Summer. Reflections.

This has been one awesome summer. Maybe I say this every year, but I believe this has been the best summer so far, period. What's made it so special?

I'll review.

1. France + Germany (and a 3-hr bite of London)

Paris was nice. I can't say it was my favorite place ever, but it was nice. The architecture was pretty, reminding me of a mix of Amsterdam's high and narrow streets and Prague's "old Europe," antique-y mood. The people weren't too polite, though, which made it a little cold - socially. Also, whenever I tried to speak French, they always reverted to English. That was annoying - it didn't give me a chance to practice. But, surprisingly enough, when I tried hard to listen to conversations (it wasn't eavesdropping :-P), I could actually follow along much better than I predicted. Overall, there wasn't really anything in France that I particularly enjoyed - except, perhaps, the top of Montmartre. On this wonderful hilltop we visited a Salvador Dali exibition and got to see many street artists at work. It was quite a lively atmosphere, and it was much more interesting than most other parts of Paris.

South Germany was... a jewel. We first visited Saarbrucken, the town where my Dad worked for a year at the university. It was small, and nice, and quiet, and it immediately made me feel cozy. But this was nothing compared to where we went next. Our next stop was Bacharach, a town consisting of two streets that ran parallel to the Rheine river. The weather was not in a good mood and didn't feel like showing us any sun, but that did nothing to dampen our spirits. Bacharach is the tiniest and coziest town I have ever been in. The food is superb and, especially after Paris, amazingly inexpensive. The food in Paris simply does not compare. The people are much, much warmer - and, most surprising for a small town, they are incredibly up-to-date on everything and very intelligent. One of the restaurants' owners even gave me Sudoku tips. From Bacharach, we traveled down the Rheine in a boat to another equally tiny town, St. Goar. There, we explored the ruins of a 1,000 year old Medieval castle. In fact, the entire road along the Rheine that runs through Bacharach and St. Gore is dotted with hundred and thousand year old castle ruins. Just think, it took us only a few minutes to travel between castle ruins by boat - and a thousand years ago, each castle ruin was a community - a kingdom - of its own, with several thousand citizens living in the hillsides around. And all of these different kingdoms with different allegiances, only mere half-miles from one another! It's so strange to think about that, considering the sizes of and distances between the countries existing now. I guess that, in a way, this is a shrunken version of modern Europe - which is also a collection of governments that share borders with one another
After St. Goar, we visited Marbourg - the town where the Grimm Brothers went to university. We stayed at our friends' house, and I quickly made a friend of their son, who is currently in college studying chemistry and wants to study at MIT (hint hint to anyone who has MIT connections :-P). His father is a professional tourguide (and a mesuse (sp?)). He gave us a tour of Marbourg - a tiny city with a giant of a history.
From there, we drove over 8 hours down the Autobon (at 112mph, I might add - most AMAZING car ride ever) to Munich, to stay with the relatives of our friends in Marbourg. There, we were given a tour of the city by kids (in their twenties, though :-P) of the family, and by their friend - a young man who, we were later told, is apparently a genius and will someday be awarded the Nobel Prize for major accomplishments in physics. Truthfully, Munich didn't make as much of an impression as did the other places we visited in Germany, but it was still very nice. Also an interesting history, and many nice churches and views.
After Munich, we flew home - and on the way stopped in London for several hours. There, we visited Hyde Park and observed the proceedings at Speaker's Corner. A British man wearing the Chinese symbol of communism on his hat was advocating their system of government, while a few steps away from him, a black man with several bodyguards scorned America and the UK while advocating something I didn't have a chance to hear.

That was the end of my overseas adventure.

Then, I spent two pretty uneventful weeks at Cape Cod - where my biggest accomplishment was, I'd have to say, getting more tan than is usually possible in only two weeks of sun.

After that came the best part of my summer - camping at Cape Cod in upstate NY (at Lake Luzerne). I've never had this much fun there before - and the reason I was able to this time was probably because I just... let go. I was so tired of rules and regulations and self-administered standards that I simply dropped them all by the second day of camp. It wasn't anywhere out of the normal to go a night or two without brushing my teeth, or without sleeping. It was completely ordinary for us to sing until 4 in the morning until we were taken, one by one, by fatigue. It was so relaxing, drifting off into sleep - or, at least, into a feeling of blissful peace, while lying there on the beach at night, counting shooting stars and constellations, and basking in one another's company. This camping trip has been the best in my life - it just let me relax and forget everything. I feel that if anything, this has best prepared me for the upcoming school year. I can work myself into the ground with homework now without fear.

So, I feel that I'm ready now, after this wonderful summer, to start anew.

Goodbye, summer of '07, I hope for many more wonderous summers to come.