When I left I had no idea what was in store for me. A year ago today I could have never imagined what it was like to live with an amazing host family, or to become so familiar with the trains, buses, trams, and even airports in Berlin that they would become second nature to me.
I could have never imagined that I would stand with 100,000 people in St. Peter's Square as Pope Benedict gave his last blessing. I would have never imagined freezing by the canals of Copenhagen as my friends and I experienced the coldest, most miserable picnic ever. Now I have climbed the Duomo in Florence, and felt the wind in my hair as I rode the water buses down the canals in Venice. I have hiked to old castles in the Schwarzwald, picnicked on the windswept English moor in the rain, and had tea in the Pump Room in Bath where Jane Austen once navigated the complex social games of Regency England.
I have traversed the ancient paths of Stonehenge, reveled in the majesty of the Cliffs of Moher, and understood how people can believe in fairies among the mythic landscape of Ireland. I've crossed the Westminster Bridge beneath the shadow of Big Ben, hiked the 510 steps to the top of the Cologne Cathedral, explored the vastness of the Prague Castle, cheered in the stands of the Colosseum where so much ancient blood was spilled, and peered excitedly through train windows in the Czech Republic, Germany, and Italy. I explored museums full of ancient artifacts, walked among the old Viking houses of Hedeby, visited both the Ostsee and the Nordsee in one day, and tasted some of the best beer Germany has to offer.
I've come face to face with the horrors of Nazi concentration camps, antisemitism, and the Berlin Wall in both Nuremburg and Berlin. I stood where figures of myth and legend once stood, and, in doing so, I have gained an even deeper understanding of Europe, Germany, and, particularly, Berlin. I have seen a city struggling to emerge from the chains of its past, and it is truly incredible what the German people have accomplished--an ability to once more take pride in being German.
Most of all, I came into contact with so many amazing people who I would never have met otherwise, from the woman who helped us when we were lost in Copenhagen, to my wonderful host parents Gerd and Elke, to the close friends I made in my program. Traveling and living in a foreign country forms deeper bonds than most people realize, and I will always cherish the memories of our times in Berlin and exploring Europe together. It is amazing how much hospitality was poured out to me from relatives, old friends, and people I had never met. Traveling taught me that all you have to do is ask, and there are good people willing to do everything they can to help.
So much changed in those four months that I lived in Berlin, and in the eight months after that too. I have grown as a person, become more confident in myself, and, most of all, I have had the world opened up before me. Living in Europe taught me that I can achieve the things I want to achieve. When popping off to Ireland for the weekend on a whim becomes commonplace, anything seems possible.
Heading into 2014, the year I graduate (a terrifying thought), it seems impossible for this next year to live up to everything I experienced last year. But after everything I did experience, I intend to embrace the coming year and find new adventures. Europe changed me and kindled an already existing passion for the diverse cultures of the world. But in all the places I traveled, and through all I experienced, one thing remained constant and was made abundantly clear to me over and over again--that God, the creator of the universe, cherishes his people, and that he is an awesome God.
Rachel Lamine
