No caps and gowns, just suits. So Friday was the graduation ceremony at my college. What a noteworthy event as me, my mom, my step-dad and my dad all drove down with my dad and spent the whole day together without drama. Haha! Nah, they’re always kind of civil of course.
We had some time to burn before the ceremony started so we had a cup of coffee at the cafeteria and then settled into our seats in the Mensa. Some uninspirational speaches from various professors and politicians (what relevance does the standardisation of the federal states’ school systems have to a university graduate?) and some skillfully performed classical music acts later my old math professor talked a bit. Funny anecdotes and I was totally reminded of how scared I was of him during the first semester. Horror! We all laughed at his little speech and then we got our degrees awarded. Jette and I were the only ones from my major and year but there were a couple of the bachelor students there who had shared some of the more or less fun classes with us in our 7th semester. Good times! We were all really happy and excited to finally hold this piece of paper that we had worked our butts of to get for 4+ years (ok so 5 but I didn’t really do anything towards my degree when I interned, did I?!).
After we had gotten our diplomas a fellow student gave another uninspirational speech but it was a nice summary of her time at the university. One more classical piece of music – this time violin and piano, a group photo and then we got to mingle and drink champaign sponsoerd by the university.
We got to see our main professor’s baby – soooooooo cute – and chatted for a while. I love my university. Everybody is like a big family there (more or less).
Anyway, we then drove back home and I invited my parents to the fancy restaurant in my village to say thanks for their sponsorship. Yummy! Expensive! Yikes!
So now I’m officially an alumni. Yay! I’m so proud of myself and uber happy as I’d never had thought to get a 1,5 diploma and that that still says “sehr gut”. Wheeeeee! 😀 [/bragmode]
The Anxiety… it’s killing me
While I’m sitting here waiting for my visa forms from the lawyer to arrive I’m of course thinking waaayyyy too much. I’m so worried that I won’t get another J-1 visa, it’s seriously affecting my appetite (and makes me nauseous at times). I just want to get the forms so I can arrange an appointment in Berlin (hello super expensive consulate hotline) and get it over with. This not knowing is driving me nuts and doesn’t let me sleep well (not every night but still enough tossing and turning for my liking). UGH!
Anyway, I’m trying to keep busy to keep my mind from going back to the visa issue. Friday night Jenny, Juliane and I tried the new Indian restaurant in town and it was quite nice. The mango lassi had a bit too little mango in it but the chicken was really soft and tender and the waiters were extremely nice and let us sit there for ever without bothering us about getting more drinks etc. Afterwards (around 10:30pm – yes not everyone eats at 6pm here) we headed for the local disco but that was too empty so we headed to some new retro looking bar but that was too crowded and so we settled at another bar where we used to drink hot chocolate when we cut class or had a free period back in the days. Good old days :).
Saturday we checked out the first illumination of the city’s cathedral and made sure Jenny was seen by all the high animals of her company that sponsored the event and then headed to my Dad’s pub for an Ossi-Party (East German Party). That was less frequented than we had thought it to be but we still had a good time and then of course my dad had to tell embarassing stories from my childhood but oh well. That’s what parents are there for, right? 😉
Then yesterday after a pleasent time at the salt water (in door of course) pool (with waves) I went to the theater here and watched a dance/music/acrobatics performance and that was really good. Made me wanna start up tap dancing again. I might just do that if there’s a place whereever I’ll wind up next.
Alright, hope you’re all having a really nice week with much better weather than here!!
Back Home
I’m back in cold old Germany – brrrrrrrr!
All that late night partying in Charlotte (the last one with home made pizza – yum!) made me really tired so when I got on the plane I was actually able to sleep! My seat neighbor and I drowned some gin-tonic and then my melantonin kicked in and I fell asleep around 8pm. I woke up a couple of times but was able to go back to sleep and I was shocked when they turned on the lights and served breakfast at 1am Eastern time – an hour before landing! Seriously, that flight must have gone by the fastest ever. I was so happy. Our purser was also super nice – actually so nice that I had to fill out a comment card about how great the service was.
Then another short flight from Munich up to Hanover and surprise surprise one of my best friends, Marc, picked me up from the airport! Yay! We then had some brunch at my parents and after taking a nap my other friend Jens came over to hear all the news and play video games with me. Why he insisted on coming over the first night I was back – I don’t know… Oh I guess he just wanted to get the manbag that I had to bring over for him.
Anyway, I had my check-up for my lungs today and good news, she typed in “lungs are now” in her little report. Yay! I’m down to one dose of cortisol for another month now and thereafter I only have to take it if I feel like I need it. Woot!
Well, I’m off to find a scanner to scan my old visa documents. The faster I get my visa the better; my Mom has already started to treat me like a slave again with making me cook and taxiing around my sister. Ah the joys….
But good news, I’m going to Italy for three days in 2.5 weeks so that should be nice.
Byebye Oma Auguste
Yay first time that I got to go online from home this week… our neighbor’s unsecured wireless signal is really NOT strong… It works for my roommate’s new macbook but my crappy old Microsoft wireless card is not digesting it well.
Overall this week was really nice but it was overshadowed by my paternal grand-ma’s passing over. After three weeks in hospital (which I didn’t know she was because my dad tends to not tell me things like that….) she died early this week. Good timing I dare say as at least that way I’ll get to go to her funeral when I’m back in Germany. I’m sad she’s gone and I feel horrible for my dad – I’m basically his only close family left – but I think my grandma is happy that she’s passed over to the other side and in her believes close to her daughter again. So not too much mourning, I think she’s had a great life and made the most of it and that’s the most important thing. Unfortunately death is part of life as much as birth and I think after 79 years it’s alright to die. But still… 🙁
Other than that, I’ve been busy socialising with a birthday party, bar time during the week, chilling with the neighbors, visiting old time friends in their house and BBQing, pool time and then today my German friend Siggie and his family invited me to go out to the lake with their boat. Of course today is the first day that the sun is not shining. Oh the irony. Though it might actually be nicer that way and definitely better for my skin ;). We’ve had temperatures from 90-105F every day that I’ve been here. I thought the pilot was kidding when he said “welcome to Charlotte, the temperature is 46°C” uhm no and that wasn’t even the hottest day…
Well, time has definitely flown by these past 2.5 weeks and I can’t believe I’m back on the plane on Wednesday night. Wow! I’m just hoping the visa process will go smoothly and semi-quickly cause even though I’ve been super busy every day there’s still so much I wanna do.
Anyways, hope you’re all doing alright, I havn’t really had the chance to read many blogs lately….