Last blog entry

Where to start..

I’m on my way back. After spending 6 months abroad and also spending a lot of money there, I’m sitting on a plane from Atlanta towards Stuttgart. What about my feelings? Of course I have mixed feelings... I have experienced so many wonderful and nice things in America but I have also seen the hard and dark sides of the US. But let me focus on the positive things of my semester abroad: I’ve made many new friends, learned many new words and sayings and I’ve also learned a lot about the American culture. I think my semester abroad has fullfilled its purpose and I have reached all the aims which I set for myself. Now it’s time to come back to Germany, see my old friends again and then work so that I can give my parents some money back. I’ll also have to find a new apartment in Tübingen because I don’t want to live in the dorms again. It’s time to take a serious look at the housing market and hopefully find something nice and comfortable for my last semesters in Tübingen before I graduate. But let’s focus on the present..This plane\flight SUCKS! They don’t have wireless internet (only available on domestic flights) and they also don’t have any screens in front of your seat so you cannot really choose to watch what you actually want to watch. They have three big screens in front of the seats, and they’ll play three movies during the flight but I’m not satisfied with that offer..I mean come on, the duration of the flight is nearly 9 hours and all you can watch is that stupid facebook movie and two other boring movies! The only good thing is that the plane is pretty much empty so I’ll have an easy time “catching some Zs”.

The last week with my parents was pretty cool; we went to Venice Beach together, I took my daddy to Hermosa Beach , we saw Beverly Hills, and we also had a few lovely dinners with various dudes like Chico and Andrea (my flatmate). I think they pretty much enjoyed themselves during our time here, and I also think that we’ve seen many interesting things together (especially in Hawaii).

What will I miss? The californian weather of course, all my american friends, my girlfriend Neera, being able to watch NBA games in the afternoon, having the opportunity to go to the beach whenever you want and finally the many fast food restaurants just around the corner!I’ll miss in&out, Burger King, subway, Carls Junior, Jack in the Box, Fatburger, Panda Express and so on... oh I nearly forgot to mention Jamba Juice.

I’ll also miss the tasty peanutbutter, cranberry juice, mexican food, great hip hop music on the radio (Kiss FM and Power 106) and in general the beautiful ethnic diversity in Los Angeles..

What won’t I miss? The expensive living costs (particularly for housing), the annoying traffic everyday in LA and finally the unbeliveably stupid public news (a shooting here, a dog died there, something about the weater and upcoming movies, maybe a little bit about war in Afghanistan..).

At this point I have to mention how friendly most of the Americans were! I didn’t really expect this but I was amazing how helpful and friendly they were. The service everywhere was always really good and people did many things for me and my friends/family members which they weren’t obliged to do. I think it is true that Germans are really “miesepetrige” people (lol cannot come up with a good translation right now) and that we should be more friendly and happy about life in general. I’ve got the impression that people in the US were a lot happier with their life than people in Germany even though they have to work a lot more. Maybe it’s the Californian sunshine which I have to blame for this fact but I’m not really sure if that’s the only reason. Anyways, when I wrote above about the dark sides of America I was referring to the financial problems and struggels I saw in the US. It starts with the housing crisis and it goes on with the expensive living costs in general. Everything costs a lot of money, especially studying, and if you don’t have a job or if you don’t earn enough to make a living then you’re pretty much screwed. Living in the US made me realize how social Germany is and how much our state cares about us in terms of financial aid and other welfare programms. I don’t know if this is gonna be like that forever but I think it definitely helps many people.

However, there is still this unanswered question left if I wanna move/immigrate to America at some point in my life. I really consider it because I liked it over there but there are still many obstacles on my way there until I can make that decision. I think my parents wouldn’t mind if I did...I guess I just have to wait and see what the future will bring for me. Maybe I will marry an American girl one day, who knows?! :-)

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[...] I hope they serve dinner soon because I’m really hungry by now. I’m thinking about watching the “social network” movie but somehow I don’t really feel like doing so. The movie just looks boring but maybe I’ll give it a try!

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[...] Dinner was really yummy and I also watched the social network movie. I have to admit that the movie was entertaining and also educational but it’s not the kind of movie I would probably watch in my free time. I think we still have to fly six hours or more until we finally reach Germany so I’ll probably try to sleep because there is nothing else to do. I dont know yet for sure if this is gonna be my last blog entry but I think it’ll definitelty be the last one about my semester abroad in America. Blogging is kind of fun to me and I hope that it is the same for the people who read my blog. This last blog entry is different from the ones I have written before because all the others have been written at a stratch. This is more like a diary entry in which I write what’s going on in mind.

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Finally back in Germany :-) Yeaaah hehe it's really nice to see who everybody welcomes me and embraces me. Thanky guys, u've made my day :-) I slept for three hours in the afternoon and I also already worked out for the first time. But boy, it is really cold here haha...I totally forgot that we are in the middle of winter here :-)

At the very end, the only thing which I can say is that I had an amazing time over there and I hope you guys also learned a little bit and enjoyed my blog entries!

Stat safe and thanks 4 reading and commenting ;)

Flow