Back Where I Come From

So unfortunately, it's been quite a long time since I posted last...basically an entire semester haha! I sort of forgot about this thing. I guess I'll try and catch up on what I've missed...

Fall Semester was FANTASTIC!!! I took four pretty tough courses: Poetry, Abnormal Psychology, Criminology and German Fluency. Anna and I lived in the new buildings on campus, the Colonnades, which ended up working out really well. They were pretty sweet even tho they weren't exactly built real well. I had my own room and bathroom and for a semester it couldn't have been more perfect. I even got to be pretty good friends with Bobby who lived two doors down and is studying abroad for spring as well! (although he'll be in Paris)

That's another thing, I officially got accepted to study abroad in Heidelberg, Germany for the spring of 2008!!! I am unbelievably excited!! I leave in exactly 17 days and although I am not packed at all (not even organized or unpacked from being at school yet!) I am impatiently counting down until February 21st. (We'll get more into that in a minute) We had a couple new foreign exchange students this semester as well! We even had another Aachen guy, Christian who was a genuine sweetheart. There's just something about those Aachen boys ;) Uli and I have kept in touch which makes me SUPER happy! :) I can't wait to see him when we're over there!!! I also became good friends with the Swedish exchange, Sabina. She ended up spending Thanksgiving break at my house which was SO much fun! I'm planning on visiting her while I'm overseas, so hopefully that will work out. Ruben was from Slovakia, Helen from Austria, Anna from Poland and Vincent was from France. It was a great group of kids! Anna and I somehow always seem to find ourselves befriending the internationals...must be something to that-haha.

Let's see...when I wasn't spending time with the internationals, I was with my newly formed creative writing crew. We consisted of: Colin, Hilry, Jackie, Kir, Sarah and Whitney. All of us (minus Colin & Jackie) were in Poetry together so when it came time to actually revising we managed to spend close to 24 hrs working on our portfolios and stressing together-which in turn, seemed to have brought us all a lot closer, which was really great. I'm SO glad I finally have a 'group' within my major.

It was really hard having to pack my room up in December. I'm so used to everyone moving their things out at the same time that it was really weird to be the only one having to say goodbye. I decided to work for Sally again instead of taking a Winter Term class so everything had to be out after Fall semester. :-\ Oh well... So I've been spending Dec-Feb 21st back home in NoVa with the bestests!

It was great seeing Al, Jojo and Samuel again. Al went to Africa for 10 days back over her xmas break which I still can't believe she did! I'd love to go to Africa but I don't think I'd actually have the nerve to go... Jojo's coming home in a few days to spend a weekend with me before I leave and I can NOT wait to see her. It's really kind of lonely/boring here without everyone so it'll be nice to have her home. Sammy's been great. Since UMW is only 45 min away she's coming home every weekend basically to spend time with me and keep me 'entertained' haha. Really...I don't know where I'd be without my bestests.

SO that basically caught us up on the past 6 months haha!

GERMANY! So I'm getting an apartment on Ringstrasse which is apparently right next to the train station ( can't decide if that's a good or a bad thing yet...I guess we'll see). But it's also only about a block or two from the Commisary and the PX...now who knows if I'll be able to actually use them since Dad's retired but it's definitely worth a shot! I'm apparently also the closest to Patrick which makes me INCREDIBLY happy!! Being without that boy for an entire semester was killer, I can NOT wait to see him :) !! Anna is off Rohrbach which is a dorm we're told and Jesse is also in a dorm but across the river. So we're all pretty much close enough by bus and we're going to have a FANTASTIC time I can tell!!

We're starting to figure out where we want to go and what we want to do travel wise while we're there and the list is kind of ridiculous. As for me, I really want to do Paris (to see Aunt Patti & Uncle Richard), London, Sabina in Sweden, Venice & Florence, Greece, Ireland and maybe somewhere warm like Spain. I also can't WAIT to see Katrin! It's been basically 4 years since we last were together and I know that I have changed a LOT in that amount of time. It's going to be so nice to see her and her mom again. (Mmm Loni schnitzel mit pommes!)

I'm kind of nervous about the fact that all of my classes are going to be taught in German. Weber really screwed us over. My German has gone way down hill since last spring and I'm worried I'm stuck in one of those language ruts people talk about. I really just want to become fluent or at least fluent enough to where people didn't laugh when I spoke or instinctively switched to English themselves. I guess we'll see. We don't get to pick classes until a month after we're there, which is so strange!! Everyone at Elon has already started Spring Semester and none of us even know what we're going to be taking!

Well, since this is going to become my Germany-blog I figure I'll start getting back into the habit of posting...we'll see how it goes!