Deutschland

Wednesday the 18th I left for my first trip overseas. My good friend Tiffany has been living as an au pair in Stuttgart, Germany for the past nine months and for my birthday present I decided to visit her. We went from Stuttgart to Neuschwanstein, then Munich, then to Rothenburg ob der Tauber before heading back to Stuttgart and leaving on Wednesday the 25th. The trip was incredible an I have plenty of pictures, but Tiffany made some videos of our trip, which I will post later, so this entry will be relatively short. First of all, I loved it, I loved every minute of it. Kind of no brainer, I know, but the people were so friendly, the food was amazing, and I fell in love with the language, which felt oddly familiar on my tongue at times. I'm a bit of an architecture junkie, so the medieval buildings of Rothenburg (and this is a direct quote from myself) "fullfilled all my yummiest European fantasies." In the city of Munich it was so easy to picture people from centuries past going about their everyday lives while at the same time marveling at the modern culture that inhabits the metropolis today. I was blown away at their conservational efforts, such as escalators that turn on only when motion sensors are tripped and trash cans that had multiple bins for plastics, papers, glass and miscellaneous, not to mention their jaw droppingly extesive public transportation systems. In the face of such efficiency we as Americans should be ashamed of our piddlydunk efforts which we couple with a "green is the new black!" tote bag. We had a lot of fun and I have lots of great stories to recall, if you care to listen, but I just wanted to see if I could capture in words what it felt like just to be there, to experience another life that millions lead every day without giving it a second thought. It makes me wonder what they think when they come here and what we take for granted. It's amazing what you can see from the outside looking in.