Pre-Departure

Welcome to my blog! I hope to update it frequently, but since I've never had one before, that may or may not actually happen. I'm writing this blog to chronicle my adventures in Germany during my study abroad semester in the IES/EU Program in Freiburg. The program offers a lot of political science and international relations classes, but the coolest part will definitely be the field trips to EU institutions like the European Parliament and the ICC headquarters. I'll try to post lots of pictures from those trips as well as from the trips I take on my own.

Pre-departure has been going smoothly, although dealing with my insurance company is getting really old. I'm supposed to bring a five-month supply of my prescriptions while I'm abroad, but Aetna keeps screwing that up. I can't tell if the company is just an annoyingly slow bureaucracy or deliberately evil. At least my dealings with U.S. health care have made me excited to try out the German system while I'm there. Other than that, I'm just trying to figure out how much I should pack. I not only need to take enough everyday clothes for just over four months, but also professional outfits for the field trips. Those will probably take up more room than anything else. I tend to over-pack, but I suspect that will be a bad idea when I have to wrangle suitcases on and off the train after a red-eye flight. I'm flying straight from SFO to Frankfurt on Lufthansa on Tuesday, and from there I'll take a train to Freiburg. It looks pretty straightforward (famous last words), and I'm not at all worried about that component of the experience. As long as I don't forget my passport, I'll consider travel a success.

The other thing I should REALLY be doing is working on my German. I won't need it while I'm there for much of the time, but I'd really like to practice and improve as much as I can. I spent part of the day reading a Der Spiegel guide to surviving in Germany and it's made me really excited to immerse myself in the culture. I'm especially looking forward to reaping the benefits of Teutonic efficiency - apparently you never have to wait more than two minutes for the S-Bahn and people are ALWAYS early or on-time. They sound like my kind of people, although I'm sure I'll be able to live without other cultural norms such as the infamous German stare-down.

That's all for now, I guess. If I don't post again before I leave, the next time you'll hear from me will be from my dorm in Freiburg. Bis später!