by Ally Jensen
Every other year, students travel to Germany during April vacation. This year ten students will visit Germany for the first time, but for Aly Haley this will be a trip back to see the community she met just two years ago.
“Honestly I just fell in love with Germany,” Haley says. “And I actually hosted a German myself, and now she and I are close friends. I’ll hopefully be staying with her when we go. I talk to her almost every week, and I still talk to the girl who hosted me two years ago. We’re really close, too.”
Despite the cultural differences, the two talk constantly just to check in and see what’s going on in each other’s lives and how they’re doing.
“I don’t actually think we have so much in common besides maybe like the same kind of TV shows, movies, and music. I can’t really explain why we clicked. We kind of just did,” Haley says.
Haley not only made new friends, but she also experienced many other firsts on the trip.
“I really didn’t know what to expect. I had never been outside of the country before, and I wasn’t going with friends or family. So there were a lot of firsts for me. But it was such a good experience, seeing the culture, and the town it was just..amazing, really,” Haley says.
In addition to Haley’s excitement about reuniting with Franzi Kobert, she is excited to spend more time sightseeing and visiting tourist attractions.
This year the students are spending three days in Berlin, so this trip will have much more sightseeing in Berlin than the previous trip. They will be touring a castle in Wernigerode, walking on a historical tour of Berlin Center, and get the chance to tour the city of Braunschweig.
Though the itinerary has changed, it still embodies the main message of cultural experience and long lasting friendships in an international community.