I always wanted to travel alone, but something was always stopping me. Was it because I didn’t have a reason? Was it because I was too scared? Was it the fear of having to completely adjust to a whole different culture?
Maybe it was a little bit of all of the above. But I finally did it, and now I am back home in America. It is bitter sweet coming home. If you ask me, I could’ve stayed there for many more months. I would be okay with moving to Germany. It is a place that left a special place in my heart. I felt comfortable there. I felt welcomed. I felt like I belong there.
All around I noticed that people in Europe has a whole have a different mindset than people in America. Europeans like to enjoy their life a lot more. In America I feel like people just work work work until they can not work anymore. We are always fast paced and sort of forget to enjoy life in the moment. Maybe it is just me, but I feel in Europe they slow everything down.
People in our age group typically go to a park and have fun with their friends. After class in Germany, we went out and hung out at a park until the sun went down. I typically don’t do that in America. Is it just me? Maybe. But for me I felt as though it is more of a normal thing for Germans to do than Americans. Germans look around and enjoy the environment around them.
That might be why I really enjoyed traveling in Europe. I appreciate my surroundings and I am always looking around and noticing that plant, and that tree, and that bench. After all, I am a Landscape Architecture major.
I would like to thank Rutgers, and more importantly SEBS Office of Global Engagement for helping me get through this. Thank you for giving me this opportunity. I don’t know if I would’ve been able to do this on my own.
I learned a lot going to Germany. Just to name a few, I learned how important it is to recycle, to bike, and more importantly, how to design in the landscape in a whole different way. Traveling and site seeing in the landscape is crucial to learning in my major, and now I understand why. I was able to learn different ways and techniques there are to get the community involved with the environment. And I will be sure to include those as much as possible when designing in America. There is currently a divide in how we design in America and Germany, but why? Why should there be a divide? There shouldn’t be. And I will try to bridge the gap and integrate the two design methods.
Here is my class of 15 students, and our professors. I am so grateful to have gone on this trip with such a great group of people. And thank you to our professors: Holly Nelson, Frank Gallagher, and Géza Schenk. Thank you for making this a trip I will never forget.
Thank you for reading my blog. I hope I was able to inspire you to travel, recycle, and anything in between. And I love taking photos so I hope you enjoyed seeing some of my photos. I posted a lot more of photos on my photography Instagram if you would like to see those: @alberibelli_
I vlogged my entire trip in Germany! Here is my final overall video of my entire study abroad trip:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6dzahcchFZk
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