End of the "semester" and on to Mainz...

Today I have that unmistakable "end-of-semester" feeling.

I took my language course final exam yesterday (which seems like it was more of a formality than anything - I am happy to report that all of Kurs 2 did splendidly) and I was honestly shocked at how much my brain has truly absorbed in the last six weeks. I also just finished writing a three-page paper (also a formality, I think?) for my German culture course. It's probably the worst thing I have ever written in my entire academic life, but I really am not going to lose any sleep over it. =) I feel so relieved that everything is starting to come to a close because the 5-day-per-week class schedule is really starting to weigh down on all of us. Keeping with my "end-of-semester" analogy, I also have a feeling of sadness about ending things here in Marburg, as I've already discussed (below).

However, I am happy to report that all of my hard work (and a lot of help and advice from friends, both here and in the United States) to find an apartment was successful - I will be moving into my lovely new WG in Mainz next week! A WG (pronounced vay gay, in German - short for Wohngemeinschaft) is basically a shared apartment/living situation, very common for students in Germany. Roommates typically have their own bed rooms and share a kitchen and bathroom. However, they are unfortunately very difficult to get (because they are usually much nicer and more affordable than apartments for a similar price), and I figured that I would probably be living in a single-room apartment. I "applied" to these WG's over the Internet, and then got a bunch of e-mails in response basically telling me that they had already filled a room, or were looking for a man, etc. However, I did manage to get a few appointments lined up. The whole system essentially works like an interview process. (By the way, all of this pre-meeting communication took place in German, and was really great practice for me.)

My friend Chris accompanied me to Mainz last weekend to these appointments, and I really hit it off with Valerie and Thorsten, who were looking for a woman to fill a spot in their 3-room WG for the year. I liked them so much that I cancelled my other appointments later in the week after they offered the room to me! I am so, so happy that I will be living with Germans this year (and lovely ones at that!), and I just hope that they won't be too appalled at the beginning by my current utter lack of "Sprachtalent!" And by the way, the room is absolutely gorgeous - so much nicer and more spacious than what I thought I was going to be able to afford.

(I did a very silly thing and packed my digital camera USB cord in my other suitcase that is in Mainz so I cannot share pictures of anything right now, unfortunately.)

Anyway, it suffices to say that I could not be happier right now - I have the next four or five days to gallivant here in Marburg with no real responsibilities before heading off to Mainz to be with my wonderful new German roommates! I also cannot wait to start my research - I got so caught up in trying to find a place to live that I completely forgot about my project at Max Planck...I am really looking forward to starting my work there, too!

As usual, I have several Fulbright "field trips" and other adventures to write about, but those are better told through pictures, which I will get around to when I move to Mainz around the 29th. I also have plans to go to Kassel, a really cute nearby city, in the next few days, so prepare your browswers for some heavy downloading of pictures for the next time. =)

Bis dann,

Ashlan