range of topics because the diversity amongst everyone on the trip was spectacular but everyone loved to learn and gain new experiences. Throughout the trip I learned about topics fellow student’s were passionate about that I otherwise never would have learned. This idea was imbedded into our curriculum in Berlin especially where we had groups of students with somewhat similar interests that would make themed scavenger hunts. On the day I was in the history of business and engineering group, Julia and I were sitting at one end of the Friendship (Oberbaum) Bridge as she casually explained her vast knowledge in the city’s debate on whether or not to make the River Spree swimmable by adding vegetation to the water. And throughout the entire trip, Mikala was a plethora on political trivia from around the world, walking through EU Parliament with her was like having a personal tour guide.

    ^Julia Lisk ^Mikala Teramoto

I also got the chance to leave our groups bubble and meet locals. Thanks to Mikala’s extrovertedness, I now know a woman who owns a vintage store in Sweden, a recent graduate who restores old buildings in Leiden, a “Texan” German who runs a quiche stand in Berlin; and am friends with a Dutch guy who grew up in China and sounds like an American. I loved meeting the locals because it takes my personal stereotypes of cultures and breaks it apart to make room for lives of individuals.

The same can be said for all the honors student’s on this study abroad.  Although we’re not all in the same major and none of us fit the nerdy Urkel stereotype, we’ve all bonded thanks to this trip and I’m sure we’ll run into each other quite often thanks to the honors college. I’m happy to have bonded with them all and I’m sure our little community with continue once school starts in fall.

by Raven Wentworth