morgen [tomorrow]

Oh. My. God: tomorrow. Tomorrow's the day. I honestly can't believe that tomorrow I will board a plane at 1:08 in the afternoon and fly to Minneapolis and then to Amsterdam and then to Berlin. I've had this particular exchange to Potsdam all planned out since last February; and I've known I was going to study abroad in Germany for several years now. This trip abroad has always been in the future--it's always felt so far away. And now it's here, and I'm trying to absorb the concept that in less than two days I will be at my WG in Potsdam.

Some of you may wonder why I'm leaving in March to study abroad. Well, the university system in Germany runs on a summer and winter semester. Summer semester starts in April. I feel like I'm the caboose of all my friends. So many of us have chosen to study abroad for our junior year: My friend Brent spent the fall in Chile. My friends Michael, Alyssa and Caitlin left for Spain, Scotland and Ghana, respectively, in January. I also have friends in Italy (Gabrielle) and the Czech Republic (Megan) at the moment. Perhaps the most convenient of all, however, is that my girlfriend Alice is studying in Vienna with a group of student from University of Montana (shout out to Kato Potato!) I'm hoping to visit or meet up with all of my fellow European students at least once, and in the case of Alice, hopefully many times.

With school not starting until April, I already have some extensive travel plans in March: I'll be staying with my friend Julia, who was a foreign exchange student my senior year of high school) in Leipzig. We'll do some traveling, making stops in Dresden, Prague and Vienna. Then at the end of March, I'm making a stop in Scotland for a weekend (the ticket was roundtrip and $50!). Hopefully I will fit in time with my other beloved ex-foreign exchange student friend Edda and the aforementioned Michael.

I'm going to stop myself there. I could map out some other plans for the semester, but I'm going to wait to see what happens. A huge part of this trip is an attempt to break free of my regular routine and habits in an attempt to just go with the flow.

Next time you'll hear from me will be in Germany!

Hab euch Lieb [love you all]