aaaaaaand I'm finally in Tübingen.
Technically I've been here for 19 days, but only today did I think to myself, Holy shit, I'm actually in Tübingen. I think this delay can be attributed to a few things. First of all, like you probably already suspect, I have been so busy getting settled, unpacking, figuring out where to buy groceries/how to buy groceries, doing laundry, registering to be a student at the University, ETC. that I haven't really had time to think about what it actually means in terms of my life now that I'm here. Second of all, most of my free time has been devoted to working on the whole Making Friends task, which means that I'm too occupied with sitting on the steps of the Stiftskirche with new people I've met to stop and think about how these people and these steps will play a role in my life. And third of all, I experienced this grandeur realization right after I woke up from an hour long nap, when the sun was shining brightly through my window, my eyes were still a little bit squinty, and I wasn't completely awake. So it was kind of just a dreamy exaggerated reality. But I'm going to roll with it, nonetheless.
A couple memorable things that have happened since I've been in Tübingen:
I spent the first night awake until who knows when, emailing back-and-forth with my mom because my stomach hurt so badly, I thought I was going to die. For real. I actually believed that. After notifying various family members and friends of my condition so that they could spend their precious time being concerned about my health from halfway across the world, Mum and I came to a conclusion that my nervousness (which I had not yet come to terms with, but suspected existed) and the coffee and espresso I drank throughout the day were probably to blame. The next day, Ute, my resident director, recommended that I buy this really nasty-tasting stomach medicine that is made from plants. It's so old school - you have to swallow the liquid. She told me that if it doesn't taste bad, then it isn't going to work. Life lessons.
I lost my phone.
Some kind person found my phone and used practically every resource my phone had to offer to figure out who it belonged to. I was really shocked and impressed that someone would even return it, but then my friends reminded me that no one would want to steal my phone anyway because the screen is shattered and it's falling apart. But I still like to think he was just a nice person.
My language course made a trip to Blaubeuren, which is in the middle of nowhere. We were there for 5 days and weren't [technically] allowed to speak English. It was a really great opportunity to get to know everyone and to have a week that was really, specifically devoted to speaking in German. We went on a hike one day to go see these ruins, and just as we came upon this beautiful field mid-hike, it started raining and hailing. It was so incredibly magical that I couldn't help but spinning around in the rain/hail, even though it was freezing. I was pretty sick the next day, but I guess that's the price you pay.
I've been really homesick. It's not that I expected my friends from home to be in Tübingen when I arrived at the beginning of the month, but I didn't realize that out of habit, my mind would expect that friendly reunion that always follows summer. And instead I was just met with more challenges, more things to adjust to, more things to adjust, more, more, more. So that has been really exhausting. But it will get easier eventually. I have already begun to develop relationships with some magnificent people in my language course, and I'm looking forward to spending the year with them in Tübingen.
I live in a room. I'll post pictures of my new room at some point, but right now I'm tired and don't feel like taking pictures. Or tidying up. Some infos for the purpose of creating suspense: Aside from the fantastic location (right in the Altstadt), it's pretty large and fairly nice (the building is ancient - I'm not going to be picky). There is a downside though. The downside of my room is closest to the door, and the upside is closest to the window. What do I mean? The building is sinking or falling apart or something else probably dangerous, and the slant of my floor makes walking from one side of my room to the other similar to climbing a mountain. Also, judging by the gigantic cracks in my ceiling, I can probably expect my friend that lives above me to end up falling through his floor into my room at some point this year.
That's all for now folks. Stay classy. (America, I mean you. Our rep over here in Europe is not as attractive as I'd prefer it to be.)
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