Prologue, if you can call it that

So, back again.  And by "back" I can only mean "back away from America" because Germany is really nothing like Russia, though I can't help but keep comparing them.  I guess that's how life with a human brain works, though - you take all your new experiences and compare them to everything familiar and go from there.  I've been seeing that more and more in my life over this year through a few circumstances, and the Russia vs. Germany thing that I keep returning to just drives the point home.

For all of you who are just joining me for whatever reason (you didn't know me or know about this blog last year or you're here in Germany with me and frankly don't give a sweat about my Russian travels), welcome.  I hope you find this at least entertaining, if not too relevant to anything you're doing.  I tend to write mostly stream-of-consciousness, though it is a bit more organized than my thought life.  The posts are long, though hopefully they'll be shorter and more frequent this year than last.  Yes, I write about what I do on a daily basis, but I also try to incorporate and draw out any lessons on travel/life that I think can be learned from my experiences, because in the end, who really cares what I ate for supper every night?  Feel free to comment on any posts, I love feedback of any kind.  If you're a friend from home, please know that emails (no matter the length) are always welcome and read eagerly and often.  Disclaimer for my fellow participants in the Princeton in Munich program: I will use your names unless you specifically request that I refrain from doing so.  However, I will restrain myself to only your first name and last initial if there are multiple people with the same name here, so that only people who know you will know who you are (i.e. future employers won't be able to find incriminating evidence against you here when they Google-search your name).  If you read any of my posts and believe that what I have written paints an unfair or unflattering picture of yourself, please have the courtesy to let me know via email or Facebook and I will immediately attempt to remedy the situation by editing or deleting the offending post.

Phew, now that all that unpleasant legal stuff is taken care of, let's get down to the exciting part.

So, this is ostensibly a travel blog, but it's all about my adventures, so I think it would not be completely out of place to put in just a paragraph about the 10 months that have passed since my last entry.  I've now survived two years of Princeton, which is not exactly a small feat.  This year was full of many more core classes (in the MAE department) than last year, and was therefore more intense and concentrated.  I pulled through with pretty good grades, all things considered, though I've finally had to let go of my high school dreams of all As.  I got quite busy as the year went on between studies, paid employment, and extracurricular activities.  I upped the ante significantly this year by jumping from one to four jobs, but honestly didn't feel like that was a significant contributing factor to any feelings of being overwhelmed.  I got a LOT more involved with PEF, the Christian fellowship group on campus, and am so glad that I did.  I finally found my niche and made a TON more friends, including some that I have a feeling may be around for quite a while after college :)  I got into KS, the Christian a cappella group for which I tried out at the beginning of my freshman year and was rejected from, which was definitely one of the high points.  And yes, for all of you from home who have been asking, I finally found a boyfriend.  He's perfectly lovely, and I could talk about him all day, but this definitely isn't the place for that, so you'll just have to inquire by email.  ;)

Now before we completely move on to my German adventures, I was looking back through my journal of last summer (basically a condensed version of my blog) I found a page labeled "Things I've Learned in Russia".  Some of them are relevant, others less so but quite amusing, so I thought I would include it here with minimal commentary as a segue into my next adventures.


Things I've Learned in Russia
I should probably preclude this with the information that I brought almost no "American" clothes to Russia last year upon the information that looking American would make me a target.  So my wardrobe consisted of sundresses, skirts, blouses, and heels, which (for any of you who know me) is drastically different from my normal dress of a T-shirt, jeans and Tevas or sneakers.  Thus the several statements pertaining to clothing.

• Well-fitting shoes are the key to happiness.
• Pack more Band-Aids and way less clothing than you think you need. Didn't follow this one very well this year, but my philosophy on clothing has also changed drastically, as I'll explain later.
• Knee-high pantyhose are the greatest invention ever.
• You only use about 500 words to communicate - really.  But not the ones you're taught in language class. Expressing my frustration with arriving in Russia not having learned all the necessary grammar or having covered certain vital topics such as telling time.  The German department prepared us much better for day-to-day communication.
• Russians don't snack, they just drink.
• As long as you look confident and walk quickly, people won't (usually) bother you. A reference to my (very stupid) midnight tour of one of the seedier neighborhoods of St. Petersburg.  It's a pretty good story - I recommend you go read about it at the end of my July 16, 2010 post "The Fatalist".
• I look like a good person to ask for directions. This happens ALL the time - in America as well as other countries, evidently.
• Wearing shoes without socks makes them stink.
• You can get used to anything... even 95˚ heat. Compared to the unbearable heat of last summer, Germany feels downright cold!
• 8 weeks is way too long to be intensely studying. 6 weeks was about the limit for our group - the weather may have had something to do with that.
• You can never play too many games of iPod Solitaire. Yeah, I didn't really take advantage of St. Petersburg most times - far too many afternoons were spent sitting at my desk, making flashcards and playing Solitaire.
• Cold showers are the best thing in the world (when you're roasting), but they don't really cool you down. I've heard tepid water does a better job, it's less of a shock.
• People in cities walk more than people in small towns.
• You can never be too careful in a crowded place. Since my purse got stolen last summer I'm SUPER paranoid here, but I guess that could be a good thing...
• You shouldn't keep all your valuables in one place, and NEVER carry around something irreplaceable.  
• You never want something as much as when you don't have it.
• Go to museums as a student - it's way cheaper. In Russia at least - Germany seems to just do the child/adult split.
• Barter ruthlessly - if they won't go cheaper, someone else will.  And they all sell the same stuff.
• The more expensive the souvenir is, the bigger discount you can get.

Let's hope some of these lessons help me out in Germany!!