How To Waste Your College Degree

On May 22nd, 2010 I graduated from California State University Monterey Bay after five years of higher education with a Bachelor’s degree in Liberal Studies, a minor in Child Development, and a cum laude honors distinction for a consistently stellar GPA. With this degree I can work in a preschool as a teacher or in a high position at a child development center. I could even go on to grad school and earn a teaching credential, a Master’s degree in Early Child Education or child development, and eventually teach the subject at high school or college level. All of these things I’ve considered as possible options for my near and not so distant future.

However, I chose the path less traveled and chose to go abroad. I’ll call it my gap year – between where education ends and real life begins. I’m postponing reality for a little bit and, instead, I’m living inside of a dream. Being an au pair is a wonderful thing. I’m decidedly overqualified for this position seeing as most au pairs are fresh out of high school, 18 or 19 years old, with little experience in child care but a strong desire for some good cultural renewal. I have ten years of experience and I’ve worked professionally as a child care provider for more than five years of those. Even though my learning emphasizes on education, it’s safe to say that I have a degree in child care. I am, simply put, an au pair extraordinaire.

My au pair position requires little responsibility. I tidy up, empty the dishwasher, make snacks and dinner, play card games and puzzles, sing songs, and go on bike rides. I’m free everday from 7:30 AM until about 4 or 5 PM. And the day ends around 7:30 PM. It’s a charmed life, to say the least. There is little exercise of my college education and even though I’m working with children all the time, there’s not a lot of developmental aid going into our time together.

I am truly wasting my college degree.

I’m not complaining. I love what I’m doing here. These kids love me and I’m giving them something meaningful, even if it’s not an education or a lesson in their proper development. And I’m experiencing something new, something I never would have been able to do if I’d gone right into the working world. I’m learning a new language and making new friends, building my character and my perseverance. I am, however, afraid that when I am ready to go out into the working world – I’m going to have forgotten everything that I need to know to be a professional, working adult in my field of choice. I could easily order some child development and education text books and keep my mind fresh but that’s expensive. Eventually, I’ll get around to this. But for now… this is what I’ve been doing as a graduated, college educated 20-something adult:

• Blogging. This is the most obvious of my recent past times. I love doing it. It’s therapeutic in a way that only a blogger could understand. It’s less of a stigma than it used to be so I have no problems bragging about my interests and addictions to blogging. I love being able to share my experiences with friends and family members and anyone else who is interested in my crazy life. I bet that even when I do become a professional adult, I’ll probably blog about that too. Diary of an Ex-Au Pair: How My Year Abroad Prepared Me For My Life Ahead. Or something like that…

• Pirating. It’s probably dangerous for me to say this on here because it’s most likely illegal but I’ve become quite the pirate since I arrived in Germany. It might have something to do with lack of English television exposure and a financial inability to access movies and music but I’ve taken to downloading whatever I want. I’m not selling it to anyone, my iPod is the only one who benefits besides myself. If I want to watch a movie, I just download it. New music, okay. Dexter Season 4? You got it! Harry Potter DVD marathon? Kein problem! My iPod is readily stocked, my computer slowly filling up with illegal contraband. This is how you use your college degree to the least of your ability. Let’s just hope I don’t end up in jail.

• Reading. I’ve read so many books since I first got here that I can’t even keep track. This is a worthy past time, of course, since reading is one of the best things in the world. Especially when you happen across a really good book. I’ve read a few good ones – The Time Travelers Wife and Handle With Care being two of my favorites. Right now, I’m starting in again on Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows in preparation for the seventh movie which releases in just a few months. I got the UK version of the novel from a used bookstore here in Munich and I love it.

• Writing. Once upon a time, it was my secret dream to someday be a published novelist. I did try – numerous times – to make something of myself but I always fell short with lost and forgotten plotlines, dead ends, writers block, lack of time or interest, and Hanson fan fiction. You don’t get anywhere writing fan fiction. I don’t think I am meant to be published. It’s a fun hobby though. I haven’t done much of it since I arrived here but I think I’m going to try again and I’m going to start small, combining my love for fiction and blogging and write a ‘blovel.’ I have a few ideas. One that involves vampires. I know, so cliche, isn’t it? So, if I really succeed at wasting my degree in education, I can just become a writer and make millions of dollars and never use my education, anyway.

• Movies. Another thing that I’ve been doing. I brought a few DVDs with me. And the Frau has a small collection. Plus, what I’ve downloaded and the few that I’ve seen in the theaters. I’m making my way through the second series of Everwood (kind of of on stand-still at the moment) and the Sex and the City series and I have to say that I am in love with the latter. I can’t believe I never watched it before. I probably wouldn’t have understood it or related to it. Now, every few episodes, I think, “Oh my God, I know!!” Haha. It’s so addicting, I’m absolutely in love with them. After S&theC, it’s on to Desperate Housewives. In the in-between I’ve watched Nanny Diaries, (500) Days of Summer, Jurassic Park, Shutter Island, The Time Travelers Wife, Jennifer’s Body, and Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist. In the theaters I’ve seen Eclipse, The Karate Kid, and Inception. It’s a hard knock life, ain’t it?

• Alcoholism. Okay, that’s a joke. But since half of my family thinks I’m headed down this road, I’m making a joke out of it. Everyone in Munich is an alcoholic. Social alcoholics, galore! Sure, this city is pretty amazing and there is a lot to do but it’s so much more fun when you’re enjoying delicious German brew. I can’t make you believe me about how good it is until you’ve tried it so until you do, take my word for it. The bier here is worth becoming an alcoholic, trust me. Ha. That’s a joke too, but seriously. If there were a college degree for beer drinking, I’d be suma cum laude for sure!

• Music. I don’t consider this a waste of my anything because music is kind of like my life blood. Without it, life would be so much less worth living. It all started with Hanson and the Spice Girls back when I was buck-toothed and all gangly and awkward. They sparked an interest and then it grew into something wild. Now, all I ever do when I’m out on my bike or traveling by UBahn is put on some tunes and rock out. Lately it’s been a lot of Angus & Julia Stone, Ray LaMontagne, David Gray, Jack Johnson, and Maroon 5. But it’s always something new, something different. I can’t even listen to it all, there’s not enough time in the day. But this is definitely a worthy way to spend my “gap year.”

• Sleeping. I definitely did not get enough of this in college so why not catch up on it now – when I’m free most of the day and before I have to join the working world of 6 am mornings and 9-5 days. Okay, I’m already waking up at 6 am now that die kinder are in school but at 7:30, 8 o’clock I usually just go back to bed – sometimes until 2. I’m not going to get to do that when I start using my degree. So, I’ll take advantage of it now.

And last but certainly not least…

• Facebook. It’s taking over the world. Why shouldn’t I let it take over my hard earned education too? Seriously, ask any one of my friends here in Germany and they’ll tell you that I’m on Facebook all the time. My life is just that. Facebook. Or so it seems. I’m not really doing anything substantial either. Just stalking people, pretty much. Uploading pictures, posting links, you know… the usual stupid boring Facebook stuff. It’s amazing how much time that usual stupid boring stuff consumes. And because it is all consuming, in the near future, I will be combining an aforementioned past time (movies) with this past time (Facebook) and will go see this movie:

And that, my dear readers, is how you successfully waste your college degree.

This One’s For You, Ma

I wanted to post this one for my mom because I’ve been thinking about her a lot lately and missing her and I know she’s been feeling sad missing me, too. She reads this and so I know it’s a surefire way to get her straight in the heart. This missing her thing, it’s not a debilitating, aching feeling but it makes me feel lonely in the way that only missing your mom can do. I’ve been really grateful that I haven’t been very homesick since I got here. As much as I want to miss my mom a lot, and everyone and everything back home, it’s not healthy for my experience here and I’m glad that it hasn’t consumed me. Not to say that I don’t miss those things but I just don’t let it take over my days. But it’s really hard not to miss home when your mom says stuff like this to you on Facebook chat:

“You are the best thing in a lot of lives, Heather. I'm so proud of you.”

Leave it to Ma to make me feel like I’m the single most important person in the whole world. My decision to come to Germany has been one of the best that I’ve ever made. I’m so happy here – happier than I’ve ever been before. I love my life, my friends, the city – everything. But knowing that my mama is proud of me and that she misses me, that is better than all of those things. I love you, too, Ma! And I miss you! Especially our mother-daughter dates and you playing with my hair until I fall asleep. Believe it or not, but I even miss the way that we frustrate each other. It reminds me that we’re imperfect and human but that we’re still strong enough, together and separate, to love each other despite our imperfections and because of our differences. You’re the most beautiful and loving mother I could have ever asked for and no matter how you much you doubt yourself as so and even if you think you’ve failed a time or two at being the best mother to Tim and I, I assure you that nothing you have said or done - past, present or future - will ever make me love you any less than I already do. You’re the best mom in the whole world because you’re my mom!

  It’s a motha-daughta thing!

And it’s not just my mom. I miss you all, I promise. I think about you all the time. I’ll come back to you someday. Whenever I can afford to buy a plane ticket back, anyway. Ha.

P.S. Look what my mom got in the mail and scanned for me!

Mama ain’t raised no fool!

Oh, The Places I’m Going…

Normally, after more than a week without any updates, I would tell you that I am sorry for being somewhat removed from the blogosphere. This isn’t one of those apologies. Don’t think that I didn’t miss this because I did. I actually have a lot to blog about. I just haven’t had the time to sit down and do it. I’ve been busy.

Last Saturday, I graduated from college. The pay-off for five years of higher education.

After graduation, I had to say move out of my apartment and say good bye to most of the friends and loved ones that I’d accumulated over those five years. Because on Monday, I left for a two-day, 10-hour-stretch-driving, fast-food-eating, road trip across the Pacific Northwest (and saw stuff like this):

The destination: western Montana, my childhood home. I would be vacationing for about two weeks with my dad and step-mom and would be seeing my brother, best friend, and other various family members that I never get to see. (Because I live in California, see?) And since my Montana vacation inevitably ends and brings me back to California on June 6th, I have less than week from that date before I fly to Germany for a year. (Are you getting all of this? I know, it’s confusing.)

So… recap of how busy I’ve been (and will continue to be). Graduation. Move-out. Road trip. Montana. Back to California. Pack. Go to Germany. Blog-writing just didn’t fall into my plans. I’m kind of looking at future-business here, setting myself up for any future blog-absences I may have. Ha.

Anyway, I am writing to let you know that I did not forget about you, that I have not let go of myself, that I am no depressed, suicidal, or MIA. I am, in fact, very happy. I love my life. Yesterday, I saw my childhood-crush for the first time in 8 years (even though he’s married and has a super cute baby but we’ll get into that in a later post). My best friend and I have fallen into the same perfect, lovable relationship that we’ve had since we were 11. My little brother is grown up and smart and handsome and I’m so happy to see him. And I’m about to embark on the greatest adventure that I will ever have.

What could make my life any better?

To My Fellow Graduates

Congratulations!
Today is your day.
You’re off to Great Places!
You’re off and away!

You have brains in your head.
You have feet in your shoes.
You can steer yourself any direction you choose.
You’re on your own. And you know what you know.
And YOU are the guy who’ll decide where to go.

You’ll look up and down streets. Look ’em over with care. About some you will say, “I don’t choose to go there.” With your head full of brains and your shoes full of feet, you’re too smart to go down a not-so-good street.

And you may not find any you’ll want to go down. In that case, of course, you’ll head straight out of town. It’s opener there in the wide open air.

Out there things can happen and frequently do to people as brainy and footsy as you.

And when things start to happen, don’t worry. Don’t stew. Just go right along.
You’ll start happening too.

Oh! The Places You’ll Go!

You’ll be on your way up!
You’ll be seeing great sights!
You’ll join the high fliers who soar to high heights.

You won’t lag behind, because you’ll have the speed. You’ll pass the whole gang and you’ll soon take the lead. Wherever you fly, you’ll be best of the best. Wherever you go, you will top all the rest.

Except when you don’t.
Because, sometimes, you won’t.

I’m sorry to say so but, sadly, it’s true that Bang-ups and Hang-ups can happen to you.

You can get all hung up in a prickle-ly perch. And your gang will fly on. You’ll be left in a Lurch.

You’ll come down from the Lurch with an unpleasant bump. And the chances are, then, that you’ll be in a Slump.

And when you’re in a Slump, you’re not in for much fun. Un-slumping yourself is not easily done.

You will come to a place where the streets are not marked. Some windows are lighted. But mostly they’re darked. A place you could sprain both your elbow and chin! Do you dare to stay out? Do you dare to go in? How much can you lose? How much can you win?

And if you go in, should you turn left or right…or right-and-three-quarters? Or, maybe, not quite? Or go around back and sneak in from behind? Simple it’s not, I’m afraid you will find, for a mind-maker-upper to make up his mind.

You can get so confused that you’ll start in to race down long wiggled roads at a break-necking pace and grind on for miles across weirdish wild space, headed, I fear, toward a most useless place.

The Waiting Place…for people just waiting.

Waiting for a train to go or a bus to come, or a plane to go or the mail to come, or the rain to go or the phone to ring, or the snow to snow or waiting around for a Yes or No or waiting for their hair to grow. Everyone is just waiting.

Waiting for the fish to bite or waiting for wind to fly a kite or waiting around for Friday night or waiting, perhaps, for their Uncle Jake or a pot to boil, or a Better Break or a string of pearls, or a pair of pants or a wig with curls, or Another Chance. Everyone is just waiting.

No! That’s not for you!
Somehow you’ll escape all that waiting and staying. You’ll find the bright places where Boom Bands are playing. With banner flip-flapping, once more you’ll ride high! Ready for anything under the sky. Ready because you’re that kind of a guy!

Oh, the places you’ll go! There is fun to be done! There are points to be scored. There are games to be won. And the magical things you can do with that ball will make you the winning-est winner of all. Fame! You’ll be famous as famous can be, with the whole wide world watching you win on TV.

Except when they don’t. Because, sometimes, they won’t.

I’m afraid that some times you’ll play lonely games too. Games you can’t win ‘cause you’ll play against you.

All Alone!
Whether you like it or not, Alone will be something you’ll be quite a lot.

And when you’re alone, there’s a very good chance you’ll meet things that scare you right out of your pants. There are some, down the road between hither and yon, that can scare you so much you won’t want to go on.

But on you will go though the weather be foul. On you will go though your enemies prowl. On you will go though the Hakken-Kraks howl. Onward up many a frightening creek, though your arms may get sore and your sneakers may leak. On and on you will hike. And I know you’ll hike far and face up to your problems whatever they are.

You’ll get mixed up, of course, as you already know. You’ll get mixed up with many strange birds as you go. So be sure when you step. Step with care and great tact and remember that Life’s a Great Balancing Act. Just never forget to be dexterous and deft. And never mix up your right foot with your left.

And will you succeed?
Yes! You will, indeed!
(98 and ¾ percent guaranteed.)

Kid, you’ll move mountains!
So…be your name Buxbaum or Bixby or Bray or Mordecai Ale Van Allen O’Shea, you’re off to Great Places!
Today is your day!
Your mountain is waiting.
So…get on your way!

Vlog Episode 3: The Hard Part Is Over!

 

Taking Care of Business

All of the things that I need to figure out before I leave:

• Move out of my apartment
  
• Post my stuff on Craigslist and try to sell to my friends on Facebook
  
• Find somewhere to store my stuff for the year that I’m gone that is free or cheap
  
• Break my Verizon contract; try to get out of paying $150 cancellation fee
  
• Figure out what to do with my DirecTV account; suspend it for 6 months or pay a $240 cancellation fee on my broken contract. Because apparently I signed up for 24 months, not 12. Sigh.
  
• Budget for my credit card payments and my medical bills (Western Dental: $130/mo starting July 11th)
  
• Graduate from college
  
• Figure out what will become of my eventual student loan payments. Six months after I graduate (which is pretty much six months from now), I will have to start paying on my $41k total. Yikes.
  
  • Check up on exit loan counseling and possible deferment options
• Email The Frau for insight about German banks, language courses, and (gasp!) Munich graduate school programs!!
  
• Go through my clothes and get rid of anything that I haven’t worn in the last 6 months and give them to Stella
  
• Find out about getting a cell phone in Munich; iPhone? Oooo! Maybe not.
  
• Figure out what I am going to take to Germany and how I am going to get it there
  
• Pack for Montana
  
• Pay (or budget to pay for) my $212 speeding ticket
  
• Talk to the Campus Health Center about the $200 bill that Doctors on Duty sent me that was supposed to be FREE
  
• Practice my Capstone presentation; bring it to under 15 minutes
  
• Study for my final in my Adolescence class
  
• Write my mom, dad, brother, and best friend letters (So they know how much I love them, just in case something happens while I’m gone.)
  
• Budget, budget, budget: I don’t have any money! Sigh.

There’s more, I know there is. I think that my brain is just having trouble wrapping itself around all of this crap. I better get started.
Being an adult is hard.

Vlog: Episode 2 - Time Flies

My Life in Pictures and Bullet Points

• I love my friends and I will miss them immensely while I am away in Germany over the next year. I was so grateful for the time I was able to spend with them last weekend at Hanna’s bridal shower. It was so much just being together and laughing… oh my God, we didn’t stop laughing for a second. That’s why I love them. It was a Saturday of ‘that’s what she said’ jokes, outdoor exploration, bonfires and flaming marshmallows, mini road trips, and Phase 10 Masters Edition. I won’t trade these moments for anything else and they will keep me warm on those lonely nights in Munich when I’m missing home. I’ll hold onto these memories until time brings us back together again. Cheesy, I know, but I love them.
  
  
• Regarding the bridal shower itself, it was beautiful. Hanna and Jordan are going to live a happy, beautiful life together and I can’t wait to see what Hanna does in her NEW HOUSE!!! with all of the gifts that she got. Someday I will go visit her…

• Over the weekend I rode a horse for the first time in 15 years. And it will be another 15 years before I get back on again. I am just not a horse riding kind of girl. Too big, too scary, too confusing. I’ve never felt more confused by left and right directions. Poor horse to be stuck with me; I was about to have an anxiety attack. I only appear happy and composed in this picture. I was trying not to cry. 

• Wazowski now has a BFF. Nala is our house guest for two weeks while her loving mother is in Portugal on vacation. We worried that Zow wouldn’t appreciate Nala being all up in his business but he’s taken to her and I don’t think he’s ever had so much fun. These animals are making us crazy with their adolescent energy. Needless to say, Hanna and I are constantly amused. I recently discovered that Nala loves lasers and will jump five feet to try to catch them. She is with us for another week or so and although the cat hair is slowly disintegrating my nasal passages, I do like having her around. One more cat for me to talk to!
  
  
• I don’t have a picture for this but it’s exciting nonetheless. I found out that my friend Helen, who currently works as an au pair for The Frau and takes care of Die Kinder, is going to be my room mate in the Munich Mansion (maybe it is, maybe it isn’t but…. new label!!) until the end of August. This is exciting to me for a number of reasons. Mainly because I love her and haven’t seen her since September ‘08 and also because I won’t be alone for my transition into European culture. She won’t be working beside me with Die Kinder but there will be chances for her to show me around, she can introduce me to her friends, help me figure out what I am supposed to do for this whole au pair thing. I am very grateful to have her there when I arrive. I can’t wait to start our little foreign life together. Ha.
  
  
• At the current moment in time, I am jobless. Kind of. I lost my job with the baby, anyway. I think I wrote about that already. Last time. So this week I’ve been babysitting (three different families, four different nights), and am spreading my work experience between the children’s museum and the candle store (where I still remain on the payroll after one year of not working there). So I am very much a workaholic this week but the payoff will be great as I am going to visit my mom for six days next week. I won’t get to spend much time with her before I leave for Germany and since I’m not working, I figured why not take a vacation? My cousin is driving up from So Cal to spend half of Mother’s Day weekend with us and we’re going to play at the beach with her kids, spend time with my aunt Michelle too. It will be a nice relaxing way to get over this crazy work week…
  
  
• And the fact that I am sick yet again. You’d think that after last month’s bronchitis slash sinus infection, I would be safe for at least a few months. I picked something up from one of the children that I am in contact with on a daily basis and now my lungs are working overtime and breathing is hard work. I’m not going to the doctor though because all they do is screw me over. I hate our campus health center, they’re self righteous a-holes and last time I went to Doctors on Duty under CSUMB’s student protection, they charged me $200. No thanks. I’d rather be sick and hacking up a lung than paying you money to laugh at my diagnoses and give me drugs that don’t work.
  
  
• Guess what? 24 days until graduation!

With Honors

So, lucky for me, I had the pleasure of being invited to CSUMB’s Honor Convocation this year. Actually, it’s not luck. I earned it. :) I pulled off a 3.5 GPA for my five years at CSUMB and was awarded with cum laude honors. This past Saturday, April 17th, I went to the ceremony to accept my cord. It felt so great to be honored, even if I was one of at least 100 other students. My family wasn’t able to attend and my friends had other obligations but it’s okay. I was only a little bit sad but in the end, I realized that I am the one who worked for my GPA, I should be the first one to support myself in receiving the honors, right? Ha. That was my justification, anyway. I have had so much support over the years as I’ve pursued my college education and that support definitely kept me going but, in the end, the only person who could make it happen was me! I filled out those FAFSAs, I attended all of those classes, I did all the work. I reap the benefits!

It was a surprise to me that I’d pulled it off so receiving the invitation back in March made for a really good day. I’ve been on the Dean’s List for having a 3.5 GPA for 8 semesters out of 10 so I figured I’d done something right. But I thought that to have the cum laude honors, I needed to have that 10 out of 10 record. 8 is good enough, it seems!

I always considered myself to be a pretty mediocre student, even when I was in high school. I don’t consider myself to be that intelligent. I am fairly well educated in my concentration of study, I guess, but I couldn’t bust out an answer to a pre-algebra problem and I definitely can’t list the presidents of the United States or tell you when the Civil War started. I forgot all of that as soon as I left the last class where I’d learned it. Ha.

Despite my lack of confidence in my academic know-how, at CSUMB, I’ve done really well for myself. It feels good to have it all accumulating right before graduation. I feel like I’ve actually made a difference in my own life and I’ve got all the confidence that I need to pursue grad school and, eventually, a really good career. In fact, the research that I’ve done for my capstone has actually inspired me to look into a very different but very rewarding career path. I’ll get into that later. But seriously…

I’m almost done! I did it! Pretty much all by myself too. Actually, I did do it by myself. Nobody else did my homework for me. I didn’t have a clone to go to all of my classes. I singlehandedly wrote my 45 page Capstone paper and did all of the research on my own. I paid for it all by myself. Kind of. Financial aid supported me throughout the entire 5 years. Yeah, so I’m graduating $41 thousand dollars in debt but whatever. It’s worth it.

Sunsets, Speedy Gonzales, and Some Other Stuff

Is it Monday yet? That is when my Capstone is due. I really, really need for it to be due. I’ve hit 20+ pages and I think I’m at the point where I’m just willing to start bullshitting the rest of my paper. However many more pages that it will be. I’m shooting for anywhere between 26 and 30. Fortunately, this is just the submission for the rough draft. I have a month to un-bullshit should I decide to take that route. Ha.

Surprisingly enough, I have been doing other things that do not pertain to academia. I’m house/pet sitting right now for a family that I work for. I’ve been babysitting their kids for the last 2 1/2 years and at least once a month (or so it seems) they ask me to stay at their house and hang out with their Scottie, Miss Stella Louise. Her and I are best buds, I do this all the time. So, I’ve been making myself at home in their Pebble Beach mini-mansion complete with endless amounts of TV channels and free and unfettered access to their food stuffs.

Tuesday night Stella and I ventured just around the corner to 17 Mile Drive where I attempted to take pictures of the sunset with my new camera. It was insanely windy and naturally, very cold, so I was running into all kinds of problems. My lens cap was flying all kinds of crazy and every time Stella ran ahead of me, she pulled the leash and the camera jerked away, resulting in a crooked picture of sand. Eventually, I just left her in the car and I battled Mother Nature without my trusty sidekick.

One thing I am definitely  going to miss about California…

Amazing sunsets. Yeah, the wind was cold and I couldn’t feel my fingers and my hair was all kinds of crazy but it was so worth it to just hang out in the fading daylight for a half an hour. Much better than doing stupid homework.

Aside from my mansion dwelling privileges, I’ve been working too. I’m a nanny to the cutest 9-month-old kid that ever lived. Don’t believe me?

I told you. So yeah, I’ve been spending 20 hours a week with this kid, give or take, and we do all kinds of things like play with blocks, eat squishy foods, go for walks, and crawl around like Speedy Gonzales. I’m only taking care of him until mid May so I’m trying to make the most of everyday. Yeah, sometimes I’m tired and occaisonally he’ll decide that he’d rather scream at me than be my baby friend but we make it through. We’re buddies. I’m going to hate to have to leave him, especially because he won’t remember me. Thank God for e-mail, I’m sure his mom won’t disappoint. I’ll get updates all the time.

Between work and school, I’ve actually been planning for my trip. It’s insane. I can already sense how stressed out I am going to be during those last few weeks of May when I have to present my thesis, graduate, entertain family, move out of my apartment, and head out to Montana all in the course of like five days. Fortunately, my Montana vacation will afford me a bit of a relaxing vacation after all of that. I do, however, wish that I could spend more time my mom and my friends before I leave for Germany. :( Ah, but with the way things are shaping up, I can only give to them the time available to me, which is not a lot. So, I intend to make the most of my last few weeks in Monterey.

On a completely different note, I’ve actually done one thing for myself that will benefit me during my time in Munich. I bought myself some Crocs. And this won’t be like the time that I bought myself $90 Choco’s and then misplaced them, probably in a bag to Goodwill. I’ve always secretly wanted  a pair of Crocs and now I actually have them. They weren’t even that expensive, about $30. I wanted some comfortable shoes for the seemingly endless amounts of walking that everyone tells me I will be doing in Munich and Crocs seemed like a good road to take. On the more expensive side of things, I also bought myself a pair of Uggs. I’m optimistic that it will be a good investment.

 

So, as the Germans would say, “Auf weidersehn!” Well, they would probably spell it correctly, but you get what I’m saying!