(no subject)
Considering all that has happened in the last month, this livejournal is long overdue for an update.
I am fairly sure my time in England was one of the greatest times of my life so far - absolutely everything was different from how I expected it to be. The fact I knew no one going into the trip turned out to be a very good thing, as the majority of MSU students simply hung out with eachother and did not take advantage of the opportunity to make friends from all over Western Europe. As I did not know any of these MSU students at all, there was no pressure on me to associate with any of them - and, accordingly, I only associated with a few.
It is difficult for me to describe how amazing my time in Cambridge was, just as it is difficult to talk about memories of Germany with people who didn't go. I became very close to people who live in at least six different European countries, including a German girl named Freya who plans to study in Freiburg the same year I will be (perhaps you will meet her, Alaina), which makes me more comfortable about the idea of living there for a year, as I will actually know at least someone. Until this trip, I could never have really described myself as "international" - I had been to Europe a few times, but never had I dreamed of making friends from so many countries in so little time, and, for multiple reasons, I am extremely happy that I was able to do this. It "humanizes" all six of those countries and the entire continent - no longer are they distant places that I read about and study and perhaps visit occasionally, but rather nations in which I have friends. This inevitably changes how I think about the world and politics.
Aside from the people, the city of Cambridge is beautiful and and it's damn near impossible to be bored there. There are tens of pubs, plenty of book shops, movie theatres, etc. all within walking distance of one another. I grew to appreciate the lifestyle of going to two or three pubs a night, even if sometimes they simply served as a place to play cards (and once chess) with my international friends. But without the friends, without the incredible experience of becoming close to people from England, Belgium, Holland, Germany, Sweden and France, not to mention citizens of Turkey, China, Taiwan and Australia who hung out with us as well, the physical environment of Cambridge would mean nothing to me, as incredible as that city truly is.
Politically, I perhaps inevitably continued my march Left, which has been an ongoing process for the past two and a half years. Inevitable, conversations about the forty some million Americans without health care (or the tens of millions more with poor health insurance) and the current US foreign policy which completely disregards the well-being of the international community stirred a desire in me to work toward changing this in the US. My Dutch friend, Hendrik, asked me if it was true that "millions of Americans live in destitution and poverty," and whether it was true that trailer parks exist in America, and whether I lived in one (which caused us both to laugh). All of this made me slightly ashamed of my government's policies, though not ashamed of America. In any case, my onward march to the Left continues, and this trip to England has only acted as a catalyst for that process. (This is not to say, of course, that I am moving in the direction of socialism or state-control of the economy; I have always been totally opposed to these concepts).
In any case, the bulk of the benefits of this trip consisted in the chance to meet so many people. I am confident and hopefull that I will be able to see most of them when I am in Europe next year.
This trip has also made me almost one hundred percent certain that I will live and study in Freiburg my third year. The benefits of such a time are obvious, and made ever more clear after my time in England. Ich kann einfach nicht verstehen, warum ich nicht total sicher nur letztes monat war, wenn es eindeutig ist, dass ich dahin fahren soll. Ich werde meine amerikanischen Freunde natuerlich vermissen, aber ich weiss, dass wenn ich zurueckkommen, werden sie immer noch hier sein...daran glaube ich ohne Zweifel. And I will, of course, come back for Christmas and another time as well, because I value the maintenance of friendships more than I value anything in the world.
It is difficult to say what future effects my time in England will have on me. But for now I can simply say it has had a huge impact, and I am extremely glad that I went. Going into a foreign country knowing absolutely no one should not scare anyone if he or she is willing to open up.
I am fairly sure my time in England was one of the greatest times of my life so far - absolutely everything was different from how I expected it to be. The fact I knew no one going into the trip turned out to be a very good thing, as the majority of MSU students simply hung out with eachother and did not take advantage of the opportunity to make friends from all over Western Europe. As I did not know any of these MSU students at all, there was no pressure on me to associate with any of them - and, accordingly, I only associated with a few.
It is difficult for me to describe how amazing my time in Cambridge was, just as it is difficult to talk about memories of Germany with people who didn't go. I became very close to people who live in at least six different European countries, including a German girl named Freya who plans to study in Freiburg the same year I will be (perhaps you will meet her, Alaina), which makes me more comfortable about the idea of living there for a year, as I will actually know at least someone. Until this trip, I could never have really described myself as "international" - I had been to Europe a few times, but never had I dreamed of making friends from so many countries in so little time, and, for multiple reasons, I am extremely happy that I was able to do this. It "humanizes" all six of those countries and the entire continent - no longer are they distant places that I read about and study and perhaps visit occasionally, but rather nations in which I have friends. This inevitably changes how I think about the world and politics.
Aside from the people, the city of Cambridge is beautiful and and it's damn near impossible to be bored there. There are tens of pubs, plenty of book shops, movie theatres, etc. all within walking distance of one another. I grew to appreciate the lifestyle of going to two or three pubs a night, even if sometimes they simply served as a place to play cards (and once chess) with my international friends. But without the friends, without the incredible experience of becoming close to people from England, Belgium, Holland, Germany, Sweden and France, not to mention citizens of Turkey, China, Taiwan and Australia who hung out with us as well, the physical environment of Cambridge would mean nothing to me, as incredible as that city truly is.
Politically, I perhaps inevitably continued my march Left, which has been an ongoing process for the past two and a half years. Inevitable, conversations about the forty some million Americans without health care (or the tens of millions more with poor health insurance) and the current US foreign policy which completely disregards the well-being of the international community stirred a desire in me to work toward changing this in the US. My Dutch friend, Hendrik, asked me if it was true that "millions of Americans live in destitution and poverty," and whether it was true that trailer parks exist in America, and whether I lived in one (which caused us both to laugh). All of this made me slightly ashamed of my government's policies, though not ashamed of America. In any case, my onward march to the Left continues, and this trip to England has only acted as a catalyst for that process. (This is not to say, of course, that I am moving in the direction of socialism or state-control of the economy; I have always been totally opposed to these concepts).
In any case, the bulk of the benefits of this trip consisted in the chance to meet so many people. I am confident and hopefull that I will be able to see most of them when I am in Europe next year.
This trip has also made me almost one hundred percent certain that I will live and study in Freiburg my third year. The benefits of such a time are obvious, and made ever more clear after my time in England. Ich kann einfach nicht verstehen, warum ich nicht total sicher nur letztes monat war, wenn es eindeutig ist, dass ich dahin fahren soll. Ich werde meine amerikanischen Freunde natuerlich vermissen, aber ich weiss, dass wenn ich zurueckkommen, werden sie immer noch hier sein...daran glaube ich ohne Zweifel. And I will, of course, come back for Christmas and another time as well, because I value the maintenance of friendships more than I value anything in the world.
It is difficult to say what future effects my time in England will have on me. But for now I can simply say it has had a huge impact, and I am extremely glad that I went. Going into a foreign country knowing absolutely no one should not scare anyone if he or she is willing to open up.