I'm notorious for never taking pictures of my friends. I normally say it's because I would rather live my life than document it. But the real reason is that stopping for a photograph never fails to dampen my spirit. When I feel happy, loved, surrounded by friends, I don't want to think about our eventual separation, about the time when we'll need photographs to remember our joy. "You will never experience this moment again," a photograph says. "Time pushes ever forward, and all soon all you'll have will be pixels."
This was especially true of my time at the Goethe-Institut. I had such wonderful experiences and made such fantastic friends in my three and a half weeks in Schwäbisch Hall. The rapidly increasing date was enough of a reminder that our time together was limited; I couldn't bear to bring a camera into the picture as well.
Thankfully, the Goethe-Institut staff took plenty of pictures this month, and we received them on a CD-ROM at the closing ceremony today. Some of my favorite memories after the jump.
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| My class (B.2.2): Eleven students from seven countries trying to master one incredibly complicated language. |
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| A group of Goethe students and a local Rotarian (far right) in front of the second tallest overpass in Europe. We went on a 3 hour bike tour organized by the Schwäbisch Hall Rotary Club. |
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| Joao (architecture student from Portugal), Daniel / Kuk Gin (railroad student from Korea), and me on our bikes. |
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| Me and Umut (translation student from Turkey) |
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| Three Central College Abroad students (l-r Jessica, Brie, me) with Gil (an engineer from Israel) at the Goethe-Party on Friday night. |
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| B.2.2 students (l-r Gil, Brie, me, Corina, Umut) with our Zivi Johannes during our tour of the local brewery |
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My friend Daniel had potato salad on his face during our dinner at the brewery
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| Five of the seven Central College Abroad students (l-r me, Kathi, Brie, Jessica, Marshall) during our visit to Munich |
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| Jessica (Central College Abroad), me, and Nico (student from France) at one of our weekly Stammtische |
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