Human mind categorizes stuff so I will divide my life in Germany into three phases. Phase 1: Settling in, buying stuff for my flat, learning how to cook and do house chores, doing no work at all and going out with other exchange students three times a week and come back in the morning. Thanks to Chris who was already in Mainz for the last semester too, learning how to survive in Mainz was quite painless.

Venice is a good place for photography for sure

Phase 2: It was traveling traveling and traveling. I traveled for 5 weekends in a row. Since I did not have classes on Monday or Friday, my weekends were 4 days long and thanks to the 2 public holidays in Germany 2 of them were 5 days long! First my brother came down with his wife and we visited Heidelberg and Neuschwanstein. Next spot to visit was my brother’s city Amsterdam. Next two trips were with Gokturk and we went to the German cities near Mainz as well as Alsace-Lorraine region of France and a few cities in Switzerland. Oh I forgot the little country called Luxembourg. Life was quite simple, get off the train in a city, visit downtown area (old city), cathedral and the Rathaus (hotel de ville if it is a French speaking city), learn if there are other attractions and visit them if possible, take the train and go some other city. And before I forget, god I loved Switzerland. It is freaking beautiful. Phase 2 continued with a interrail trip to Munich and northern Italy with Denizhan. Getting lost in not so wide alleys of Italy was worth having to deal with annoying Italian train system (or lack of a system). Beautiful pictures I took in Italy was another prize for this trip.

Phase 3: In this phase of my life in Germany I stayed in Mainz and tried to work on my term papers. Although it can not be compared to the workload at Middlebury, I still need to do work here. I find it impossible to reach my productivity levels at Midd especially when the World Cup and sunny weather are not helping at all. In this phase I also made some German friends and started to hang out with Germans now and then. Although I still find it hard to understand drunk Germans especially when I am also drunk, I believe practice makes perfect (Übüng macht den Meister). I have been playing Handball every Monday on the campus, which also helped me get to know more german speakers. Practicing German is why I came here for huh?

In short it has been an awesome break from the routine of Middlebury. My German although still not even close to perfect is 10 times better than my German before coming here. I can call this exchange semester the most social part in my life. I don’t remember myself meeting so many people in such short time.

Finally I have to appreciate two aesthetically pleasing things about Germany. Its cars and women. I think I will be sad when I have to leave this country.

Eurer (your) Meric

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