Der Anfang der Abschlusskrise

So, in case you don't read German, the title means roughly "the beginning of the end-crisis." Which is the phase that I am going through right now. It's a weird, slow, stressed-out, and sappy phenomenon. Slow because it's been coming for a long time, reminders here and there of my inevitable departure from this fine town. Stressed-out because of both the school things (klausurs, hausarbeits, figuring out my thesis, lolerskates) and general real-human things (taking to my Hausmeister, going to the Bürgeramt to un-become a German resident) that I need to do. And finally sappy because that's how I have been lately. 

The past few days have consisted of trying to study for my klausur (exam) on Tuesday (and not really succeeding), and the reason that I have not really been succeeding is due to my wonderful friends. As you may have noticed (either because you barbecued and lit off a bunch of fireworks or you have a calendar), the fourth of July was on Friday. This, of course, warranted much celebration amongst us crazy Tübingen folks, and not just the Americans. 

A few of my friends and I hosted a day long extravaganza that included an apple pie breakfast, games in the park, grilling, and a bonfire with fireworks in the Französisches Viertel. This was possibly one of my favorites nights here in Tübingen. As you might remember from a post I wrote all the way back in September, I have been to this campsite once before, at the very beginning of my time here with the Tufts kids. Coming back with so many of my friends to grill, hang out, sing songs, and light off fireworks made this whole sappy-things-coming-full-circle-thing kind of go into hyper-drive. That combined with the fact that people are starting to leave early as this week. Yup, that's right, this week, I can't believe it.

But this wasn't the only reason I was feeling sappy and sentimental. This weekend was also the weekend that a bunch of old Deutsch Kompaktlers came back from their disparate parts of Europe. Olav, Olivia, Klara, Anna, and Louise all rejoined for the festivities, and that made this weekend even that much more wonderful. 

Oh, and on top of that, Germany beat France 1-0, and the Neckarbrücke was shut down due to an overwhelming crowd of crazy Fußball fans. Have I mentioned how great it is to be in Europe for these shenanigans? 

But in any case, it is for all these reasons, the crazy wonderful friends that I have here that I am finding this leaving thing so hard. Some of the semester kids say that they are ready to go home. "I'm homesick. I have been away for so long." "I want food with flavor!" "A semester is almost too long for me." When these kids say these things to me, I cannot help but simply give them a blank stare. I cannot imagine not waking up in Tübingen-WG. I cannot imagine leaving and not knowing the next time that I will be back in Tübingen. Or if I will ever be back in Tübingen. 

I'm being overdramatic, I know, but these are the things that keep running through my mind. I have been here 312 days, and they are starting to feel like a dream. A really kick-ass, wonderful, German-filled dream. And if I am being honest, I am not ready to wake up.

ExComm

So my weekend has been the opposite of interesting–unless you are a Cold War history nerd. Then you might have had some fun. Until tonight, I had not left my apartment since Thursday with the one exception of going to Kaufland to get frozen pizza. Instead, Yasmine and I spent the weekend studying the Cold War (and taking short breaks to watch the Olympic opening ceremony or Arrow). We called our little study-party ExComm (as in Kennedy's board of advisors during the Cuban Missile Crisis), because we have gotten to the point were history jokes are starting to get really funny. But despite the hermitage, it's actually been a pretty good and productive weekend. 

Also, everyone is leaving and that is so far from OK. 

With that, until I am free from finals, that is all. 

we're not sentimental, we're just oil-filled machines

It's officially the beginning of the end. Of first semester that is. And while I still have another six months in Deutschland, many of my friends are leaving very soon, which makes me incredibly sad. Of course there are still adventures to be had as well, but for now, it's just a wee bit sentimental and very sad. So with that, I'll do a bit of a round-up, and then get all sappy on you guys. Get stoked.

So this past week has been a mess of trying to balance studying for history with seeing my friends that are leaving. Which means that I spend most of my days studying and then going to various dinners and parties at night. This past Wednesday, I finished my drum in art class, and then we had our last Stammtisch, which was a more low-key affair than usual but still in the Schloss Café. Then Thursday was last Donnerstagabend of the semester with Unterwegs, which was sad but at least there was really tasty (and free) food. Then Friday night was a Chinese New Year Party, which was thrown by Jiamin, who went all out and made delicious "gluttonous fermented rice dumplings" and had us each pick out our fortunes. Mine was I am going to "live longer forever." Which I guess is cool, immortality and all that. Then Saturday night I stayed in, did some studying, and after that ceased to be productive watched The Wolf of Wall Street. Which was an awesome and simultaneously appalling movie (if you know, you aren't some kind of money-obsessed, completely unempathetic "twisted Robin Hood" like the lovely main character Jordan Belfort). Then Sunday I studied all day and spent the night (early morning, really) watching the incredibly lame Super Bowl with all the other Americans from Deutsch Kompakt and a few Europeans. It was good fun and there was so much food (like stuffed peppers, nachos, wings, 12 avocados-worth of guacamole, potato skins, mashed potatoes as a by-product of said potato skins, and then beer, naturally). It was awesome. 

This is what 12 avocados-worth of guacamole looks like

So yeah, that's about all the things that have happened to me in the past week that have been fun. So sappy stuff now. I cannot believe that in less than a week first semester will be over. It's all gone by so fast. And it's even crazier that so many of my friends are returning to their respective countries and that I only have roughly six months left in this lovely country. But it's also super cool that within those next six months I can go and visit them. :D

And now with that: adventure time in a little more than a week! Hurrah! :D In this case, the Abenteuer starts in Italy. More specifically northern Italy in Bologne, Venice, Cinque Terre, and a few other places which I forget right now. Then onto Eastern Europe for my first real roadtrip. So excited. So in any case, bis später, gang.

I don't have a skull...or bones

Hey guys. So I figure I'll try to keep in the habit of this whole blogging thing, because otherwise it will go by the wayside and that would just be sad. However, there's still very little to report. With finals rapidly approaching (I have two on February 10th), there hasn't been time to do too much of anything that resembles leaving Tübingen. I haven't left since I got back from London. Which is may be for the best. I travelled a lot there in late November and December. 

The Princess that Wouldn't Shut Up

In any case, I'll give you a round-up of my week. On Tuesday, we had an awesome lunch with Ute to make up for not having Kaffeestunde. She took us to an Indian lunch buffet, which was so delicious. Om nom nom. Also first time I had eaten Indian food since being here. Other than that, Tuesday was rather typical. I had a day-worth of classes and then conversation group with my little German high-schoolers. This time, we spoke English for the first hour and then went into German sort of. They also gave me a "Lilliput" Schwäbisch Dictionary, which is adorable. In case you don't know, Schwäbisch is the German dialect spoken in this region. While some of it just sounds like funny German (zum Beispiel: feeling, Gefühl = Gfiehl) , some words are not even close to being the same (stairs, Treppe = Schdaffla). For this reason, it can be very hard to understand people here some times. Not to mention that it's also difficult for Germans from other regions to understand the Schwaben. Afterwards, I hauled myself up to Wanne to watch Despicable Me 2 with Lasse, Lisa, Louise, Lucia, and Anna. How I had not seen it before Tuesday is a mystery to me, but it's totally adorable and oh my God, minions. Also Lasse gave us all really cute Norwegian-themed gifts. One part of which was a Norwegian chocolate bar that on the inside has a Norwegian fairy-tale. 

Baby's First Orchestra

Wednesday, as I am sure you gathered, was a weird day. But I went to class and then art class and almost finished my drum. I'll post a picture of it afterwards. I'm pretty proud of it. Also there are elephants on it. 

On Thursday, I did the whole early class nonsense and then went back home to nap and do some homework. I had to be back at the library at 4, however, to meet up with Tapani, Yasmine, and Anna to start going over our stuff for history (one of my exams which is on the 10th). Afterwards, Anna and I went up to Ficthenweg, where she did my nails (they look so cool) and we watched the Swan Princess. Then we went back down to meet up with Lasse and Marissa at Unckel, because we were being fancy and getting dinner before going to Lisa, Louise, and Hannah's orchestra concert in the Neue Aula. I wore a skirt and everything. It was weird. It was also my first orchestra, which was kind of cool. It was good. They played Bach, Schumann, and Schostakovich and then did a tribute to their conductor, because he was leaving, wherein they threw paper airplanes everywhere. So yeah, that was Thursday. 

Yühüüü

Then Friday. I spent most of Friday doing work, but at night, we had Laura's birthday party. Which was also a costume party. I decided to do the whole Rosie the Riveter thing, because 1. it's a super easy costume and 2. feminism is awesome. Unfortunately, I am not in possession of any pictures of my costume, but if they go up on Facebook I'll post one here. My friends, however, dressed up as characters from Frozen, and it was totally adorable. (Sidenote: if you haven't watched Frozen, you totally have to because it's the best thing ever.) (Sidenote to the sidenote: yes I am 20 and obsessed with this Disney movie. I accept any and all judgement.) And Yasmine dressed up as Sputnik, because we are Tufts kids and find that kind of thing hilarious and also because we have been studying for history for way too long. There was also some nonsense with putting make-up on Brian, which was hysterical and he looked fabulous. 

So yup, that's about it for my week. Not particularly exciting, but hey, I enjoyed it. In any case, time to do some more reading on the Cuban Missile Crisis. Wooohoooo! Bis später, dudes.

2+4; I'm gonna reduce our nuclear weapons

Hey! Look! I'm working!

Hey gang, so sorry that these blog posts keep getting less and less interesting, but unfortunately finals are upon us. I have my first on Wednesday. Ironically the first day of the second semester at Tufts. For this exam, I get to answer fun things, such as "was Germany a civilian power (Zivilmacht auf Deutsch, ich glaube, dass das besser geht) from 1945-1990?" or "what are Ian Manners' 5 methods of norm transfer?" Such fun. We'll see how the entire thing goes. Also did I mention this is my entire grade for this class. Lolerskates, why aren't I studying right now? 

Anyways, I am trying to think of other things that I have done that have been interesting in the past week or so. I guess I do have a mildly funny story. I was over at a friend's house playing card games, and I tried to walk across their living room, which is rather small and such that you don't have a terribly clear view of their floor. Their floor is also tricky in that it isn't all at one level. Part of it abruptly drops down about a foot. So I managed to completely eat shit on said floor. Which was absolutely hysterical and Max shall never let me forget it. 

This weekend was mostly studying with a mac n cheese (nomz, it was bacon and bbq mac n cheese) and hair-cutting party on Friday night, another Spanish dinner on Saturday night, and then dinner at my friend Lasse's on Sunday with delicious chicken and Norwegian Christmas cookies and Aquavit. Which sounds like I had a life or something, but really there was a lot of pre-Klausur hermitting. 

In other news, I have an internship for next semester with this group called Vivat Lingua, which is a language school in Tübingen. I'm going to be part of their English team. 

And then finally the fun stuff. After this blog goes through the "oh my God, finals" phase, it's going to get a lot more fun. Namely because it's going to be in the "TWO MONTHS OFF TIME TO TRAVEL" phase. Which means that this will get to be a fun little travel blog. Thus far, there are relatively concrete plans in the works for: a trip to northern Italy for Carnival, a week-long roadtrip around Eastern Europe (Austria, Slovenia, Croatia, Hungary, Poland, and the Czech Republic as of right now), a trip to Belgium for my friend Louise's birthday, a trip to Ireland (Dublin and Galway) for Paddy's Day, and a trip to Norway to hang out with Lasse and go hiking. Furthermore there's been talk of trips to Switzerland, Spain, Scotland, and Sweden. (Weird, all S names.) But since there's two months, there may be even more in the works. So have faith, beloved blog-readers (if you exist, I like to think I have a loving public to talk to), this blog will cease to be about me dying of finals and other schoolwork very, very soon! 

So with that, I must say bis später for now. Studying and then sleep calls. And to all you Tufts kids, viel Spaß beim ersten Tag des Kurses! :)

Oh and here's a good ole' German grammar joke. So silly.