I'm leaving in 6 days! Wait...I'm leaving in 6 days?!?

        And so begins the saga of my impending 4(ish) month stay in Germany! I'm keeping a blog of my time there for class credit, but I'm secretly thrilled it's required because left to my own devices I would never sit down and write anything about my experiences there. My posts will mostly contain records of the stuff that goes on during my study abroad, but I will also be comparing my stay to the book on Germany I'm currently reading (also for class credit). So, sorry folks, not all fun and games here! Though I will endeavor to minimize my pedantic tendencies while...oh wait. This is going to be harder than I thought.
      
       I'm going to be studying at the Texas Tech center in Quedlinburg, Germany. It's an eensy city of about 25,000 people (I think), and is located in former East Germany about two hours southwest of Berlin by train. I'll be staying with a host family, as well as with one other student from Tech. While I'm there, I'll be studying German language, history and culture, and participating in an internship. The Tech program is taking all 11 participants on a number of trips, including to Berlin, Thale, Prague, Dresden, and Leipzig. I'm also counting on taking a bunch of trips with some of my friends in the program!

       So with only 6 days (!!) before I leave the continent for the first time in my life, I'm deep in packing and/or panic mode. I have a list of things that need to get done before I leave, and no matter how much I think I've taken care of in one day, it always seems to grow more than it shrinks! (I'm convinced little elves sneak up in the middle of the night and add things to the list, laughing manically the whole time.) The list is on red Santa Claus 'Ho Ho Ho' paper though, so that tends to mitigate the intimidation factor...it's hard to be scared of something so cheery and Christmas-y!

     And so concludes the rambling incoherency that is my first post. I'll be posting more as departure day (which I inevitably refer to in my mind as D-Day) comes closer. This will hopefully get exponentially more interesting once I'm actually in Germany, but until then I'm afraid the packing woes of an exited (and frankly scared) college kid will have to suffice!