Failure to Pack

It's time to let you all in on a not-so-well-guarded secret of mine: I am among the world's worst procrastinators. I like to think it's just a part of my creative process (just let me enjoy my delusion), but the older I get, the more I realize that this is becoming a problem. A big one. A not-so-gentle reminder of that happened last night/this morning.

Yesterday was my last full day in the States. To celebrate, my sister and I went to see X-Men: Days of Future Past (Peter Dinklage is my hero). After, we had a small family dinner for my birthday. As a result, I didn't start packing until 9:30 or 10 last night. I can hear you all now: "But Catie, you've had weeks and weeks to prepare! Why didn't you start sooner?" Well the answer is simply that I'm lazy. That, and I had to do a test Skype session with Calvin. Which may or may not have been a excuse to procrastinate.

Despite the fact that I was still packing 20 minutes before we left for the airport, I think (hope/pray) that I managed to remember everything. I even managed to fit a gift for a certain special German (*cough cough* Maren) and my host family's kids. Furthermore, my luggage was under the weight limit, contrary to my dad's prediction. I should have taken a picture, because it's really quite a feat of packing. Perhaps I'll include one in the next post. But in the meantime, here's my view from the airport.

Soon I'll be on this plane hurdling through the air over the Atlantic Ocean to meet and live with complete strangers and speak a different language. Intimidating as it is and anxious as I am, I really can't wait.

There and Back Again: A Tarheel's Tale

Our tale begins with a bookish nerd who studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Her coolest adventures were her 2 ten-day trips to Italy & Greece and Germany, Austria, & Switzerland. Her most harrowing adventure was riding shotgun as her sixteen year old sister drove to the mall on I-485. Her most tedious adventure was reading Richardson's Pamela. However, her most thrilling, highly-anticipated adventure begins in less than 3 days. Soon, she will embark on six-week journey that will change her life forever...

Ok, guys, I know the beginning is a little dramatic, but thanks for humoring me. As most of you know,  I've been studying German for the past 3 years at Carolina. After months of planning, I finally decided to study abroad and put my German to the test. In a few days, I'll be heading to Berlin for six weeks to study German and literature and culture in Berlin from 1900 to present at Freie Universität's International Summer University. Besides studying, I've got a huge list of sights to see, as well as outings to Dresden, Weimar, and Hamburg planned. A few people expressed their interest in keeping up with my goings on, so I decided to try this whole blogging thing. In this blog, I hope to document my time abroad from the trials of packing and airport security to my personal embarrassments caused by language barriers to that hilarious thing that happened when I did that stupid thing that was probably only funny to me. By the end, I'd like to have a collection of witty (hopefully) anecdotes, pictures, videos, and a few adventures to commemorate my time in Germany. I hope you guys enjoy reading it as much as I'm sure I'll enjoy writing it.