Tschüss my friends!

Well, it's time. My week and a half at home - spent moving, unpacking, repacking, and catching up with friends and family - is already over. Tomorrow I fly to Germany!

I don't really think that it has sunk in yet though. Maybe if it had, I would actually FINISH packing, but right now my suitcase is empty and my bedroom floor is covered in what I would consider nicely organized piles (but other people would consider a mishmash of random objects and articles of clothing that cannot all possibly fit into my small suitcase, which was chosen while thinking wishfully). I will, however, be finished packing tonight (!), so that I can enjoy my last day in Canada, which the forecast says will be lovely and sunny.

As I said in my last post, I finally managed to secure a housing arrangement in Saarbrücken. I will be living in a Wohngemeinschaft, or flat, near the main train station, with three students currently studying at Saarland University. It is very exciting, but arranging the details of the agreement (and understanding the lease, which was 7 pages in German) was a stressful process for me. I think most of the details are sorted out now though, so hopefully signing for my keys on Monday will not be too complicated. Then I'll get to meet my housemates and move in (sort of...), but I won't be sticking around long, because that evening the 2 week family vacation starts!

It'll be a jam-packed tour of Northern Germany and the Netherlands. It'll also be the first time that we do a family trip that that focusses on big cities. Usually we spend a lot of time in smaller towns and just take day trips to big cities, but we thought we'd do it differently this go-round since we have a lot of ground to cover in not a lot of time.

While travelling, I will also be preparing myself for my internship. My boss sent me over 100 pages of scientific articles and journals to read for some background info! While it is a lot of reading, I look forward to finally learning about the types of projects that I could be working on.

Oh, I forgot to mention that, since my last post, I was also offered partial funding from the German department for my experience abroad - many many many thank yous headed their way!

I guess I should really get back to packing, since I would definitely prefer to take a suitcase that actually has something in it! Alas, the next time I write I will be across the pond in the land of Bier, Wurst and Spargel. Wish me luck!

PS: From now on, I will be including a random fact about Germany at the end of each post. Here is the first one!

RANDOM FACT: The tallest dinosaur skeleton in the world (a Brachiosaurus that is 11.72 metres tall and 22.25 metres long) can be found in the Natural History Museum at Humboldt University in Berlin.