Reflect & Remember

December 31st 2008. Four years ago today. I was on my first major trip outside of the United States spending 14 days traveling around Europe on a bus with 54 people who started out as strangers and by the end of the trip became friends. For most of the people on the trip, we were there in Europe to have fun and see the sights, but none of us had any clue that December 31st 2008 would leave a major impact on each of our lives.

It was early in the morning and our tour group was leaving Munich after a late night of enjoying the famous Bavarian culture. We thought we were heading straight to Innsbruck, Austria where we were planning on enjoying the local new years eve festivities and fireworks. Our tour guide had a different plan for how we would spend our time on the final day of the year. Shortly after leaving Munich, our tour guide told us that we were making a stop outside of the city to visit Dachau Concentration Camp. For those of you who don't know, Dachau is located 10 miles from Munich and was the first concentration camp established by the Nazi Party. Dachau was created to be a camp for political prisoners and served as the prototype for all other concentration camps that were established. In total, Dachau became the home for 200,000 prisoners. Of the 200,000 two-thirds were political prisoners and one third were Jewish. This concentration camp was mainly used as a work camp, but over 35,000 people are thought to have died at Dachau from either disease, malnutrition, or other causes.

At first I wasn't sure how to feel and based on the reactions of most of my tour mates, everyone was struggling trying to determine how they felt about this unplanned stop. For some, the reality of where we were going didn't seem to hit them and they probably felt as though this was a stop getting in the way of their new years party. Others on the bus were hit hard as they had family who at one point had been held in concentration camps and they were not sure if they would be able to go to a place that would bring up so many feelings and hit close to home. I made the decision to go into Dachau and use my time there to reflect and remember. To remember those who had lost their lives both in Dachau and in other concentration camps around Europe and to reflect on my own life and the things I had accomplished that many of the people forced to live, and in numerous cases die, in these camps never had the opportunity to do.

I walked around the camp silently. For me, even though horrible things happened where I walked, it was still a hallowed place- a place where people had died and still to this day needed to be respected and remembered. I took my time walking around the camp, trying to understand how these places could have been created and how it managed to take so long to liberate the camps and the people in them. You can't fully understand what a place like this is or how you feel when you are there, until you actually go yourself. Until you see the barracks where prisoners and innocent Jewish people were forced to live. Until you stare inside the crematorium and realize the horrible things that happened. We see pictures and read stories in textbooks, but what we see and what we read are nothing compared to walking on the same ground that people died on years before.

Going to a concentration camp isn't the way that I would recommend you spending the last day of 2012, but what I would say is that having that experience made me realize several things. First, in order for history not to repeat itself we have to remember, and remember often. Second, we have to stand up for injustice both at home and abroad. I would also say that it should not just be the injustice that leads to genocide, but rather all forms of injustice so that one population, part of society, or person is not mistreating another. This can be something as small as bullying, but we need to stand up and say something more often than we do. Third, we need to care about one another more. Too often we focus on ourselves and what we are getting in our lives. Rather, I urge us to think more globally. To think about how we can help each other, support one another, and become a better society by taking the time to get to know one another. Fourth, we need to be constantly reflecting on our own lives. Most of the time we wait until the last day of the year to look back at all the great and all the bad things that have happened to us. Instead of waiting until the last day of the year, we need to be constantly reflecting and using that reflection to move forward and make ourselves better. Even when life is hard, and even if overall you feel as though you have had a terrible year; you are blessed; you have great things in your life; and you didn't spend time in a concentration camp like the prisoners in Dachau.

Our experiences shape us and make us who we are. For me, spending the last day of 2008 at Dachau touched my life in more ways than I understand or that I can explain. And now, on the last day of 2012, I'm taking time to remember and reflect. I hope that you do the same.

Christmas in Egypt

When you travel, there are moments  that will stay with you for the rest of your life. There is something about traveling and seeing the world that opens you up to new ideas, new experiences, and in the end you come home a different person because of what you have seen and what you have done. This is what I love about traveling. You can go somewhere new, meet new people, be whoever you want to be for a brief moment in time, and you can immerse yourself in the culture of where you are.

In 2010, I decided to go to Egypt. I feel as though when most people think about where it is that they want to travel or go on vacation, they typically think about places where you can relax, where you can see pretty things, and where you have a beach you can hang out on. I'm not that kind of traveller. I like to go to places with history, where I can think about the millions of other people who walked where I am walking. I went to Egypt with four friends and we had an amazing experience, but there is one moment that has stuck with me since I left that I felt as though I should share since its Christmas and I think that sometimes we tend to forget the things that are important about this time of year.

On Christmas Day 2010, my four friends and I made the decision to explore Cairo on our own before out tour group got together because we had the whole day to ourselves and wanted to take advantage of seeing the city. For those of you who have never been to Egypt, it is a beautiful country with so much unbelievable history right before your eyes, but it is also a country in the midst of major struggles, where poverty is real, and people live in a completely different way than we do in the west. Cairo has multiple parts to it just like every city. There is the touristy part of Cairo where the Egyptian Museum is; the area with the market; a trendy area; and then there is the area that we ended up walking around.

We were trying to head to the touristy part of Cairo and clearly my sense of direction was a little off that day. Here we were, a group of five friends wandering around the part of Cairo where real Egyptians lived. Where abandoned cars were piled up on each other throughout the street so much that you had to weave your way through the cars to make it from one part of the street to another. We were in an area that tourists must not usually go, because almost every person we walked by, whether they were also walking on the street, working in a store, or smoking a water pipe in a cafe, stopped what they were doing and watched us. Now, I won't lie, we were a very interesting group of tourists. Clearly we were all from America and we came in different shapes, sizes, and colors. Three white women (one of which was Jewish), a homosexual man, and a black woman all walking around Cairo. It is probably understandable why our little group got a lot of attention from the locals.

Then came the moment. The kind of moment I talked about in the beginning of this post that stays with you long after you have left the place you have traveled. While walking we saw a small boy and his father also walking. The boy had just gotten a glass bottle of coca cola and based on his excitement and also the physical state of himself and his father, this was probably a huge treat for the small boy. For me, being Christian and it was Christmas day, I equated the coca cola to being the only Christmas present that the boy had gotten. Now clearly I know that the boy probably didn't celebrate Christmas because of his religious beliefs, but all I could think of looking at that boy was how happy he was to get the present of the coca cola. And then I thought back to how we are in the United States. Many of us get all kinds of presents on Christmas Day. Our families and friends get us everything (or most everything) that we want on our gift list. We get extravagant things, new computers, new iPhones, brand named clothing. Essentially a lot of us are spoiled on Christmas and don't appreciate the gifts that we get or the people who give them to use the way that little boy cherished his bottle of coca cola. We get upset when one of the gifts we asked for isn't wrapped up under our tree or if someone got us the generic gift, not the name brand one we requested. Why is it, when so many other people in the world have so much less than we do, that all we care about at Christmas is getting the expensive gift that in a year or two we probably won't use anymore, might still be in its box never used, or will be replaced by the newest model?

A heartbreaking moment happened during our walk right after we saw the excitement of the young boy. Trying to be so careful with his bottle of coca cola, the boy dropped it in front of us and glass and soda went everywhere. You could see the pain and disappointment in the little boy's eyes. And then I looked down at his feet. The boy had no shoes on and more than likely some of the glass had ended up in his feet. The one Christmas present the boy had gotten, the one treat he had been given by his father was gone. But instead of crying, instead of causing a fuss and demanding that his father buy him a new bottle, the young boy put his head down, took his fathers hand, and continued walking. Clearly, the little boy, though heartbroken, understood what was important in life. It wasn't the bottle of coca cola, but the man who had gone out of his way to show his son he loved him by getting him the treat.

This story reminds me of what Christmas should be for all of us. It shouldn't be about the gifts we get. It shouldn't be about what is and isn't under our trees. We shouldn't be focused on the expensive gifts we want. Instead, we should be focused on the people in our lives. The people who take the time to get us whatever gifts they can, even if that gift isn't something they can buy. Christmas should be about getting to spend time with the people who matter most in your life. Telling them how much you love them and how much your appreciate them. And if you do get that gift you've been waiting for, or even if you don't and you get something else instead, make sure you show that same excitement, appreciation, and love that the small Egyptian boy did. 

Hi All :)

Welcome to my wonderful new blog. For those of you who don't know, I've been selected to serve as a Residence Director on the Summer 2013 voyage of Semester at Sea where I will spend 66 days traveling to 9 countries and 12 cities. Semester at Sea has always been a dream of mine and to be honest, I never thought I would be selected, even after my interview. Six months from now I will be sailing through Europe and North Africa. While I am on the ship this will be the blog that I will attempt to keep up with (despite what I've heard is terrible internet on the ship) to keep everyone updated with where I am and the adventures that I take. For now, I wanted to use this blog to think back on some of the incredible travel experiences I have had over the past four years and share some stories as I prepare over the next 6 months for the trip of a lifetime. I hope you enjoy!

-Lynsey