I think my head is still spinning; it hasn't stopped spinning since last Sunday. Sunday, I went into the Exchange Program meeting tentatively planning to go to Oldenburg, Germany next fall. I was excited; going in fall would give me all summer to get all my affairs in order, take some classes so I'd graduate on time, and prepare myself for what is probably the most massive undertaking to date in my life.
By the time I came out of Dodge Hall, it was apparent that my only option was to go during the summer semester. If I went in "fall," I would have to go for Germany's fall semester which runs from October to February, half way through the American winter semester. I would lose a whole semester of work and not graduate on time. Professor Mabee, my German professor from freshman year and the founder and coordinator of the Oakland-Oldenburg program, strongly recommended that I go for the summer semester. Germany's summer semester. April 4th to July 15th, at least two weeks before the end of the current semester. In less than two months. I'm not sure I'm ever going to stop spinning.
Since Sunday, I've had to break the news to my parents, my apartment-mates (actually, I think Zan told them), my bosses and co-workers, and my professors; I've had two appointments with my German professors, one to gather paper work and forms and another to make sure that my major could accommodate a semester abroad; and I've had to reschedule my entire semester to finish all my course work early and convince my professors to give me my exams early. And it's only Wednesday.
My meeting with Frau Rieger was a real trip. Apparently, by the time I went to class on Monday morning, all of my German professors were conspiring to overhaul my entire major. They said it had been awhile since they had encountered anyone with my particular major (2 Modern Languages); originally, it had been intended as a skill-oriented major for people aspiring to work for the auto industry to give them fluency in two foreign languages. So, the focus was on translation, a skill students would need daily in a business setting. Since Michigan has changed since then, my professors have decided the major should change too. So, they've set out to expand the major so that students who are more literature or culture oriented aren't stuck taking a bunch of translation classes they may never need.
My German professors have really been bending backward to make this work for me; I'm abashed (and almost feel unworthy) because of all they're doing. Either because it hasn't quite hit me or that I'm still a little hesitant to let myself believe "I'm going to Germany in April." I keep telling everyone I am, but every time I say it I have this voice in my stomach that goes "Oh God! What if everything falls through? What if this doesn't work out?" Oldenburg doesn't know I'm coming yet. I'm turning in all the paperwork to Professor Mabee tomorrow. When is it "official?" When we send the papers off to Oldenburg? When I actually schedule for the summer classes? As of now, it doesn't feel "real" yet; I'm sure it's coming though, probably sometime in the middle of March when I'm drowning in course work. Until then, I'll just keep holding on.
