Phillip Mulligan
Professor Lothman
Introduction to Psychology
23.April.2013
Europe
I have been to Europe twice in my life. The first time in 2006, I went with my immediate family. We flew to Germany, then drove to France, Austria, Switzerland, and even saw some of the Torino Olympics in Italy. It was an amazing trip, really opened up my eyes. The second time around was just this past year, in 2012. I flew into Germany again with my Father and a good family friend/neighbor. We met up with my sister who was studying there, then drove All around Germany and to Austria again. Both trips were absolutely amazing and shouldn’t be easily forgotten. Hopefully, they just scratched the surface of my European life
The first trip was amazing. The journey started in I want to say 2004, in a very respectful and cultural Swiss restaurant called The Alp Horn, located in Canada. This was the restaurant that my family went to each year for three or four nights in a row. It was a short 20 minute drive from our hotel that we stayed at which is at the base of Blue Mountain. Blue Mountain is 4 seasons resort, popular for it’s skiing, located about 90 minutes from Toronto. We had always made yearly trips to this place to indulge in one of my fathers greatest pleasures, interacting with nature in the means of winter snow skiing.
As we sat in our booth reminiscing on the fun we had just had for the past three days our parents told us something. They said they had a secret and were now ready to reveal it. It was then that they said that we were too travel across the Atlantic Ocean and head towards Germany in midst that we might see some of the 2006 Torino Winter Olympic Games. As my face lit up along with my siblings, numerous questions followed. My first was “Where is Europe?” As you can imagine, an either 4th or 5th grader at that time might not have the best knowledge of the world. But the date was set, the trip had been planned, and the next thing I knew I was in an airport with everyone but my father, who had already been in Germany for business. The adventure of cultural exploration had begun.
We Landed in Frankfurt Germany, and the first thing that hit me was jet lag. I felt absolutely drained, from not getting much sleep on the plane trying to learn some simple German phrases like “Sprechen sie English bitte?” Which means, formally, do you speak English? One horrific detail I remember about the plane is the landing. Growing up I have had much trouble with headaches often and constantly migraines. My parents and some doctors concluded that my head and ears were very pressure sensitive. Most of my headaches occurred when the weather changed and in turn, a pressure change. So landing on an airplane was unknowingly my worst nightmare. It is weird to think about now, but I can recall going deaf, not being able to hear the words I could see my mothers mouth speaking. Absolute pain in the ears, I felt like they were about to explode. I can only imagine what some passengers were thinking when they heard a child crying on an airplane.
Non the less, we were there. Both my parents had been there multiple times, but for us, it was a brand new adventure, and by the grace of God, we had two incredible loving parents that shared in our excitement just as much as were had. In the terminal, after getting our luggage, we waited for my father to arrive. My brother and I ventured off to find a garbage can. With every step being a new discovery, I was constantly excited. We came across what we thought to be something similar to a garbage can, but there just so happened to be 4 containers. With each having a different marking on it we were clueless on what to do. My brother had spotted a woman in uniform, so decided to ask for help. I remember the feeling of incredible bravery on his next move. He had asked her in German Sprechen sie English bitte? I was astonished. He just did it, he used what he my sister and myself had been practicing and he did it well. Just being able to talk to someone else like that with no hesitation was awesome. The woman in uniform came back with “A little, yes” and from there we collaborated until we came to the conclusion that one of the buckets was in fact for garbage, while the others were for plastic, paper, and metal recycling.
We walked back to where my mother and sister where sitting, as we all continued to wait for my father. The next thing I know, I see him. Walking towards us in a casual sweater and jeans, with a smile as big as mine. As we all ran towards him anticipating a big hug from dad, we were finally reunited. The next events I cant quite put in order so I am just going to tell you about them. But the very next thing we did I do in fact remember so ill let you know about it. So we met my father and were headed to get some good German food. I don’t remember the name of the place but I do remember the delicious spaetzle I had. That is like German noodles. I was quite the picky eater when I was young so I didn’t have much other than carb based foods like noodles and chips and it was really bad for my health. Luckily now I have plenty of diverse fruits and vegetables in my system but that’s a whole different story. Anyways after we ate we made our way to the hotel. We got there and as I mentioned earlier how I was very tired from jetlag, I was still feeling the weakness from the deprivation of sleep. When we got to the room and made all the trips unloading I had myself a seat on that bed. I was absolutely dead. I looked at my sister behind me and she was already out asleep. The next thing I know I am being laid down by my mother and being told to sleep so I was lights out. I awoke when my brother, father and mother were coming back from church. This would be the first time in my life that I had missed mass. I slept right through the night and the next morning we were off on our way to our next destination.
Zermatt, Switzerland. This beautiful quaint little town sits in a valley of the Alps with the only accessible route being a train. It rests at the base of the Matterhorn, a mountain that’s reputation precedes it. At a certain point in the morning, when the sun is just right, it looks as though the top of the mountain is covered in a golden foil, tightly wrapped around the very top. A popular picture for postcards and other attractions, the Matterhorn is a staple icon of Zermatt, Switzerland, and the Alps. I am incredibly blessed to be able to see it in person, and to be not even a mile from its base. We spend a few days in Zermatt, filled with skiing during the whole day, followed by exploring the town and restaurants that lined the city. I can remember the small old style crepe stands that weren’t really stands. They were right along the path way thru the city and but they were halfway underground, partially beneath the shoppe or restaurant above them. We all got delicious treats that night. The smells I can distinctly remember being almost comparable to the smell of joy. The taste though, out of the world.
One of the days that we were in Zermatt, my family was about to go skiing, but I did not feel so well, so I opted to stay behind and hang out at the hotel that we were staying in. I was just watching television, as I asked a nice old man sitting at a desk what time it was. I looked at the clock and did not know how to read it. The time there just goes right up to the number 24 on the clock. I asked him how to read it and he had told me, if it is higher than twelve, just subtract twelve. So I did, if the clock read 14:30, that meant that the time was 2:30. I had great joy in this new finding that I began to always look at clock while we were in Europe, always trying to challenge myself to see what time it was. I mean now I see how easy it is to subtract twelve, but it is very cool knowing that this is also how the military reads time. You may have heard in a movie about the military the term eighteen hundred hours. This refers to the time being 18:00, or 6 pm.
At the company my father worked for, he had made many good friends. One man in particular, Doug, he became good friends with. Doug had lived in Germany prior to working with my father, and had moved back to the U.S. temporarily with his German wife, Sabina. With my mother being very German herself, hit it off with Sabina and to this day they are very good friends. She had helped her with many things that she could relate to having troubles with the different cultures. But at that time Doug and Sabina were again back in Germany, living with their three children Michael, Steffi, and Christina. We visited with them and spent the night. We had a great time. Sabina and her daughters had prepared an amazing German dish, I think it was roulade, for us to dine on that evening. We ate, we drank, well none of the kids drank, but we would now. Had a great time visiting and enjoying the company of our good family friend. Now a days we stay connected on facebook, and I think my mother just met up with Sabina when she was recently in the states.
The next day we left their house, and were one day away from leaving. We were walking around Munich, looking at all the amazing old buildings that were so large. We went shopping around at all kinds of stores. Then we met Doug once again, he had gone to work earlier in the day. We had lunch at the famous Hobrauhaus, we ordered schnitzel, spaetzle, and pretzels, and the parents drank plenty of beer out of their large glasses. Its such a large building. It is filled with great cultural artwork and many German cultural things. I really enjoy the feeling and atmosphere that is there. I am somewhat used to it because that is how all of my German relatives on my moms side of the family act. They all have great accents and being able to hear those accents all over Germany Austria and Switzerland was really a great experience. That’s why I wasn’t so scared to go there because whenever I heard the accents and language it reminded me of my grandparents whom I hold very dear to my heart.
If I didn’t have such a close cultural tie to Germany and the people and the German way of life, it wouldn’t have been my favorite part. What would have been my favorite part would be Italy. It was such an amazing city, Torino. The Olympics were being held and everyone there was excited and the towns were absolutely bustling. The hotels were all packed and the crowds were all very excited. Pins were very popular during the games. All kinds of companies made different pin for advertising and trading. Trading pins was also very popular. My dad had heard about this and arranged to get some pins made for our family and we were to hand them out to people. At one point we were trading some pins and had come across someone who had already traded for a pin, funny.
We only saw one event in Torino, unlike the Utah Olympics at which we saw quite a few events. The sport we saw was women’s curling. It was quite the match too! Many teams and countries played as we watched. There are numerous curling sheets across the stadium because curling does not occupy a very large space. My immediate family once went curling for fun at a place in Utah when we went to the Utah winter Olympics. Everyone had a blast while we gently pushed the stones across the ice and into the circles. We first got a few lessons, then put some tape on one shoe so that we could slide and be able to make the right movements. Then it was off to the gates. We messed around a little bit until we got the hang of how much power you need to put into the push and how to aim. Sweeping was also a fun way to get involved in the sport. As the stones sailed across the ice, some of your teammates would be near the end of the shot and would have brooms ready to briskly brush the ice with so that the stone would have a clean and smooth path to glide upon.
The last two teams were playing for the Gold medal. It was Sweden and I forget whom else but obviously that’s because Sweden came out victorious. These women were all very skilled in the sport and you could tell they had been doing this a while. Their shots were all very accurate. They were skilled enough to make short shots as to put up a block for a good throw, because in curling you can send a stone sliding in and hit an opponents stone as to knock them out of the money. So some would make the defensive move by putting out a stone in front of a good shot so as to block any other stone from making contact and putting him out of the money.
So it was back and forth between the two teams. Neither of them were showing any sign of slowing down and both were making very precise, calculated signs. The pressure was on to not be the first to make a mistake. You could cut the tension with a knife. The looks on all of the player’s faces were one hundred percent focused as they talked across the ice sheet to perform certain maneuvers. When one teammate would send a stone gliding down in hopes as to score some points or to knock out another opponents stone, she would yell directions to the two teammates that were at the other end of the sheet instructing them on whether or not to sweep, how hard to sweet, or in only to sweep on one side. It is hard for the sweepers to make those judgments because they don’t see the directions of the stones and the paths that they had been on. When the sweepers do their job they are actually melting the surface of the ice a little bit so that they stone can have no bumps or divots in the ice to worry about.
The game was really heating up as it went into overtime. Everyone was on edge and anticipating something big to happen. At one time during the match they had to have a time out so that a referee could go out with a big ruler and measure the distances from a few different stones as to see which one is closer so that they could give out proper points to the contestants. It kept going. The match went into multiple overtimes if I am not mistaken. The way the game worked is each team alternate throws. I believe it is 3 or 4 stones each that they use. This one volley in particular was very close. There were many stones within the circles and the points were racking up. Then, it was Sweden’s last stone. One of the veterans on their team was taking the turn throwing. She talked to many of her teammates and they also consulted each other before using the stone. They she began her warm up slides. As she was moving back and forth, she had her eye on the target the whole time. Then without hesitation she let a rip. She slid with the stone for a few feet like all the throwers did, guiding it with her hand so that it would take the right path. Right before she let go of it she gave the stone a little spin. This was just enough to make it actually curl right into the rings. Everyone in the crowd watched with anticipation while the teammates screamed to each other to sweep or lighten off. The stone started to lose speed as it approached. When it slowed down it really began to hook. Then all of the sudden it passes right into the middle of the scoring rings and stops to get Sweden the points to win.
The Stadium erupted in cheers when Sweden won. The teammates started crying as they hugged each other. They slid all over the ice while they congratulated each other and their teammate on her great shot to win gold. The skill showed to have such accuracy and precision to make such a great and calculated shot must be far more than what my family was displaying at the time we tried playing.
The rest of the time in Italy was also amazing. We walked through many very old buildings and towns. It is where I had my first ever pizza with tomato sauce (like I said I used to be a very picky eater when I was young). It was delicious, and I cannot wait to go back and get another slice of that tasty pie. The nightlife was very popping there. I remember that during the time of the Olympics since it was so crowded there were many tourists.
So many tourists in fact, we could not find a place to stay inside the city. Our hotel was a good hour drive away from the city of Torino. It was a small bed and breakfast run by an elderly small very sweet Italian woman who did not speak a word of English. But luckily for her and us her son was also there helping her run the hotel and could translate. The hotel was very nice and kept up. It almost felt like we were staying in a house it was so comfortable. It was at the top of a hillside that looked over the valley, which was the downtown part of the city. There was a tennis court in front of the hotel that had a steep drop right after it ended. It created an illusion that it was right above the city and just hanging over by a thread. There was much snow at the time being the winter Olympics and my siblings and I were playing in it. We found it very good snow for building snowmen so we built a few. They mother and son had a burley old German Shepard that lived with them. I forgot his name but I remember seeing him and playing with him a little. The mother and son team was so nice and caring. They would sit with us at breakfast and talk and we would exchange stories and she would suggest things for us to eat for breakfast that she had prepared.
Europe is a magical place that truly reminisces on the past. It has history and culture with a vibrant youth who are introducing many new things and ideas which can only lead to enriching the diversity of the land.