Now it's gettin real...

Ok. Back in Germany. Again. Everytime I get to a new place, it feels as if the old place were just a dream, a shadowy fuzzy memory that I'm not sure actually happened. It feels like I never left.

Seeing the boyfriend was good. Leaving him was not as hard as I thought it would be. We'll see each other in a few months. Him leaving Europe was the best thing he could have done for me, because just as it was easy to cling to other Californians here, it was even easier for me to cling to him. When he left, I was forced to put myself out there and meet new people on my own. Which turned out to be more fun than I ever imagined it could be.

But seeing him again allowed me to drop right back into my old ways, and now that I am back in Germany, without him, I am faced with the task of putting myself out there again. I didn't realize how hard it is for me to do that until I just went back and found everything so easy. I had my friends, my boyfriend, my family, all wrapped up into a little package with no effort on my part. I could shop, order at a restaurant, ask for directions--anything I needed to do was easy because I understood how it works.

Now that I'm back, everything is hard again. I don't know how things work, I can't read all the signs, I don't know how to say what I need to say. This morning, I had to go to the Bürgerbüro (literally means citizens office, kind of like the DMV or City Hall) to pick up my residence permit. Just figuring out which room to go to and how the waiting system works was an ordeal in itself.

And classes have started. I am terrified of my science classes I must take auf Deutsch. Welcome to the hard times...but the harder I work for something, the better it feels once it's accomplished.

Nothing good comes easy, right?

It's the little things...

I'm 2 weeks into my stay in the States--I can't believe time is going so fast, but I guess it always does when you are having fun. Again, I don't find it too strange to be back in the States. I guess it's because I've been traveling and moving around for the last year...I haven't had the same bed for longer than a few months since last May!

Also, I think that since my general lifestyle hasn't changed, it's not too hard to adjust to a new place. I guess that part of the study abroad experience is to try and live a different life for a year, take a new culture for a test-drive of sorts, so as to compare it to your own experiences. I haven't been immersed enough in any new culture to really lose my old way of life. University life is, to an extent, just university life, no matter where it takes place (with exceptions, of course).

But along the way to cultural immersion is adaptation. There are little things that are different in each culture, that no matter how you choose to live your life, you will have to adapt to in order to get along in the new culture. Things that I've gotten used to in Germany are...

-hearing foreign languages all around me and all signs in German
-weighing fruit and vegetables at the grocery store
-sorting trash and recycling it like crazy!
-Euros
-paying for your drink or meal after you are finished and having to ask for the check
-smoking allowed in most bars...

...to name a few. So it is these small differences that I am really noticing now. Dollar bills look weird, and so do the power outlets. Hearing English conversations and being able to read every sign and advertisement is now foreign to me. These little things remind me that although I am not living a new life nor am I a new person, I have been able to adapt  to the changes around me and get along just fine :)

A visit to the BF

Once again...visiting my boyfriend this time. The last visit home wasn't long enough to combine a visit to my family and my boyfriend, so here I am, back again. The last couple of months flew by, and it's feels like no time at all has passed between us. Contrary to popular belief, long distance relationships can work. They are not ideal, and definitely require a lot of work, but as long as you love and trust each other, all can be ok. We e-mail each other almost every day and skype 2 or 3 times a week. This allows us to keep up with each other's lives and still feel close. Saying goodbye will be really hard, especially because this next time apart will be the longest we've ever gone apart, but I'm trying not to think about that right now...I just got here!! 


When time is passing as quickly as it seems to be right now, it's important to try and appreciate every moment and to really try and live in the moment. In the infamous words of Ferris Bueller, "Life moves pretty fast...if you don't stop and look around once in awhile, you could miss it."

Goodbye Prague, hello new adventures!

Last day in Berlin...but won't be long until we're back again

http://www.iie.org/en/Programs/Gilman-Scholarship-Program