Friday, December 19

So what have I gotten myself into?

At this point I figure it would probably be a good idea to give you guys some info on what I will be doing. For the next six months, I will be attending the University of Regensburg in Regensburg, Germany. Regensburg is a small city (pop. 130k) on the Danube River in southeastern Germany (Bavaria). The city dates back to the Roman Empire and was one of few cities in Germany to come through WWII relatively intact, so it has a lot of really old buildings. With any luck, I will get to live in the Altstadt, the older city center.

The program I am going on runs from late January through the end of July. I'll be going over with 4 other Wheaton students and, since the program is run through Weslyan College, there will be about 10 other Weslyan students going too. Once we get over there, we're supposed to have a 6-8 week intensive language course to get our language skills up to speed. Since we will be attending a German university and taking classes in German this is pretty critical. I've taken 2 1/2 years of German so far but I'm nowhere near fluent so I have the feeling that that is going to be a rough two months. After that, there should be a break before the summer semester starts at the university. At this point, it looks like I will be taking about 3 classes, one language class to help me with papers etc. and two others, probably something in the Poli Sci field. All of this is of course subject to change once I get there.

Welcome!

Greetings, family, friends and internet strangers!

With this blog I hope to provide you with a convenient, interactive way to keep tabs on my adventure in Germany. I plan to use this space to record my thoughts and experiences throughout my semester abroad, keeping you up-to-date on what I've been up to. I figured that the blog format will allow a level of accessibility, interactivity and convenience that other approaches such as mass email wouldn't really allow; making it easy for me to share pictures and allowing you to post comments. As an added bonus, this format will allow you to keep tabs on me at your own volition so I don't have to be the guy who's constantly pestering you to check out the slides from his vacation.

Anyway, welcome aboard. I hope you enjoy this little experiment as much as I do.