Sarah Hayes
Germany D-Term
Blog post #1
6/4/2015
The Germany
d-term trip seemed like an excellent opportunity to continue with my passion of
traveling. I do not consider myself an experienced traveler, seeing that I have
only been to Greece and Italy on a past D-term trip, but I will soon be
traveling to Greece again, and then of course to Germany. To be honest, I never really pictured myself going to Germany. During the d-term
informational meetings, I only attended the Spain meeting. After learning a bit
about Spain, I realized it was not really the country or culture that I wanted
to experience. I spoke with my mom and a few friends about where their favorite
place to travel was… I got an overwhelmingly high response that Germany was
their absolute favorite. All of them said that I should experience Germany at
least once in my lifetime. My Mom said it was the best six months of her life, and although mine will only be 20 days, she advised me to
not miss such a great opportunity and to go on the trip. After meeting with Dr.
Wolf, he convinced me even farther. I am a person who enjoys knowing what I am
getting myself into, and Dr. Wolf had that covered. I am not opposed to
spontaneity, but I like having a somewhat specific overview of what we will be
doing and where we will be going. After leaving the one-on-one meeting with Dr.
Wolf I immediately went to the Abe house to turn in my deposit without a second
thought. Once I got over the initial wave of excitement about knowing that I
was going to be able to travel to a new country, I started to look more
specifically into the places that we will be visiting.
I have
searched and done minor research on a majority of the places that we are
visiting, and they are look beautiful. I am looking forward to see many of the
castles and experience the detailed architecture of the country, but I am
especially looking forward to seeing how these structures reflect their culture
and beliefs. I am really interested in learning more about the Sachsenhausen
Concentration camp. I find it fascinating that it is a norm in the German
culture to not hide their past. In the United States it is not a common thing
to exhibit events that may make our country look bad, but Germany seems to be
very open about the history that took place in their country, especially at the
horrible places like the concentration camps. I am interested to learn why the Germans are so
open about this history and the events that occurred.
I am also very interested in seeing the contrast between
German stereotypes and what the German citizens are actually like. When I think
of German nightlife, I think of a bunch of people getting drunk in loud bars,
but from my understanding so far, this is not the case. I have heard from
individuals who went last year they the bars are extremely quiet, and most
people are actually sitting outside or at a Christmas market. I think the
Christmas markets will be very fun too, I have been to the one in Chicago but I
have a feeling that the one in Erfurt will top my expectations of what a German
Christmas market it like. The idea of being outside so much is appealing to me
so I am excited to experience the different culture of Germany and change the
stereotypical view that I confess to having. I am looking forward
to this opportunity and I already know it will be incredible.
