Back in America

Hello everyone!
I have returned back to America and seem to have gotten over jet-lag. It's been incredibly hot in Houston and I had to go back to school on Monday. It's my last semester, and I hope it's a smooth one.
If you're in the Houston area and a student at UH, I will be giving a presentation about my study abroad in Germany. It's also an information session on available scholarships and programs for study abroad.

I arrived in Houston at around 6:30pm local time last thursday. My body thought it was 1:30am, so I was very tired coming out of the airport. The process getting through customs went smoothly coming in. In Germany, I did have to explain to passport control why I stayed in Germany for so long. Coming in, they weren't as worried, but going out is when they sort of grill you. When I went to my departure date, I had to go into a sort of holding cell. Once you went in, you couldn't go out...which is something I discovered when I wanted to get some bread at a bakery. The planes were all a little early, and I even got upgraded a class going from Heathrow to Houston. It was nice, a little extra room, nicer food, and more concern about how the passengers were doing. Nicer headphones too, albeit they were used.

So I have been reintroduced into American culture again, something that feels a lot more different than I originally expected. I think it'll take some time to get used to it. It is a difficult transition, since being introduced into something new and being introduced to the old routine can be quite boring.

That's my update for now. I will write about my trips perhaps later today or tomorrow.

Goodbye, Germany

Hi everyone,
I am currently at a friend's place pretty much waiting for my flight back to Houston tomorrow morning. I leave at 11:15 am local time and arrive in Houston around 6:45 pm CST. So I essentially travel for 7 hours. Kidding, I will be traveling for a total of 12 hrs. Europe, especially Germany has been great. I am very sad to leave, and it's been a great experience living in another country. It's time to get back to my regular life in Houston, finish up, and graduate in December. It's very late here now in Germany (12:55), but I will update on my trip once I return home. I hope the jet lag won't last very long.

Until then,
Melissa

Quick update!

Hello everyone!
This is a very quick update- I am officially moving away from beautiful Lüneburg tomorrow afternoon. I then head to Pisa, Rome, Paris, and Barcelona. I will be back in Germany next Saturday, staying with a friend, then returning to the US on August 23rd.

Starting tomorrow until next saturday, I will have very limited internet access, maybe it's a good thing to be separated for a while from the internet. I have tons to do today and tomorrow- including saying good bye to friends, cleaning my room, and reflecting on my stay here.

I promise to write about Copenhagen in more detail later on. It was a great city and it deserves its own post with more details.

Until next time!

Die Zeit and this weekend

Hello everyone!!!
At the present moment, I feel very tired; today I finished my second and last paper that i'll ever have to write in Germany for class. I have two final exams coming up next week, but I'm going to take it easy this weekend.

This weekend, i'm headed to beautiful Copenhagen, Denmark! Every person i've talked to has said that Copenhagen is so beautiful...and I hope to be caught in its charm as well. It's my last full week in Lüneburg, a little over a week traveling through europe, a few days in Hamburg, then back home on the 23rd. This summer has flown by extremely quickly. I think it may have to do with having a set schedule for the most of the summer and of course, having a lot of fun.

This afternoon I went on an excursion to Die Zeit- a newspaper based in Hamburg. We spoke to the editor there, not quite sure of what department. He was very well educated and gave an opinion about newspapers- that newspapers should report, not change the opinions of its readers. Die Zeit comes out once a week and is apparently a very tough paper to read through since they use big words, and they aim to educate their readers. They were kind enough to give us all a free copy of this week's edition, along with cookies, water, tea, and coffee. I felt like we were very welcomed into the environment. Fun fact for today- the editor did his dissertation on the judicial system used by the Irish Republican Army. I was very curious to know what he had discovered. He told me, in short, that he tried to answer the question, was the IRA's approach to justice the right way to approach problems? The answer is no. The IRA had to influence the police because the police were afraid of entering certain neighborhoods. The methods the IRA used for "justice" were the same tactics used by a mafia.

Other things that were asked were if humanity is really all alike- yes. We may all come from different backgrounds, but the same types of people exist in each society. Germany selling tanks to Saudi Arabia and potentially Qatar are not a very good move on Germany's part. An online edition and a print edition of a newspaper are very different. Germany has one major political think tank, the editor wished it was more like the US where there exist so many, with a variety of opinions. Journalists at Die Zeit use a wide variety of resources to write their articles. Sometimes lawyers want to become journalist (ie the editor we talked with).

Until next time!