Gratitude

Today, I have been struck a number of times with an overwhelming sense of Gratitude.  I know that many of my blog posts have been stress-laden and all over the place emotionally, but today is not one of those days.  Don’t get me wrong, I will probably always be stressed about classes, but that is just because I am a try-hard.

As many of you know, I started classes at the University this week.  German classes at a German university.  Talk about scary.  I am currently enrolled in 5 classes, or 18 credits.  Which is technically over-loading this semester.  (I told you I am a try-hard).  My classes are as follows: Sprachenlernen im Tandem, Kreatives Schreiben, Das System der deutschen Wirtschaft nach 1945, Theater IDeFix, and Textverstehen und Produktion.

Okay so now the English explanations.  Sprachenlernen im Tandem simply means that I have a German speaking partner.  Her name is Lea and she is currently working on her Bachelors at Uni Heidelberg.  We meet once a week and speak in German for 45 minutes and then in English for the same amount of time, and pretty much about anything that tickles our fancy.

Kreatives Schreiben is a creative writing class.  I have a really fascinating professor.  He is a famous author here in Germany and his approach to writing is very simple yet very elegant.  I am super excited to learn from him and take his class.  He is also hilarious, so that makes the time pass quickly.

Das System der deutschen Wirtschaft is simply an economics class.  I haven’t actually had this class yet–it starts tomorrow–but I am sure it will be very interesting.  It is a popular class every year, or so we have been told.

Then we have my Theater class.  It is essentially a Theater-basics class, but I purposely enrolled in the harder group because there is a heavier focus on speaking skills, something I am hoping to improve.  The professors are clearly very passionate and excited, and I think this will be one of my more fun classes.

And to round out the total, I have Textverstehen und Produktion.  This literally translates to text understanding and production, but it is essentially a literature class.  This class is taught by one of my program directors and will really help with my reading comprehension and my grammar.

Back to the Gratitude.  I know, I keep capitalizing it and we don’t do that in English.  But I really want to emphasize the feeling so CAPS it is.  This week being in classes has truly hit me with a storm of gratitude and it has been so nice.  Like I said, I tend to focus on my stress or homesickness, but it has been really refreshing to take time to appreciate this experience.

For example, I am being taught by an award-winning and beloved German author.  I do not know when I will have that opportunity again.  And not to mention that my German writing will undoubtedly improve, but so will my English as a result.

I am also in most of my classes with other international students from dozens of other countries.  I have the opportunity to speak with them and get to know more about their nations solely because I am studying German and I am studying it in Heidelberg.  They might not speak English and I definitely do not speak Serbian, Italian, Spanish, etc., but because both I and someone else just happen to be studying German, a whole new thread of communication can be opened.

I also have the opportunity to go on a few very interesting excursions and they are all planned, which makes it easy because I do not have to stress and I get to enjoy all of the neat tours.

Those are only a few things I am grateful for this week.  There are many more, but its hard to list them all.  I hope to keep learning and exploring and growing, and I will update more as I do.  I hope everyone can take a minute to think about what they are grateful for today and really bask in it.  Gratitude is one of the easiest things to express and I am definitely going to make it a new priority.

Love always,

Meghan