[ No Comments ] Posted on 02.06.10 under Uncategorized
I am excited as hell, can’t you tell?
I’m probably jumping the gun with the planning, but I am going to be buying some items for my trip (bag, travel cubes) and I want to make sure I hit everything, so naturally I am planning as close to out loud as I am going to get.
Because I will be traveling for 9 days during the break between semesters and for 9 days after the end of the program, packing light is a huge issue. But because I am also going to school, I don’t want to look schleppy during the “living in Germany” portion of my trip.
The last time I went to Germany I did some things that were not so bright, like pack jeans and bring a rolling suitcase that was a pain in the butt in a lot of the old towns I visited. It made getting to the hostels suck. This go around, I want to make sure that doesn’t happen.
As far as packing goes, I am having a huge issue with the clothing I want to bring. A lot of the travel clothing I looked at looked matronly (I’m 24) and I want to dress as sharply as I can at school. Because of the weather in northern Germany (last time I was there around the same time of year I think it rained almost every day), I want to be able to layer if I need to so I am thinking about bringing 1 dresses (somewhat casual and jersey knit), 2 skirts (also knit), 1 pair of lightweight pants (that exist only in my head and aren’t ugly), and maybe 5 or so shirts. In addition I was going to bring two pairs of tights for the layering and a nonbulky sweater and a windbreaker. My problem lies in footwear. Does anyone have any suggestions for shoes that I can pair with tights, dresses, and pants, and would also hold up in the rain? My boots are too big for a small bag. I feel like attempting to be fashionable while packing light is not going to happen but I desperately want it to.
As far as cosmetics go, I wasn’t going to bring too many of those. Foundation, blush, mascara, one eyecolor palette for when I want to look super hot, one tube of colored lipgloss, and one tube of chapstick. I am growing my bangs out so I won’t need to deal with a hairdryer while I am there. I’d like to congratulate myself on my foresight now. I can braid my hair, pull it back, put it in pigtails, in a bun. Voila!
I am DEFINITELY ordering a light weight travel towel. I was thinking about going with the Rick Steves’ convertible carry-on and some packing cubes. That is really all of the baggage I want to bring with me. I am going to bring a tote bag for groceries and school items, or a messenger bag style purse, not sure yet.
Does all of the above even sound feasible?
Look at all the weekends I will have to travel! I travel for free in Niedersachsen with my student I.D. In order to save money I can leave Lueneburg early and return late-ish at night, thus avoiding the cost of a hostel. BOOYEAH. So. . . check out the travel plans after the jump!
[ No Comments ] Posted on 02.03.10 under Uncategorized
On Friday I found out I did not get the Fulbright grant. I had a good full day of moping around the house because damn, that REALLY sucked. I knew there was a chance I might not get it, but when the odds are 50% in your favor, you tend to think you will get it. Someone simply had a better essay than I did, or maybe it was the 7 weeks I spent in Germany before that did me in? No matter. It’s not the worst part of the denial process, but telling the kind professors who wrote letters of recommendation for you that you did not get the grant is also pretty gnarly. But by Sunday I had another plan and was able to tell my professors I was going back, darn it!
On Monday I told my German adviser. He expressed his sympathies, we discussed other options and some grad programs.
On Tuesday, I told my Chaucer professor. I also had Anglo-Saxon with him. He is hilarious and a pretty damn solid professor. I used to feel like I was being robbed of a great education by the fact that I was going to UNR. I just hadn’t been looking in the right places. When I told him I was going back, he said “by hook or by crook” which is an interesting phrase I had never heard before, so I came home and googled it. So yes, by hook or by crook. I’m going the same way I did two years ago.
While the program I went to Germany with two years ago is not ideal, budget cuts at UNR since then make it a little more worthwhile. There are 4 upper division classes taught in German. So I am going back after I graduate this May to take Advanced German I and II over the summer, and greatly improve my German before I apply for graduate programs. I am hoping that having taken the classes will help me land a TA position wherever I end up. I am worried that I will encounter the same problems as before, that the program will be mediocre and I will not make any other friends/like anyone else, but I am 2 years older. The lovely people I lived with before in Campus 4 are probably gone, and I am going to get something new out of this experience. I just hope it’s near-fluency in German.