Is This Really It?

Janelle, Colby, Abby & I
at the Berlin Phil Concert

If someone told me all that would happen on this trip before we left, I probably wouldn’t have believed them one bit. Even in my first blog post, I admitted that I had no clue what I was getting into. I honestly thought I was gonna just walk around Europe and see concerts—which is essentially what I did but I didn’t think about the implications that those experiences would bring. I didn’t realize how much this trip would change my relationship with music, history and traveling.

The View from the Salzburg Fortress

Adjusting from the time change has been hard, thus far. I fall asleep somewhere around 5:30pm and wake up at 3:00am hungry; I don't know how I'm gonna start the semester off with 8am classes. I still wear the boots and jacket that I wore throughout the trip to work or grocery shopping and for a moment it's almost like nothing's changed. This trip is ending a lot like how it started out: with denial. When we arrived at the airport on the first day, part of me didn’t believe I was going to Europe; it truly hadn’t hit me that we were going to be traveling for a month. The ten hour plane ride was like an extended train ride and suddenly, boom I was in Austria. The day we left Vienna felt very much the same. Flying to London didn’t feel like we were going home; it didn’t—it still doesn’t—feel like this trip was over. The plane ride to Seattle was so long I’d almost forgotten where I was going. And then, when we landed, I realized this was it. I was back in Seattle, having to resume normal life. Greeted by the friends (who also brought me Panda Express and a clean change of clothes) I had missed so much—at first I was beyond ecstatic to be back. To catch up on everything I’d missed and do my laundry (bless). To be able to lay in my bed for however many hours I wanted until school starts.

Leonce & Lena Stage 

I think we’re all in agreement, professors included, that we’re exhausted after this trip. Our feet are tired from walking, our backs are sore from uncomfortable hostel beds and I’ve spent pretty much every cent I made during first semester. But I also know that we would do it all over again if we could; without a doubt, we would relive every second of this amazing trip without changing any of it.  I unpacked my bags the minute I got into my house and, even though it was a relief, I was also sad. I’d grown accustom to packing my bag and finding new ways to wear old clothes throughout this trip. I learned—despite my doubt—that I really could live with just the necessities in my backpack. As I pulled out each souvenir and gift, I had a whole backstory as to where I was and what I was thinking when I bought it to tell. Without a doubt, Leipzig was probably my favorite city. It was small, intimate and the least overrun by tourism, giving it a more authentic feel. My favorite performance was Leonce & Lena because I love ballet and it was so different from all the shows we'd seen on the trip. Figaro comes in close at second place for best concert; it gave me my musical epiphany that I didn't know existed.

Going out for Dinner in Berlin was
always fun! 

Looking back on the itinerary that Powell gave us at the beginning of the trip, I can’t really believe we did all that in just a month. The little mental check marks I made every day whenever we had finished a group activity began to add up and suddenly we had completed everything on the list. We experienced once in a lifetime concerts with once in a generation musicians. We walked for miles up and down the streets and hills of five different cities across three different countries. We ate authentic European food and drank way too much wine and beer. We struggled, enjoyed and thrived throughout this trip and it’s truly amazing to me how much we’ve accomplished. I understand music in a completely new way; the joy I experienced at these concerts is unlike I’ve ever felt before seeing a performance and that feeling… it’s what drives us to be musicians, isn’t it? It’s what we feel as the musicians playing and what we want to our audience to feel when we’re performing; and such a feeling shouldn’t just apply to music but to anything we do in life. I feel as though I could fill an entire book with the millions of memories I’ve made on this trip. It wouldn’t be some action backed memoir where the odds were never in our favor but there would be those moments of frustration and exhaustion but also moments of awe and exhilaration. This trip may have felt like I was being slapped in the face multiple times by concert after concert, tour after tour but I would do it again in a heartbeat.

Our Class in Front of the
Bach Statue

And the people, oh the people, that I’ve been traveling with this past month. I’ve truly gained friendships from this trip that will, for sure, continue throughout and after PLU. We may have driven each other crazy but we’ve shared something so special that no one else can share with us. It feels weird not seeing them everyday now. I went into this trip really not knowing many of my peers and left with an abundance of new friends. I was apprehensive about making friend at first, a lot of the other people had seemingly formed friendships prior to this trip and I didn’t want to just… I don’t know, intrude? I couldn’t have been more wrong though; these people are so sweet, funny and sarcastic and I’m the luckiest person to be traveling with such a great group of people. Especially to Janelle, Colby, Abby and MacKenzie who roomed with me throughout this trip, spending the majority of our time within spitting distance of one another; thank you for putting up with my complaining and the mess of clothes on the floor.

Dr. Brown & Dr. Powell are so much fun to travel with!
Couldn't have asked for funnier or more knowledgeable
professors to be traveling with. 

Okay, I know this is a long blog post but I swear I’m almost done. This trip was more than I could have ever asked for. My head is still boggled by all the inspirational things I’ve seen and my heart is so full of music that I’ll be listening to over and over on Spotify. Going back to classes on campus will likely feel drab and my thoughts will often be clouded by all the things I wish I was doing in Europe. I have no doubt in my mind that I’ll go back to each of these cities one day but it certainly won’t ever be on par with this trip. I titled this blog post ‘is this really it’ because I’m still in denial that this trip is over. Yet, I don’t think it is. I have souvenirs and photos, I bought (practically) a whole new wardrobe to wear and I have all these amazing friends that I’ll get to continue to see around campus. This trip was more than just a class, it was the beginning of so many wonderful things, sparking new interests, creating new friendships and spurring a want to travel more in the future.

Auf Wiedersehen Europe. Until next time.
~Sarah Nelson