Ready

There is a brand new bag, still as limp and empty as the day I got it from the store. There is a pile of clothes awaiting the washing machine. The electronics and chargers that are so dreadfully vital to my existence have not yet been collected, and a pair of cats has succeeded in convincing me that a week of perpetual naptime was a good idea. But there is also a drawer full of completed paperwork in the next room and a steadily shrinking to-do list in my head. Friends from all over the state have been sufficiently caught up. Six weeks of studying dairy medicine has filled me with more knowledge than I could ever want. I have been productive, in all the ways that count. Or all the ways that don’t, depending how you look at it.

I do not anticipate that the fat of Summer’s leisure will do anything but expand my waistline, as it already has during my stay in greenless hicktown, New Mexico, where the lettuce is iceberg and the green beans come with bacon. I look forward to beer and sausage and various tubers, and whatever other calorific foods the Germans have to offer; I will eat it without regret. I love food, and I need something new. It’s cliché, but it’s what I look forward to most.

Oh, and the learning. I expect that this trip and this class will be infinitely more exciting than any I have ever seen. Not only do the lecture and lecturer seem like they will be interesting, but the country itself contains, in my opinion, the most fascinating culture and history on the continent. Except for the mandatory trip to Austria, I plan to tour Germany exclusively, and hopefully learn a great deal about the language while I am there.

That, however, is the extent of my planning. It frustrates some of my friends and my parents that I know so little about what I would like to do and what I think I will learn, but I say that ruins the fun of it. So what if I don’t wash my clothes until the morning of? I’ll get to the airport three hours early, like you’re supposed to. And I may not know where I am sleeping on the Saturday night of the fourth weekend, but I’ll know on Saturday morning.

I’m not ready. But I’m excited. Are you?