From December 16, 2019, to January 3, 2020, I had the opportunity to study abroad for the second time in a new location: Leipzig, Germany. This trip was exciting for all of us as it was the first time that the university had sponsored a study abroad trip over the Christmas break. The one course associated with this trip focused on globalization and social work, so while we spent an adequate amount of time in the classroom, we also spent a lot of time doing hands-on activities and learning about different cultures. For example, our group of students spent one day helping a homeless day-shelter to wrap Christmas presents for the people who spent their days there. From this day alone, we learned a lot because even though we were there to serve them, they ended up serving us by bringing us coffee, tea, and cookies. While this felt awkward to us at first, we quickly realized that this was their home, and for them to show hospitality to us was our way of giving them that sense of normalcy.
A second volunteer moment for us was on New Year’s Eve when we helped to serve a meal to the poor. This experience was amazing to me because they made it abundantly clear that this dinner was not just for the financially poor. This dinner was also an opportunity to serve the poor in spirit or those who were simply lonely on the holiday. Throughout this dinner, over 200 people were served, and it was eye-opening to see how many of those were families of Syrian refugees. This was eye-opening as well as heartbreaking because, as social workers, we could see how hurt these families were by the societies that they came from.
As part of our class’s curriculum, we focused on tragic events throughout the world and how communities responded, whether they responded well or poorly. Our group took a day trip to the Buchenwald concentration camp and got to experience a solemn day showing respect to the tragic events that were a part of the Holocaust. Learning about this experience in-depth and in-person was life-changing for me because we saw that the people in the town of Weimar, not even ten miles from Buchenwald, had no idea what was happening. If they can be blind to what is happening right down the road from them, that explains how our country can be so blind to the things that are happening around us now.
On a lighter note, this trip may have been short, but we made it so fun and adventurous that I feel as if it went on forever. While we spent the three weeks in Leipzig, our group took a day trip together to visit Berlin to see the remnants of the Berlin wall. One friend, Madi, and I took a day trip to Prague together, and that city was one of the most beautiful and colorful that I have seen (and I have seen a lot of cities). We had one three-day weekend during our time in Germany, and during that time, Madi and I took a train to stay in Munich for the weekend. While there, we took a day trip down to Innsbruck, Austria. That day trip was the highlight of this trip for me as I was able to cross something off my bucket list: paragliding! The weather was perfect for the one hour we needed, and we were able to tandem-paraglide over the snowy mountains in Austria. On top of this, everywhere we went, there were Christmas markets! Overall, this trip was a life-changing experience, and I was so blessed by all the fun that was had, as well as the lessons that were learned.
