All good things must come to and end

Hey there everyone,

I've been home for a few weeks now, working and hanging out with friends and family, and I think it's a good time to reflect back on the trip and let you all know how it came to an end.

The last week of the program was quite a whirlwind. First and foremost, we presented our findings for our research projects. We probably spent close to twenty hours creating and refining our report and powerpoint, especially considering the time we spent rehearsing our presentation. Ultimately though, it paid off. While our microcontroller project might have been a bit difficult to understand, I think that our team did a great job presenting our findings and their relevance, and I am really proud at how we all managed to take a problem in a subject that none of us were familiar with and create a useful end product. Either way, the project was a success, and I was really happy with how it turned out.

After the program was completed, a few other students in the program and myself traveled to Rome to explore the city. I've taken a few classes on Greek and Roman history, and it was more than amazing to see, in living color, the locations, ruins, and sometimes totally intact buildings that had such important roles in the past. There is a ton to see, and even running around the city for 8 hours a day for a whole week didn't let me see it all, but the trip was definitely one of the most exciting and enriching things that I have done with my life up until now, and I would go back to Rome in a heartbeat.

After Rome however, the trip was over, and I was homeward bound. I think more than anything I was ready to be home. Germany and the other places I visited were fantastic, but the US truly is an amazing place and there are things about my life here that I could never give up: some big, some little. In general it seemed that Germans are a more reserved people, and everything in German life seemed so concentrated and bureaucratic. I love my space, my freedom, being able to drive, and I missed the openness and fun that I have with other Americans. Maybe it's just because the US is my home country, but I love it here, and for all of the history and romance of Europe, I'd be happy to live here for the rest of my life.

That said, I wouldn't trade this trip for the world. No matter what you read or learn about any place or people, nothing can substitute seeing and experiencing the real thing, and to me Germany and Europe are prime examples of this. In a completely unpretentious way, you get to see more of a world-view, and learn about how other people think and about what makes all people from across the world the same and different, but more importantly you can learn what it is the makes us all the same or different.

Ultimately, I learned a lot, I had a lot of fun, and Germany was an experience that I could never substitute with anything. I would wildly encourage any interested student to study abroad, I can't imagine being able to regret it.

Thanks for reading my blog, and I hope some of the information and experiences that it contains will prove useful to you in some way. If there is anything else that you'd like to know about or if you have any questions, please let me know here in the comments or by emailing me at codyb@umich.edu.

Again, thanks, and happy travels.

~Cody