Finally Ready to Go!! (Pre-departure)

I know I'm probably the last one to post this... seeing as its technically the day I'm flying out to good 'ol Deutchland in the morning!! I guess its because leaving to fly over seas for the FIRST TIME didn't really hit me until I was running around trying to pack everything today. Oops!

This past month has been pretty hectic in all honesty though. I took statistics in summer school, shadowed a Physician Assistant every Monday, volunteered in a clinic every Wednesday, and ran the New Student Conferences every day with the program Aggie Orientation Leaders (AOLP). I've only been home from College Station to Houston twice in the past month and each time my parents tried to talk to me about packing for Germany and whatnot but I just wanted to relax and spend time with my brother and sister. This held true again when I finally got home on the Fourth of July after taking the GRE on Tuesday (oh, did I mention I also spent the beginning of the summer applying for PA school? THAT took a good chunk of time...) So, here I sit, at 1:30 in the morning writing my pre-departure blog. Good thing my plane doesn't leave until 4pm tomorrow! I've never kept up with a blog before so this will be an interesting adventure along with the other new things I will discover on this excursion.

As I mentioned, this will be my first time (that I can remember) to ever leave the country. I went to Mexico and Canada a long time ago even before you needed a passport for either and I was too young to recall anything about those vacations. I am very excited to learn about new cultures and I want to become fully immersed in all Germany and the surrounding countries have to offer! I'm looking forward to all the museums we will be visiting since I'm kind of a fiend for antiques and history, even though I usually can't remember dates and names.... I still enjoy the stories! I am also very interested in medicine and would love to be able to place older practices into the modern world and compare the usages from then to now.

Even after all the meetings and emails, I still don't feel fully prepared to travel to another country where I will have to fend for myself (without my parents!). I know the last couple weeks I was in a little bit of "stress-mode" as I was discussing with people on the facebook group about how to book hostels and where we wanted to go on the weekends, and if we could make it there, and what we would do when we got there! I also had my mom at home in Houston calling me almost every day from some store asking me if I needed whatever random nick-knack she had happened to find for me. Now my backpack/rolling luggage combo (which has taken some stress out of choosing between the two luggage types...) is over 30 pounds!! I hope I'm able to just roll it everywhere and not look like an idiot with a huge backpack :P I also spent the last week finishing up statistics and saying goodbye to all the friends I've made through AOLP. Through the program we went on a retreat two weekends ago to the ROPES challenge course and I really got to know everyone even better. And after spending at least 20 hours a week together I know leaving right now is a little bittersweet. I had to say goodbye to all my new friends, my family who I haven't seen for about the last month, and my boyfriend of over 4 years who I've spent almost every day with this summer. However, I can easily say that an opportunity like this to study abroad will greatly surpass anything I could be missing in The States.

Yes, I am nervous, anxious, worried, but most notably EXCITED!!