Soo,
After celebrating Heike and Andreas' Anniversary for a few
days with different friends and neighbors, they (we) celebrated the Saturday
afterward with the family. All in all it
was a good week (but somehow whenever something needed to be done Markus and
Johannes seem to have disappeared, leaving James to take care of things :D) and
the celebration on Saturday was a great way to end it.
On October 1st, after about four weeks, I left the comfort
of my second home and made my way back to Regensburg. In Regensburg I quickly met a few people who
have been nice enough to show me around and introduce me to a few folk. I've also been around the city a bit and have
been able to see a lot of the cool sights in the city.
After a few days in Regensburg I left again, this time to
Göttingen, a city in northern Germany near Hannover, with YFU. There I was a "Teamer" at an
orientation for German students who just came back from the US. The weekend was really a lot of fun (and for
the most part without incident), it was great to hear the stories of all of the
students and to see and hear what they want to do in the future, and how their
time abroad changed their views of some things.
The rest of team was also really cool, I'm glad that I was able to meet
some experienced people, and hope that I might get the chance to
"work" with some of them again in the future.
After I came back, I had one more day off before the
semester started (On Oct. 15th). And the
semester started. While I wasn't able to
take all of the classes that I wanted to this semester, I'm taking some classes
that will hopefully help me to be able to take more chemistry classes next
semester, but I will definitely still be able to continue on pace at UND (the
last few semesters might just be a little more hectic). So, the courses that I am taking this
semester are (Translated) German for Scientists, Analytical Chemistry,
Analytical Chemistry Lab, Foreign Policy of the United States, German Film, Dutch
(for beginners), and Swedish (for beginners) (which comes out to be a total of
14 credits). My schedule is also pretty nice I have class:
Tuesdays from 8:30 a.m. - 8:00 p.m. (08.30-20.00), Wednesdays from 8:00 a.m. -
3/4:00 p.m.(08.00-15-16.00), and Friday from 8:45 am - 12:00 p.m. (noon). So life is pretty good. The first couple days of class were a little
stressful, but now everything is great.
Today, for example was a lot less stressful and (actually) a lot of fun,
so I'm excited to see how the rest of the semester will be. I am especially excited for Dutch and
Swedish, as they seem cool.
And yeah, life is good.
A few of us have started a weekly cooking group, which is always a lot
of fun. Tomorrow the University is
having a "Bavarian Welcome" dinner for all of the exchange students,
which should be fun, and in the next few weeks (Nov. 9th) we're going to the
Neuschwanstein (think Disney) Castle which should be fun.
Last week I booked my flight home for July 28th, which is a
day after my parents leave for home, which means, yes, my parents are
coming! Flights are booked and I'm (as
are they) pumped! I also booked my train
ticket from Regensburg to Bremen for Christmas and yeah, everything is going
well.
On Sunday I also skyped with my parents, grandma, the Z, my
brother, my nephew, and my sister-in-law, which was great, it feel like it's
been forever since I've talked to all of them.
So that's my life at the moment. Now I'm headed back to the university for my
last two classes of the day.
