First stop: Allemagne.
Hours after school let out for Easter Vacation, I waved au revoir to my host family from the
window of a lime-green Flixbus on its way to Aachen-Hüls, Germany. There,
during my 3-hour layover, I headed into town where I stumbled upon two Mormon
missionaries who helped me buy a bus ticket to return to the Flixbus station.
Travelling gives such an easy, ready connection with anyone from your homeland.
One shares the language, the culture, the political system, and something ineffably
deeper too. There is some indescribable link that exists simply by being born
in the same country. In this ever-increasingly global world, I am not in the
least advocating Nationalism. However, somehow the action of building
relationships in other cultures drives deeper the relationships in my own
culture and the privilege of conversing in one’s native language in a foreign
culture creates a special, seemingly secret link.
 |
| Reunited |
Arriving in Köln-Bonn (Cologne), Germany, I greeted the
family of the first two exchange-students to live with me. Driving to their
house that night, I realized that being abroad in Belgium had given me a better
context to relate with them. And how fun it was to re-connect as well! The
filled my Saturday with activity, taking me to see Eltz Castle and Deutsches
Eck ("German Corner"), where the Rhine River and the Moselle
River join. Then, on Easter Sunday, because one is never too old to be young,
we began the day with an Easter Egg hunt, a tradition originating from Germany.
Despite all this activity, my highlights arrived that afternoon. First, Benni
(my German exchange-brother) and I spent an hour musically doodling. I don’t
know why I hadn’t seen realized the beauty of Jazz when he was in the States,
but I recently have jumped into that colorful, subtle genre, allowing us to
follow musical ideas that afternoon like hiking trails with gorgeous
countryside views. Following that, they taught me a card game called “Scat”,
which is a trick-taking card game with three players. And finally, they
introduced me to the beauty of modern art.
 |
| Never too old for German tradition |
I had never like modern art and turned up my nose at it,
because I had never truly looked. Modern Art carries messages. Just as there is truth in every book, there is
truth in every painting. Sometimes one laughs at the chaos of Jackson Polluck,
who punched holes in paint cans and let them swing over a canvas. However,
those paint cans swing in elliptical orbits that change according to mathematical
laws of gravity and pendulums. His message may have been that this world is an
accident, but if one looks deeper, truth exists under the canvas. Pictures of
heaps of slag teach one to appreciate the everyday things. A Kodak picture of a
cactus points one to the complexity and wonder in nature. A strange bird with
spirals emitting from its head reminds one of the potential alongside the pain
people possess. Not all modern art are works worth paying for, but they are
worth the time and effort to try to understand and to seek the truth therein.
Monday morning, I returned to the airport to take-off on my
next adventure, which involved surprising my sister in London.
Comments
Post a Comment