Ok. I am in the midst of a serious freak out. Again. As we speak, boyfriend is on an airplane, on his way back to the States. The day I have been dreading for the last 4 or 5 months. So I went from spending 5 weeks with him, almost 4 of which were in Berlin, which is the one of the most amazing cities I have been to yet, and with the raddest roommates I could have ever hoped for...to my dorm room in Tübingen, with no boyfriend and rather lame roommates that never, ever come out of their rooms.
It's kind of like taking a ride in a really comfortable, warm and cozy car, playing your favorite tunes, and then getting in this sudden car accident that rips you out of your beloved environment and dumps you into a smaller, lamer car that's playing really bad German techno music.
Talk about culture shock. I've had a headache for exactly as many days as I've been back--4. I'm trying to get back into the groove of things here--diving into classes, going running again (at least the weather's being nice to me!), and preparing to transfer to another university next semester--but it's hard....really, really hard knowing my boyfriend, best friend, and my mental support system all rolled into one is flying home right now.
What I am trying to concentrate on is me. I know that I could have made things better for myself here. Even though the odds were against me breaking out of the California bubble when the International Program I'm enrolled in dumped 54 Californians together in this tiny town, I could have done it. But now that my time here is ending, I realize I have only made a few real connections here, because I've spent most of my free time visiting my boyfriend. Now that he is gone, it is my chance, my last chance, to do what I came here to do. To put myself out there and meet people from different cultures and make real international connections.
If you study abroad, do not only hang out with Americans!! Do your best to break away from them, no matter how many of them there are around you. Get involved with an international student program (most universities should have something like this). Sign up with Couchsurfing (if you dont know what this is, check it out!!! http://www.couchsurfing.org/about.html ) Get out there!!
If you don't make an effort, you will not meet anyone new! It is SO easy to only hang out with the people in your program, but then what was even the point of studying abroad? Don't just pick up your American bubble and set it down in a different country, break out!
Now I'm going to spend the rest of my time here trying to follow my own advice ;)
http://www.iie.org/en/Programs/Gilman-Scholarship-Program
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