Mannheim

After 4 months another project has finally come to a close. These two manila envelopes are currently on their journey across the pond to a small little city of Mannheim, Germany, and my stomach hasn't stopped churning since.

Some of you may already know this, but for those who don't these two nerve-wracking envelopes contain my application for a study abroad at the University of Mannheim. I'm hoping that this fall I'll be able to finish my BA in German Studies in Germany, and that I'll be able to do it in the city I once served in for 4 months in.

This city is absolutely beautiful, and the idea of going back is one that makes both excitement and nervousness pool into my gut at the same time.

There's a longer story of how I came to this point, much of it directed by the spirit, but I'll save you the messy details. Lets just say this is a once in lifetime opportunity that doesn't even happen to those who do a foreign exchange.

Normally an exchange student will go to a predetermined sister school, and when I first started looking at doing an exchange that's what I did as well, but it didn't quite feel right. Then a little voice said "what about the university in mannheim" and so I shot off an email to the international students department at Mannheim U and found out that they had an entire program for students like me.

Many prayers, fasts, and piles of paperwork later I finally sealed the envelopes and penned in the address. I was so nervous I had to rewrite the address twice because I kept leaving out letters in the address. On top of that I even made a photocopy of all my transcripts, applications, photos, and letters of recommendation and put together a second envelope "just to be sure" my application arrived.

And so now I wait......

The University won't even begin to look at the applications of foreign exchange students until their semester ends at the end of May, and so I won't even know if I'm accepted into the program until mid to end June, and it's killing me.... Every couple of days I get on google maps and look at the satellite imagery of the city. It seems that tracing my path through the city with a mouse is the only way to keep myself calm.

I don't know what the future will bring, but it sure looks exciting.

There are two more posts below this so don't hit the little x in the corner just yet. Scroll down to see what else is new in my life.