Long road to a long flight.

Originally I wanted to take this trip last year, but wasn't sure if I'd fail out of vet school in the mean time lol, so decided to hedge my bets and take it this year.  Well the potentially ironic thing is that there's still a very bumpy road - finals week to be exact - between me and Germany.  But all will work out in the end...or that's what I keep telling myself. (I should be studying right now...)

Been a bit of a process getting there.  Some awesome people helping us out along the ways, but as MAC DVM already posted, Financial Aid has been...less than thrilling.  Should definitely get that ball rolling early.  It's very much a hurry up and wait type of thing.  Also, pay attention to scholarship deadlines.  They sneak up on you faster than you might think while you're learning about just how big a granulosa cell tumor can get in horses.  And write them down too, because my dyslexic mind transposed a dual-digit number and I missed the deadline on two scholarships by several days.

Planning for the trip has been fun, but somewhat frustrating too because, well, it's completely new.  For instance, we don't have passenger trains and what not here (at least not in this part of the country), so I know less than nothing about all of that and what needs to go into it.  But for the most part, it's fun.  In fact, it might be a bit too fun because often I've found myself scoping out locations in Germany rather than studying.  However, I've also found myself cleaning my room, alphabetizing my bookshelf (in reverse order, of course), and other equally boring activities in lieu of studying, so maybe it's only relatively fun. :)

I will say that I wish I had spent more time studying German.  However, I've found it's extremely difficult to study two foreign languages at once (German and vet school vocabulary) so I can't fault it too much.  My understanding is that many speak English very well over there, so it won't be that big of a deal I'd hope.  I'm also awesome at charades, so there's that too.  But I'd much prefer my level of German to be somewhere around at least a first-grade level than what I have currently:  a few words, gestures, and grunts.  I believe 'beer' sounds the same in both languages so at least I won't go thirsty.

Not much else to say right now.  It will be a great trip with great people so I'm looking forward to it.  Certainly beats working all summer, regardless of how much my bank account disagrees.