DAILY LIFE

I have always been amazed that languages follow geographic borders so closely, and I wondered how it would really be traveling throughout different parts of Europe. I think one of the best things I did was just to be a little flexible especially when ordering food. Though I mostly got what I wanted, the times I didn't because of language differences didn't matter as much. I also tried to do my best to show I valued and appreciated their culture by learning as much of the day to day things as possible. Weeks before we left I had downloaded multiple language applications to my iPhone in Italian, German, and French (these really helped a lot!). While we stayed in mostly in French speaking parts of Europe with the exception of some Dutch areas of Belgium with the group, during our weekends off we traveled around and experienced other languages. Though I felt like I would never be able to absorb all of the French that Kaden was teaching, I am glad that I went. French is entirely different than it looks, and without having a little exposure to it I would have had a hard time with it. On our first weekend we went to Bern and Interlaken where the predominate language is Swiss-german. I had taken german in middle school so I was less intimidated by german, even though I remember next to nothing from classes, butI am able to understand and pick up lots of different words and get around ok. Italian was a different story. My brother had taught me the basics of Italian but had little more to go off of. But I was traveling with Bill who speaks Spanish and was able to get around for the most part by using Spanish. We also stayed with a family in Bergamo, Italy. They all spoke fairly good English and helped us get around.

On our weekend trips it seemed that all we did was church hop, that is in every major city we would hop out of the train station and find the famous cathedral and walk around it, in it, and sometimes on top of it. Then we would meander our way back to the train station and on to the next city. It was amazing to see all of the grandeur and wealth that the cathedrals had. Now days it seems like the large cathedrals are used as a symbol of what Europe is built off of. Churches seem to be on every corner each with its own patron saint and story; however, It seemed that they weren't attended very well when the bells rang calling in mass. Even though most buildings were overly touristy complete with shops, it was worth visiting all of them. I also visited the LDS ward in Paris which was interesting mostly because it was slightly hard to find as it was in an inconspicuous building and not a giant church at all. It was also interesting to see how they balanced all the different languages spoken with little microphones and earpieces.

We used a taxi a few times and had a mostly positive experience every time although, because I have had terrible experiences with taxis in foreign countries before, I was much more careful. It was interesting to talk to our taxi driver in Cologne, Germany, who was from Iran. He seemed to really like the European Union but mostly because of the conveniences of travel.