Living Your Dreams - A Trilogy

Part One - Munich, Germany

Many people in today's world have stopped or given up on dreaming. This is for many reasons: money, time, obligation, family, etc. For as long as I can remember I have been a dreamer. I would daydream about all sorts of things ranging from getting married to living alone in a tree somewhere. (I have often thought about writing fiction but I really don't think I have the patience.) The reasons for not dreaming simply never made their way into my brain. I firmly believe that having dreams is a foundational part of who a person is and giving up on that is essentially giving up on yourself. Trust me, I've been in a place where I've said to myself: "Your dreams are unrealistic. They'll never happen." But somehow, I just couldn't stop dreaming.

I have had two major dreams in my lifetime and I have been very blessed to have both of them come true, especially at such a young age. Both of these dreams were things that had been repeated in my head as dreams for a very, very long time. One of my dreams was to find the person that I will marry in a ridiculously romantic way and to have this dream come true is beyond words for me (in the best way). The second dream, the dream which I will be talking about for the next three blog posts, was the dream to travel.

I distinctly remember how my dream to travel came to be. I was in the 5th grade and we had an assignment: pick one of the 50 states of the U.S. and do a report about it and present it to the class. Well, me and this one kid both wanted Hawaii but I wanted it far more and ended up getting it. I launched into my very first research project with a vengeance at 10 years old. Being the year 2000, research on the computer was not quite up to speed as it is today but I was already a computer geek and tried my best to come up with as much information as I could find. (One website I used is still in existence today, check out 50 States.) I found it surprisingly difficult to find much solid information on Hawaii (today, however, this is different), but just with the information I found I became addicted to the state I still have yet to go to. I started reading fiction novels set in Hawaii, I learned my name and others names in Hawaiian (my name is Hali, sadly pronounced the same way as Holly), I learned basic words and meanings in Hawaiian, when I tried taro flavor for the first time I decided I must try poi (a Hawaiian dessert made from the taro plant), and so, so much more. I think I only got a mediocre grade on my report but the impact it had on my life is monumental. If you were to ask my mother or grandmother about my travel guides, they would sigh very heavily. Researching the state of Hawaii also made me realize that you can order free travel guides from every state in the country and get it mailed to your house. (I'm pretty sure the mailman still hates me.) And thus, the desire-borderline need-to travel was born.

My first real experience traveling happened when I was in high school. Sure, I had been out of the state before, but it wasn't really traveling. It was simply driving to a location, getting out, doing one or two things in that location, then going back. Traveling to me is an adventure. It's an immersion in a new culture. Sure, theme parks and hiking and sledding and swimming and museums are fun, but that is not necessarily culture. A culture is learning who the people are in an area and learning how they behave and realizing that the way you do things isn't the way someone else may do something. The first taste of culture I got was when my family had moved for a short period of time to North Carolina and I went to a new school. A whole new community, new food, new accent... it was very fascinating to me, even though I desperately wanted to go back to my hometown. Then my freshman year in college I volunteered in South Carolina. That summer I worked in Wyoming. Then I became more involved in school and went to Washington D.C. and Albany. And then I worked in Maine and met my fiance. And so it continues...

If you would have told me last year at this time that I would be in Europe now, I would have laughed and said "yeah, right." I never thought in my whole life I would go to Europe. It never even entered my mind as a possibility. But here I am, 22 years old, already 5 months into being in Europe and I have had more dreams come true than I could have possibly imagined. And for me, I know this is just the beginning.

For the next three days, I will begin each blog post with a different introduction about living dreams and end with a city I've been to during my vacation week. Today I'm talking about Munich.

Being an au pair in Munich has been quite the interesting experience. I still have so much I want to see. Today marks the "two months left" day. I have mixed feelings about leaving; I love Munich and could live there forever but at the same time my friends, family, and residence are not here. Not to mention there's still more of the world for me to see!

Sunday and Monday of this week I went to two museums, Glyptothek and Alte Pinakothek, and the Sea Life aquarium. I have selected some pictures to share with you.

Keep dreaming everyone!

Glyptothek.

Part of Königsplatz, which is a square in Munich dedicated to various museums. (Literally "King's Place.")

Greek bust in the Glyptothek.

Greek marble items. The Greeks really like marble.

Greek marble heads. Well, that's what they are!

Moving on to the Alte Pinakothek, it was truly one of the most amazing art galleries I had seen up until this point (my third blog post may have something different to say). In this picture you can see the painter and titles of the paintings.

Ahh food. I love older still paintings of food.

I thought her dress was beautiful.

I think it's Bavarian Royalty, but I'm not totally sure.

STARFISH!

SPECKLED FISH!

CLOWN FISH!

RAINBOW FISH! (One Fish! Two Fish! Red Fish! Blue Fish! [Dr. Seuss joke for those of you who don't get it.])

SEA HORSE!

RAY! (I'm not sure if it's a sting ray or not, I think it's just a flying ray.)

BIG FISH! (With sting ray. That one is definitely a sting ray.)

JELLYFISH!

SHARKS!! RUN!!

TURTLES!

To end my escapade of pictures, I took three pictures of Fred der Frosch. One on the 27th, one on the 28th, and one on the 29th. It's amazing what the change is!

May 27th, 2012. Look! Arms!

May 28th, 2012. Hey... the tail is shrinking...

May 29th, 2012. Wait... where did the tail go... He's almost a full grown frog! I can't wait to see him when I get back!