the end...

sooo i've been back in the states now for almost a month now and have had some time to reflect on the trip. overall i had a great time- it was very tiring moving around all the time and living out of a suitcase, but it was well worth it. i know lots of people had a hard time with their hosts in berlin, but i think berlin was actually my favorite part of the trip! i had an amazing host (we've been emailing since i left!) and i really felt like i got to experience vet student life in berlin. i also really enjoyed the free weekends (meeting up with my friend in europe, hopefully that didn't cause too many problems ha!)- i would definitely recommend amsterdam and interlaken to people next year. they were totally opposite of eachother because amsterdam was very cultural (museums, tourist stuff everywhere in the city) and interlaken was this little outdoorsy/tourist town right in the middle of the swiss alps (wow).
i would actually say that munich was my favorite german city (i went with my parents afterwards), and i think it'd be a great addition to the program if possible. as far as what was already part of the program, i think it would have been nice to have more experiences like the koln zoo, so i was sad that the berlin zoo didn't work out. but i've already talked a lot about which parts i liked and didn't like though so i'll move on from that now...

soo the strangest thing about being back in the states is my desire/reaction to say "danke" whenever i'm in restaurants or when someone speaks spanish to me...weird! one of my friends said "feliz cuplianos" to me on my birthday and i just froze up and went "uh...danke schoen!" i guess that just means i did a very good job of trying to speak what little german i knew when i was there. i wish i had made more of an attempt to learn a few phrases/words before i was over there, but i did well with what i had.

anyway, overall GREAT experience. i would definitely recommend it to next year's students. the biggest pieces of advice i'd give to them would be 1) don't over pack, 2) you'll spend more money on food than you might expect. sooo maybe france next year?? je parle francais...