A reflection.

Yesterday was our LAST DAY OF CLASSES.
Today was our first day of finals.
Which means the end is near!

I feel like this is all I've been saying lately, but that's because it's almost all I can think about. I'm not ready to say goodbye.

I want to live in a place like this forever.

It's not necessarily that going home is bad or anything, it's more that I'm not ready to move on. Something about saying goodbye to this place seems so final, because it's  not like you can simply hop onto a plane and fly to Europe any time you like (I WISH).

Also, the friends that I have made here are amazing, and I love them all. I can't imagine not being able to walk a few feet to their rooms and just do nothing together. I will miss all the silly little shenanigans that occur on random days in Moore Haus, walking to and from class and everywhere in between, the cobblestone streets of Heidelberg, the castle at night in all it's magical beauty, the view of Heidelberg after dark, Moore Haus and its thin walls and awesome inhabitants and rumored secret passageway(s).





While I know that life has many more adventures to come, I'm having a hard time leaving this one behind. Living in the land of fairy tales has proved to be the best year of my life.

I still can't believe this whole year was real.

In less than a year,

I have lived on the same street as a castle (which was partially destroyed in, I believe, Louis XIV's expansionary wars) of a prince electorate, walked in the same places as Goethe and Mark Twain, used my German outside of the classroom, and lived in the city which was a center of the German Romantic movement (the Heidelberg Romantic is actually a thing).

I  have practically memorized the cadence of the Deutsche Bahn conductor as he announces, "Meine Damen und Herren, in wenigen Minuten erreichen wir ________ Hauptbahnhof."

I have been to Switzerland (twice), Ireland, England, Austria, Spain, Turkey, the Czech Republic, Croatia, Turkey, and various parts of Germany.... and decided that I have to come back.

I have thrown a snowball out my window, tripped on a cobblestone (several times), stargazed at a castle, eaten Gruyere cheese in Gruyere, played games with Irish people, looked for cars in the wrong direction while crossing a London street, pet stray dogs, stopped to admire the beauty of everything that is surrounding me, run out to explore Nuremburg in the hour I had in between trains, exchanged currency several times, bartered at the Grand Bazaar, learned how to fence, made friends with a few Germans and also a girl from Siberia, and discovered that I may want to also be a translator as well as an author/publisher.

More importantly I have completely changed while still being the same person I've always been. I have grown more into myself while learning how better to reach out to others. I have made an effort to be more outgoing, more friendly, more weird, more spontaneous, and more driven.

I have made new friends with whom I have so much in common, learned how to play "zoo" and a million other of Chelsea's silly games. I have stayed up till 4 in the morning talking with some great people, built a fort and giggled in it for hours, eaten a chocolate cake while drinking hot chocolate with friends on Valentine's Day (then decided so much chocolate at once was a bad life decision), been nested upon (ask Brandie... it's odd), met fellow Diet Coke addicts, and sat in a room filled with people in which we said and did almost nothing and still felt that we had fun.

Most importantly I have learned more precisely how to define my faith, what I believe, and make my faith more mine than it's ever been before.

I'm really going to miss hanging out at the neighbors' place.

Croatia= best first trip in which we got lost at a beautiful state park where no one spoke English and seriously considered hitch-hiking despite knowing full well the dangers. 

So basically it's safe to say that this year will be tough to top. But I don't want to make it sound like this is all about me... despite the wonderful surroundings, this year would have been nothing if not for all of the amazing people with whom I shared it. Never before have I lived in such close quarters with so many people-- and from what I've heard, it's remarkable that we all get along so well. There will never be a community like the community of Heidelberg 2011-2012 students.