I do not think that for as long as I live I will ever forget Spring Break 2015. It was the most absolutely, utterly perfect eleven days of my life, and now I cannot even believe it's already over...
On the morning April 2nd, my host dad, host sister, and I went to pick up my mom and sister at the Berlin Tegel Airport. I had been waiting for this day for such a long time and had slept for less than two hours the night before - the anticipation was too great. And the moment where I finally saw them coming out of the terminal was just like in the movies - I zoomed as quickly as I could over to them (it felt like this was happening in slow motion), and getting to hug them for the first time in nine months was indescribably amazing - distance really does make the heart grow fonder. Eventually, though, we did let go of each other, and the adventures began.
Over the next four days, I completely acquainted my mom and sister with my "German life" here in Berlin. It was pretty funny getting to see their reactions to seeing different little things for the first time, which until then they only knew from my descriptions over Skype (for example: the German breakfast, my school, the cute little "Ampelmanchen" on the streetlights, the farmers market, the palaces in Potsdam, the grocery store and certain foods like Spaghetti Ice Cream and döner, the Easter markets, the parks, the windows, and all of my favorite places in Berlin). They stayed in an apartment really close to where my host family lives, and then all eight of us ate breakfast and dinner together everyday and did lots of fun stuff together in-between. I must say, I had been a little nervous about my two "families" coming together for the first time - I mean, when you bring so many people together, there's always a chance that the chemistry just won't be right - but even after just the first breakfast, I realized how silly it had been for me to worry.
Due to the language barrier, I remained "the translator" between my family and my host family for the four days - a role I was quite proud of and more than glad to take on. As my host dad commented, it really shows proficiency in a language when you can sit between people having a normal conversation, even though they don't speak each other's language, and can be effortlessly instantaneously translating as they are talking so they can understand each other.
My mom and sisters last day in Berlin was Easter, which we celebrated with my host family in the typical German style, and then late in the evening the three of us got on the overnight bus to Amsterdam. We had picked the overnight bus with intentions to sleep on the way, but that did not work out particularly well - our new "friends" on the bus were all quite enthusiastic about being on their way to Amsterdam, and the noise levels remained pretty high the entire night.
When we arrived at 5am, we (along with most of the other people on the bus), were pretty confused. The bus ticket had said our final destination would be "Central Station" - we had all assumed this meant the central train station, but lo and behold it actually meant the central bus station, which was located way on the other side of the city. Luckily there was a metro station nearby, so we went in and bought tickets to the Central Train Statin. (This process was in and of itself problematic - the ticket machine did not take paper money, and we only had ten and twenty cent coins to pay for our fifteen dollar metro tickets. The people behind us in line were not particularly amused by the amount of time it took us). Eventually, though, we got our tickets and went over to read the plan and figure out which metro to get on.
Along with all of the other exhausted, hungry, and rather annoyed bus riders, we made our way up to track seven, because the sign said that a train going to Central Station would be arriving there any minute. But an hour later the train had still not arrived, and upon closer inspection of the sign my sister noticed that "trains do not run the mornings of Christmas or Easter Monday". And so as it was Easter Monday, we finally decided to catch a taxi to the central station with some of the new friends (two Russian exchange students and a man from London) we had made while waiting for a train that was actually not coming.
From then on, our time in Amsterdam went incredibly well. We stayed on a houseboat that my mom had found on AirBnB, which was super cool and came with three bikes, so we spent much of our time there just biking around and seeing as much as we possibly could in four days. We visited all of the very touristy places, such as the Anne Frank house (I had been waiting to see this since I was nine and read her book for the first time), the Rijksmuseum, the Jordaan Quarter, a cheese museum, all of the different canals, many cute little shopping streets and cafes, etc.
On Wednesday evening we came back to Berlin (thankfully using the train this time), and then spent one last day in Berlin before my sister flew home. Then, for the last part of our trip...my mom, two of my host sisters, and I drove to Prague! We left early Saturday morning and drove about three hours on the Autobahn to get there. (My mom was pretty excited about the total lack of speed limits...I even got a video of her going 180 kph - but just for a few seconds). The four of us had a very relaxed tour of the city over the next twenty four hours - walking on the famous Charles Bridge, buying painted eggs at the Easter Market in the Old Town Square, looking at churches and the huge Prague Astronomical Clock, visiting the Prague Castle (where we even got to witness a changing of the guards ceremony!), writing our names on the John Lennon Wall, having dinner at a traditional Czech restaurant, and just enjoying our time in the beautiful city.
On Sunday evening we drove back to Berlin, where (much to my surprise) we celebrated my birthday a day early so that my mom could be there, too! And as if I didn't think my family and host family were similar enough already, they even both coincidentally got me the exact same present - a travel map, where you can color in the countries you've already been to! But I would have to say what was probably my favorite present was that from my host dad - a portrait of me, running through the Brandenburg Gate and surrounded by all of the other famous landmarks of Berlin. I seriously could not believe it was real when I saw it - it is now hanging across from my bed and whenever I see it I cannot help but smile - it's definitely something I will have for the rest of my life.
The next day (my 17th birthday!!) was actually the first day back at school after the break, but instead I got to go with my mom to the airport and see her off. And even though it was definitely hard to say goodbye, we both knew we'd be seeing each other again in less than three months - which I'm sure will just fly by.