I still feel like the sleep deprivation is really messing with my writing skills. I have a hard time thinking of how to begin my sentences.It’s 11 AM on the morning of our departure. Let me start with yesterday.
I didn’t get up until 10:30 AM which was so great. I went to sleep late the night before so it didn’t make that much of a difference, but I did feel more rested. A bunch of people went on some outings during the morning, but I decided to sleep in. We met at 11:30 AM to rehearse our skit for the presentations. At 12:30 we went to lunch and presentations started at 1:30 PM. All of them were really great. Our skit went over better than I had expected it, and people really loved it and laughed a lot.
We broke for coffee, and people were taking pictures of their groups, pictures of their old friends, their new friends. We went back to the seminar room for the last time. David, Astrid and Jochen gave us some notes on how the groups had performed. A bunch of goodbye-speeches, and we were off to our rooms. I docked my camera quickly and we were off to a walk around the lake, finally!
It was really beautiful and I got a ton of great pictures. Back at the Schloss we changed for the reception. I got tipsy off of a glass of champagne. Next on the schedule was a classical concert by a local music student for about an hour. It was nice to sit and just relax and listen to music. Not many of us had stopped and taken a break since we’d gotten here.
Afterwards we had a banquet, which was pretty much what we’d been doing at dinner every night except that everyone was dressed up and we got table service. The rest of the night was spent in the Bierstube. A lot of us actually didn’t even go to sleep. One group left at 5 AM, another at 8 AM, and a bunch of us just didn’t go back to bed. I did sleep for about three hours, was back up at 8 AM this morning, and off to breakfast.
Ola, Marie, Phil and I sat with Reinhold, Norman, Michael and Norman’s wife talking about politics, voter turnout, and Bush. It was a nice last breakfast and I was off to my room with some breakfast for Sandra who was still sleeping. I took a quick shower and packed. I went to the lake to write some postcards and went back to the little library area to blog, and I think for now this is the last one I’ll actually post before I’m back home.
It’s been amazing, to say the least. I feel too exhausted and drained to actually express everything that I feel and that I’ve learned. It’s almost overwhelming. I guess the biggest lesson since we were such a mixed group is that it is possible to get along and be friends and respect each other, no matter the difference of opinion. I became friends with some amazing people this week. It’s like one of the speakers said, I’m not sure I remember exactly who, but if people get to really know you, they’ll look beyond your skin color and begin to see you as a person. Skin color can be replaced by any other distracting, irrelevant prejudice that stands in the way when people communicate.
I’m off to call Ken one last time, pack my bag and take some more pictures of the Schlossgarden. This isn’t the last blog! I’ll write more and reflect on experiences as they come up. Maybe with some distance from the actual event it’ll be even more interesting and more substantial than anything I wrote while I was here.
For now, I’m sad and happy to leave. I love the castle and the serenity that surrounds it. At the beginning of the week they said that the magic of the castle may get to us. It certainly has gotten to me.
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