HALFWAY?!

As my friends back at BC are in the heat of finals week and my other friends abroad are wrapping up their semesters and getting all the travel they can in their short times left, I hit my halfway point yesterday. That's right, it's approaching mid-May and I am only now just halfway done with my time abroad! I've talked about general life abroad a few times abroad, just the fact that it's a roller coaster of emotions every day. After two and a half months though, I do consider this my home right now. We call our rooms our houses and when I travel, I mean Heidelberg when I say "going home."

I took a detour on my run today and hiked up the Philosophenweg, I haven't been up there in ages, at least not since everything is completely bloomed and I just walked really slowly and gazed upon this beautiful city. Sitting in a valley surrounded by giant green tall mountain is Heidelberg--and I live here! When I get annoyed about being hit with bugs when I ride my bike to/from my room, or when I get annoyed that the grocery store is never stocked, or that Hauptstrasse is too crowded, I just need to remind myself about all the wonderful parts of being abroad, and now I've gotta realize that the time I have left is less than what I've already spent. I already know that when I get home I'll be missing all these things that I complain about all the time.

Monday night after class we all gathered at Brock's for a bbq. Cory played us some tunes on his banjo and we just drank and were merry and enjoyed some great wurst! On Tuesday, Becca and I laid on the Neckarwiese for a couple hours in our bikini tops soaking in some rays and attempting to start our summer tans. We were surrounded by people of all ages, all doing the same thing we were--enjoying the beautiful weather. I know that's one thing I'll miss about being here versus America--everyone is just outside ALL THE TIME. The culture is so different in that sense. On Wednesday night, we were of course at Eckstein and it was karaoke week. We drank Koelsch and sang and were merry with rowdy Germans! Despite the rain this morning, it turned out to be a beautiful day, and we're leaving in a bit to go do some bridge-drinking over on the Alte-Bruecke. These are some examples of daily life here in Heidelberg--just hanging out with friends, mostly outside, having fun in bars, and just enjoying life!

I've been thinking about this blog post for a few days now and I'm kind of disappointed that I didn't really have anything specific to say. It's all in my head and just not really wanting to be articulated right now, I guess. But the point of this post is that I'm halfway! I honestly feel like I've been here forever, but I know that the second half will just fly by, especially with more traveling and such. I'm leaving for Brussels tomorrow morning--going to meet Katherine there, we'll be there for the weekend, and then she's going to stay with me in HD for a few days before she goes back to New York. Then I think I've got about three weeks with no big plans, but then it'll be YAYA IN EUROPE and I got a good chunk of time off to go down to Lyon so we can all be together at Mollie's. Will and I are also in the process of planning a trip to Mallorca--really hope that happens! And then Jennie will be doing her internship only a couple hours away, and hopefully we can do some traveling together. And before I know it, I'll be packing my own bags to come home!

Time to live it up! For the next two and a half months! :)