Often times a friend from home will ask me what has been my best experience so far since beginning my year abroad in Germany. That is like asking someone what has been the best experience of their life. It is not ever one event or one place, but all the smallest moments added up, that create one incredible experience. A cup of espresso at the local café, a glimpse down an unknown street, a witty marquee that makes you laugh one day, and is gone the next. The transience and beauty of life is in the details.

My entry takes a different approach to the culture of Germany. As one big purpose of my exchange was to meet people, I wanted to capture the many different meeting places in Germany. Whether it is a late night rendevous on the steps of the cathedral in Cologne, a coffee break in the market in front of the Rathouse in Bonn, a stroll through the fish market on a snowy Sunday morning, or a declaration of your love on the Hohenzollern Bridge, location often becomes the center of your activities.

New York City! Who are you? Are you the noisy home of millions? Are you the metropolis of commerce and the symbol of pain? Are you a city with overcrowded roads, full filled trains and people in a hurry? I know who you are! I stood on the side, looked in your face and could not believe what I saw. You're the beautiful city of silence! Thank you New York!

A big deal of Americans I have met have never been outside of North America yet. I would always wonder at it and express my disagreement but then I got the point—here, one can start the day with a French breakfast, go shopping in the Chinatown, have an Indian lunch, spend the afternoon smoking a hookah, dance Argentinian tango and sing karaoke in a Korean bar till the wee hours. I’ve really enjoyed seeing this diversity and all the ways people present and remind themselves of their origin, whether European or different one. After all this, it just feels natural to rebook that flight ticket to a foreign country for some other month, right?

What impressed me the most in the U.S. was that everything is oversized. I found the buildings impressive for their highness. They can be a landmark in cities from the sky, on the seas or on the roads.

As for the landscapes, they are so various and vast that you cannot have anymore landmarks. It is amazing how landscapes can be such different from one area to another.

I think that these different facets are the reason why the USA is such a wonderful country.