Next One Up

March 7, 2017

Song Stuck in My Head: You Only Live Once-The Strokes

I’m ready. After seeing every single other person from my school make the classic study abroad post with the “traveling to” icon on Facebook, finally my time has arrived. Some people, when seeing me visit friends at school in late February, thought I wasn’t studying abroad anymore and had dropped out of school. This always led to an awkward conversation about the German school calendar. 

Even though it I am starting later than most students, I am actually glad that I didn’t head off like most in the beginning of January. The extra two months allowed me to work to finance my study abroad experience, eat some Ben and Jerry’s, cuddle with my dog and most importantly take my time doing the thing I hate the most: packing.

The extra two months in the States also allowed me to mentally prepare myself for abroad. While talking with a friend from school who will be joining me in Berlin, we shared our fears and excitement for going abroad, which helped me realize that I am not alone in my emotions and thoughts.

We also made a list of what we are going to miss when living outside of the good ol’ U.S.A. While some of the things on this list are more serious, we had a fun time coming up with it.

1. Ben and Jerry’s Ice Cream-literally the best ice cream on this planet
2. My puppy (who’s actually an old lady now)
3. Annoying my brother (I’m sure I’ll find ways to do it but in person is just so much more satisfying)
4. PANCAKES-apparently pancakes in Berlin are doughnuts filled with pudding (?!?)
5. Having a use for my drivers license
6. 100 % pure Vermont Maple Syrup-No Canada, yours isn’t better.
7. Being with my friends from school on Friday nights (miss you all)
8. Rootbeer-going to have to try to find another way to triple my suggested daily sugar intake
9. Graduation of our friends back home *tears*
10. Opening up a newspaper and seeing every headline be about American politics (haha just kidding)
11. Scenic view of open roads and Vermont mountains
12. Squirrels- from my experience in Austria, they are harder to come by but equally as cute

After looking over this list a second time for this post, I realized that despite the fact that I know I will miss some of these things dearly; I’m ready to head off. I’m ready to finally have homework, ready to eat some good meat and bread and ready to have language blunders.