Here we go again!

So, this week I started my 2nd semester at Dortmund. A year ago...well actually a few months ago... I had no idea I'd actually be living here for a year instead of 6 months. My flight back home February 26th left without me, but just barely. I didn't have the resolve to actually cancel the plane ticket until 2 days before.

I haven't updated since the end of January. A lot can happen in two and a half months!
 In January I went to see Henry Rollins in Cologne for my Birthday (it's January 26! Aquarius whoop whoop!). I'm a huge fan, and the show was as great as I had expected! I was right next to the stage. He came to Germany for the first time on his birthday, and I saw him for the first time on my birthday my first time in Germany. It was nice to be able to just buy a show ticket and take a train (for free- thanks semesterticket!)and then the subway to a show. So much freedom. In the states it would have been a complicated carpool situation and along drive. At his show I laughed, I cried, I agreed, I disagreed... and it was amazing.

He really embodies my philosophy on being American, and further, being an American who loves to travel:

'I want something that will educate me. I want to out into the world and learn a thing or two. I think we as a species; we need to travel more. All of you need to leave your country on a regular basis. Trust me your country will still be here when you get back. I just think it’s important for people to go to countries where they’re not familiar, where they definitely look like they’re not from there, they need to eat food that they cannot pronounce the name of, listen to music that they can’t understand, and shake the hands of everyone and say crazy things like, “Hey! What’s going on?” I think we need to do this more often, thus we become xenophobic, living a boring, flat-lined, fucked up life. This is why I travel.'

-Henry Rollins

Or, a story he told in Cologne about his Black Flag tour days about a spun out disgruntelled fan who got shanked in front of him' Go, go have a picnic in your blood'. Lol. Henry.

February was stressful, finals and then a break where I stressed myself out wondering if I would actually stay for a second semester and also worrying about my last semester back home (graduation!). Homesickness on a month long school break is the worst, there were much fewer distractions (oh, besides the whole living in amazing Germany thing which should have been enough!). And then I spent March in a Mon-Fri German language intensive course, and actually passed it this time with a hard earned B-, or in German terms a 2,3. So many new students!! Last semester there were maybe 9 Americans, and now there are a couple dozen if not more. It's like when I go to Dusseldorf and here English being spoken randomly. Tt feels so out of place. But it has been fun getting to know new people.

Also in March, I moved dorms from Studentdorf to Ostenbergstrasse. Since I had unexpectedly extended my stay there I had to move since my subleaser was coming back. I live 8 floors up(luckily with an elevator, it has only broken once so far. Walking. Stairs. Welcome to Germany lol), and have a great view of the sunrise and sunset as well as birds EVERY DAY! It's my favorite part of living here. Yes, It's a little further away than my old dorm but my roommates are extremely nice and so it's a fair trade I'd prefer any day. My new roommate Lily took this gorgeous picture.

There is a big field I walk through to get to the dorm. I keep seeing people walk their dogs, and also their are a couple house cats constantly on the prey or perched in a tree. It makes me miss my pets so much(Fun fact: you can take your dog, any size, into stores here. AND on the train!)! I have been joking since I got here that Dortmund should have a loan pet program for exchange students, but I'm serious. I mean there must be some pound kittens who need some love until they get adopted? Some kind of student run foster care? I can't wait to get back home to Baby Ray & Luna. I will probably look like this every day*:

*Except Ranger 'baby ray' Jones is way cuter. And more obese.

So, I'm glad the last semester is over but I still don't know how anything transfers here or what half my final grades were. Here, they use the 2 months of holidays to do final portfolios, exams, and papers. I could never go to college 4-5 years straight here without a break. Also the credit system is strange, and I'm faced with the dilema or transfering credits or not and how they will affect my GPA. even if I transfer a B, since I have an A GPA it will still hurt it. This is refering to LAST semester, this semester is 100% free tuition, Germany style :).

This first week of class has gone ok. They had to make a second A2 level German class last minute and I'm not sure the professor fits my learning style as much as the class I actually signed up for...but it is Monday & Wednesday instea dof MOnday & Friday which frees up my weekend betetr to travel. My A2 German conversation teacher is Amazing, however! She is so upbeat and instead of telling you what a word means in English she draws a picture or mimes it so her class is in 100% german... I'm going to learn so much! Of Course I like complex grammar to be explained in English, but other than that it needs to be 100% in German so I can figure out some of this dang language before I leave. Now I ask 'Sprechen Sie Englische?' Far less than I did the first semester. I may not get it all right, but I at least understand more or less and can get my point across, however gramatically poor (except I did accidentally say a student was stuck in a 4th floor broke elevator to someone when I meant to just say the elevator was broken...but you can't win them all!). I also am taking a two times a week free Italian class (the language center here is free. Take note, largely monolingual America cough cough ) because I am going to a family friend's wedding in Sicily in June. Mi chiamo Mercedes! Sono di Montevallo, I am from Montevallo! (how do you say Sono di Ex-navy brat\no home town? Close enough.). And on top of that, I am taking a drawing class which looks to be mostly independent study, and also will be volunteering again at an elementary school helping with English. I couldn't volunteer there over the break because my German class tookup all the school day, and I kind of miss those crazy kids. Even after having to untie them from crudely wrought rope bindings fastened to soccer goal posts they MacGyver during PE and reminding them to not cut their neighbor's hair with safety scissors. And that I'm not British. Or married.

Hopefully I think the words 'What the hell is going on??' at least just a couple times a day instead of all the time this semester.Or maybe not I guess what's the whole point of doing so many new things without it turning your world upside down. Complacency and normalcy are pretty big factors in my wanderlust, anyways... that's hwo I ended up here. Bored, looking for some newness. Whenever I skype my parents I strike a thoughtful pose and ask them if I look like a 'seasoned world traveller' yet... and they laugh...and then I start asking them to bring Ray Ray up to the webcam one more time.

Well here I go again, another semester abroad as an undergrad art student! My third. I don't know how I got so lucky.

Next post: Someone requested a Dortmund bunnies post! Wish granted.

Packing up the apartment, part one: BOOKS!

I'll be spending the last two weeks in the country with my parents, and so I'm packing up my apartment a little early. I got a bunch of heavy weight book boxes from my job at Carmichael Library, so I decided I'd start packing those first.

Sealing up those boxes with tape ending up being kind of emotional! I've been a huge bookworm since I was old enough to understand what a book was. Probably even before, since my parents loved reading us bedtime stories.

Books are heavy, and hard to take more than 1 or 2 with you when you travel, but I did leave a few out that I couldn't bring myself to pack up yet. Maybe I'll bring one or two with me? Maybe I'll read some before I leave?

The books that I couldn't pack up yet:

1. The Pema Chodron Collection: The Wisdom of No Escape; Start Where You Are; When Things Fall Apart

"I used to have a sign pinned up on my wall that read: Only to the extent that we expose ourselves over and over to annihilation can that which is indestructible be found in us...It was all about letting go of everything."

— Pema Chödrön (When Things Fall Apart: Heart Advice for Difficult Times)

This is a bound collection of three of the Buddhist nun Pema Chodron's books. It's the kind of book you could flip to a page and get something out of it if you just have a few minutes of downtime, but you could also spend a couple hours just immersed in her down to earth wisdom! A friend gave me this book during a rough patch in my life four years ago and I still read it all the time. She told me to give it back when I no longer needed it, or to pass it on to someone. Maybe I'll pass it on in Germany!

2. The Portable Henry Rollins

"Life is full of choices, if you have the guts to go for it.
That's why I get immediately bored with anyone's complaining about how
boring their life is, or how bad their town is. Fucking leave and go
somewhere else. Or don't."

- Henry Rollins

This book is amazing. It's a paperback compilation of a bunch of books he's written over the years in various styles and on various subjects. Some are more journal like, others are philosophical or just plain crazy. Another book you can kind of skip around in but be blown away. I like his travel philosophy.

Also, here is a fill-in-Henry Rollin's tattoos coloring page my friend Eden found:
http://www.theworldsbestever.com/2011/07/26/morning-activity/

You're welcome.




3. Oryx and Crake - By Margaret Atwood

"He doesn't know which is worse, a past he can't regain or a present that will destroy him if he looks at it too clearly. Then there's the future. Sheer vertigo."

page 147

Margaret Atwood is my favorite author and I have been meaning to re-read this for about a year. While I don't see myself taking this with me to Dortmund, I think It would be a nice book to read while I'm getting ready to leave and living at home. It's the kind of dystopian sci-fi novel that grabs you and sucks you into the story. A contemporary classic!

4. The Garments of Caean- by Barrington J. Bayley

"Back on Old Earth there was a saying that clothes make the man. But on the world called Caean this became literally true. On that colonized planet there was a material called Prossim. If your body was in contact with Prossim your personality changed. You became handsome, you had vast charisma, you had total self-confidence - you were always the power center of every enterprise.

So throughout the inhabited galaxy clothing from Caen was the sure key to success and men would kill to get such a suit. Peder Forbath was such a man, prepared to turn space pirate to get his hands on some. But instead he found that - at the risk of worlds - the very secret of Prossim cloth itself was about to open before his eyes..." (The back cover)

I saw this paper book at a used bookstore in Ithaca, NY. I haven't gotten a chance to read it yet. People who fight over pimp suits and gowns to gain control over the universe? I'm in! Maybe I'll read this one before I leave. If not, It's small enough to bring with me but with overweight baggage fees I'm starting to think I'm bringing way too much as it is.