One Week Away!

I'm leaving for Germany in a week! That sentence is very surreal to me. Strangely, I was more worried about that last week than I am now. For now, I'm just taking it easy for my last week at home and trying to indulge in all my favorite American things before leaving. I ate Mexican food on Monday with my best friend and had good American-style pizza on Tuesday. I've also decided to drink caffeine-free Dr. Pepper whenever I want between now and the time I leave, and I have a feeling that I'm going to be making a pit stop at Sonic on the way to the airport. :)

One of the odd side effects of having a Fulbright is that German schools start in September, and my lease ran out at the end of July, so I got to move back in with my parents for a month. For me, this has been really fun. I got to hang out with my sister a lot before she left for college, and the free food/no rent situation is pleasant as well. I'm not sure how this weird extra month situation worked out for other Fulbrighters - I think some of them live in parts of the US where this is a non-issue, but for me it was nice to spend some time with family before moving!

The Fulbrighters for Germany have a Facebook group, and it is equal parts helpful and terrifying. Sometimes when people post it makes me feel better about my German language skills, but other times it threatens to overwhelm me with all the things I know I have to do once I get there (sign my lease, register with the city, open a bank account, register with the foreigner office, buy a BahnCard, figure out what I'm going to do at the Uni, find my school, register my tv). However, I'm going to take this journey one step at a time, and I figure that most people have escaped unscathed from this experience, so I should be fine.


I haven't actually started packing yet, but I do have a pile of stuff in my room that I know I'm taking with me. I've also been researching things like how to get from my gate to the airport train station in Frankfurt and how to get to my apartment in Erfurt, and I've made tentative plans to have dinner with a teacher from my study abroad trip before orientation. As Kenneth Parcell always says, "Everything always works out for the best!"