The Start of Something

Hmkay, so this is pretty much the obligatory first post, since one obviously can't start something without having a starting point! But anyway, yeah. I'll be in Germany in...a little less than three months (I'm much too lazy to count the days right now, but I think the last time I did it was 80something days). But moving on...

Beginning this September (cue the dramatic music), I will be studying in Freiburg, Germany for an entire academic year with the Academic Year in Freiburg program (a consortium of Wisconsin-Madison, University of Iowa, Michigan State and UMichigan). This means I will be in Germany from September to July/August. This is because 1) this program has month-long intensive German classes in September and 2) the German academic calendar is wonky. The Fall semester (actually the "Wintersemester" [Winter semester] in Germany) runs from mid-October to mid-February, then the Spring semester ("Sommersemester" Summer semester) runs from mid-April to mid-July.

Sure, people say "oh, it'll be fine. It's only a year." But like...it's a YEAR. It's almost literally ONE YEAR. My time at Iowa is shorter than this program....and while I'm in Iowa I'm still in the US and everyone speaks English (though the ICC this year was questionable when it comes to this point). But I can pretty much proudly say I have no worries at this point. Naturally I am worried about the epic 8 hour flight across the Atlantic and how I could end up sitting near some crying baby that would drive me to suicide, or having the customs agents in Germany say "NO YOU CAN'T COME IN >:O" but these worries are nothing major (the latter might be a problem, however). I do also worry about all of the awesome things I'll be missing in Iowa, but then I'm comforted by the fact that I'll be 21 when I come back.

I am, though, a bit concerned about language. Time and time again, I've been told that I should have no problems communicating with people. Yet fears still consume me about arriving in Germany and forgetting everything I've learned in the past two years. Hopefully that won't happen.

Yeah, so this is the first post of this blog. I'll probably make more as the summer progresses, since I'm really bored and currently jobless.