An Unthought-of Summer Abroad

Studying abroad is something I thought I’d never be able to experience during my time at the College.  Being on a sports team it’s impossible to miss an entire semester of school; I feel like the team may miss me during competition season, I would hope so at least.  Thankfully though I discovered that William and Mary offers many opportunities to study abroad during the summer.  And more importantly I’m lucky enough to have a coach that doesn’t mind me not practicing all summer.  We won’t discuss how hard it’s going to be to get back into shape when I get back into the States.  I choose to focus on the positive which is the fun that lies ahead, not how I’ll pay for it later.

So once I finally got home from Williamsburg and convinced myself to unpack I was faced with the obvious problem of packing again.  But this time I couldn’t just shove everything I own in my car and start driving.  I’ve been told by many to “pack light” for Europe, but everyone who knows me knows that I only really pack in one fashion, which has been previously mentioned.

Even writing about packing has started to stress me out so I’ll move onto what I’m actually doing once I reach Europe.  I’ll pack eventually, once again positive thoughts for now.  For someone who has taken German since freshman year of high school and is going to minor in German studies, saying I’ve never been there is almost embarrassing.  Thankfully I’m going to rectify that situation by studying there for six weeks.  I’ll be living with a German family in Potsdam (about 20 mins south of Berlin), taking three classes and attempting to experience as much as possible in the short six weeks that I’m there.  After my program is over I’m going to take a week to make my way to London where I catch my plane back to the States.  I don’t really have a plan; maybe meet up with a friend or two in Paris and Madrid.  Part of the fun is not knowing exactly what I’m going to be doing or where I’ll be sleeping for that week.

As nervous as I am for spending all that time in Europe I have the safety net of the William and Mary students that will be traveling with me.  Though I don’t know any of my fellow Germany bound students I trust that we’ll get to be good friends by the end of the trip and I’m excited about the prospect of meeting new people.  I’m also happy that a William and Mary professor is going with us.  I’ve already sent her many a nervous email since I’ve been home and in typical W&M professor style my worries were squashed quickly.  Hopefully she won’t get sick of me before my plane touches down.

Well I guess I should go and force myself to pack.  No more distractions…at least on my computer.  I may have to clean my room before I can pack, but like I said the bag will get packed eventually, hopefully without too much stuff in it.

Bis Potsdam (until Potsdam),

Chris