Frühling Deutschland Style

My entire life, I’ve had a bit of a jagged view on spring. You see, I am from Colorado. Colorado is often called the “bi-polar state” and you often hear people saying “Go home, Colorado, you’re drunk.” Spring is basically a second winter filled with sunny days that give you false hope it’s almost summer time. One day its warm and you’re spending the day in the grass drinking lemonade in shorts and flip-flops. The very next school is called off and snow is already three feet high above your window outside. Then there is one day in between the process where all the roads look like rivers from snow melting like great water falls. Then it happens again. And again. Till school is over and summer can finally begin. This, of course, is not the case in Germany. Germany tends to be more practical in most spectrums, including seasons. Not that I don’t like my crazy Colorado springtime, spring has just been extremely pleasant here.

Unlike the wet, rainy, cold and gray tundra winter, spring is filled with many sunny and warm days. It is also SO green! There are flowers blooming all around and buds are growing from all the tree tops. The air feels warm and a light breeze cools your off when it gets too hot. Biking to school every morning has became so much more pleasant and we are able to eat lunch outside on the deck most days. My host family has a garden filled with all kinds of fruits and vegetables that are beginning to bud. If the weather could stay like this forever, I would not be complaining.

Spring has also brought more than just good weather. I am really enjoying my last few weeks here. It is so nice to finally have most things figured out. School is much easier than before and I feel like my German has improved so much. I will be taking the AP German test at an international school in May, which students usually take after 5 years of German in school. I can keep up in most classes, and even had the third best test in my Biology class. I have lots of friends, both American and German, many of who I will probably be in touch with for a very long time. As it is, I hardly have any school left, May is filled with long weekends and in June I’ll be going to Berlin with the other CBYX’ers for our end of the year seminar.

In my last few weeks here, I wonder what it is that I will miss most when I get back to America. Will it be the every day bike rides over car rides, sparkling water with every meal, the trains and busses that connect me to all over Europe? It’s hard to say. Home is like a distant memory at this point; Germany has become my home. I’m also curious if I will have any kind of culture shock coming back into the states. I suppose I will find it all out in good time.

As nice as spring is here, I am pretty stoked to get back. I will still have my senior year of High School, and I will be participating in a special program my school does called Senior Seminar. With the program, a selected group of students are chosen who spend the second half of the school year traveling around the U.S., volunteering, hiking, biking, and finding out who they are and what the world has to offer. Words cannot describe how excited I am. I can’t wait to see my family and friends again. To spend my days hiking, tanning pool side, and babysitting to earn travel money. I look forward to whole foods lunch dates with my mom and playing fugitive on warm summer nights. Nothing beats summer time.

Springtime always brings new life, and along with all the blooming flowers and chirping of birds comes a feeling of conclusion. It is in the air, the feeling that sooner than later this chapter of my life will be closing and a new one will be beginning. There will be things I will miss and things I will not be sorry to leave behind, but either way the lessons I have learned here will stay forever ingrained in my memories and I doubt a day will pass that I won’t think of my time in Germany for a very long time. 

Just call me a Traveling, Wandering Bum- Paris Spring Break 2013

From the top of the Eiffel Tower

There is no city quite like Paris. No city with such class,  such elegance, with yet such a modern vibe and a grungy underbelly. Paris is the city of my dreams. I do not know everything, and there is no way I have been everywhere, but I do believe that at this point in my young life I am becoming a seasoned traveler; who has experienced and seen a lot of places on earth other than the small corner I grew up in. And something about Paris just stands out from the rest. I cannot explain it, Paris just feels right. Something about the twisted subway corridors, the ancient and awe inspiring Palaces, and the elegance of sitting in a cafe while sipping a cup of tea and reading a good book; it beckons me to it.

I guess I should start from the beginning. In Colorado, I had a friend named Clara. Clara's family moved to France once a few years ago and once again August of last year. She goes to an international school and will be graduating there. From the moment I knew I was going to Germany, we always had a hope in the back of our minds that we would be able to meet up. We have a mutual friend. Her name is Katlyn and she is also from Colorado and on the same exchange program in Germany. So, I guess you can put the puzzle pieces together at this point, that over spring break Katlyn and I went to go visit Clara. Her family was so welcoming and wonderful to be with. I am so grateful for them. It was one of the most pleasant, relaxing, and beautiful weeks of my exchange.

Here's an overview of some of the many things I did over the week:

 -Visit the Louvre at night. The largest museum in the western side of the world is open late certain days, and makes for a much more pleasant experience than a day  trip filled with crowded hallways leading up to the Mona Lisa and an hour long line to the door. As we wandered the corridors filled with Parisians enjoying the night time stillness and art classes taking place, we were really able to feel a spirit throughout the Palace that would be missed if we were in a rush. The emotion coming out of the statues eyes, the stories being told by the many painters, and the mysteriousness of the long and never ending corridors narrates the serenity and history of a place filled with endless stories and endless mystique.

-Spend a sunny day at a Park outside Paris.

Sadly, Clara had to stay home and do homework, but the rest of her family and us took the train one day and set out for a popular park about 30 minutes from the city. After the long and cold winter in Germany, I have never had more appreciation for laying and soaking up the sunshine. It was an extremely pleasant day filled with walks up and down lines of fountains, visiting a chateau, and enjoying the nice spring time weather.

-Took on Versailles in 45 minutes.
The Palace of Versailles was absolutely spectacular and jaw dropping. So was the massive and never ending crowd of people. With travel guides read before hand and cameras in tow, Katlyn and I somehow busted through Versailles in less than 45 minutes. My favorite parts were the painted ceilings, which never ceased to amaze me, and the famous Hall of Mirrors Louis XIV himself designed. I cannot believe the craft and time put into every detail. After getting through the palace we both felt mentally and physically drained from the mass of people. We headed back and spent the rest of the day wandering through the streets of Paris, and ended up finding the most mouth watering chocolate eclairs to put a sweet end to our day.

 - Ate at the restaurant I have missed most since I left home
It turns out there was a Chipolte in Paris! I just had to include this in my blog. For those of you who don't know, Chipolte is a "fast food" restaurant that serves "Mexican food" pertaining to burritos, tacos, and salads, but mostly burritos. After a solid 8 months without my favorite Mexican American concoction, I guess I can say that it was a pretty mouth watering meal! ;)

--Spent Easter at the American Church of Paris and the Jewish side of town where we ate Falafel and went thrift store shopping. This mural <<< is a painted on a building not far from the Modern Art Museum.

 Visit the Musée d'Orsay and Musée de l'Orangerie. Both are composed of collections of impressionist and post impressionist pieces , and features painters such as Vincent Van Gogh, Monet, and Pablo Picasso. The Musée de l'Orangerie is most famous for its collection of water lilies by Claude Monet.


--Visit the American University of Paris. This small liberal arts school set in the middle of the city is very likely to be somewhere where I may be spending a lot of time in the future. What I really love about the University and about Paris, is that there is this huge international community of people who have so many interesting stories and so many people that possess the same spice of life that I have. It makes it harder to feel like you're far from home, especially with a school that holds a group Thanksgiving every year and a has a American diner right on campus.  I am not entirely sure where my story will take me, but I do know that this trip to Paris has helped me to uncover another piece of the long, twisted, and adventure seeking path that is my life.