Oh, how it's been so long/We're so sorry we've been gone.

I am EXHAUSTED so I will keep this semi-short. I am wrapping up my time in Germany, and it's heartbreaking and exciting and difficult and painful and amazing and nostalgic and a million other things. I still need to finish up my notes for a class and turn them in, and to sign myself out of the university and city. I am hoping to accomplish 2/3 of that tomorrow, and then sign out of the uni on Friday. Then this weekend I am going to go through all of my things and throw stuff out and pack, and then I'll be cleaning the kitchen and my room and head to Stuttgart with Eric, and then back to America! It's been such a flurry of a life over here, and I'm curious how I will feel when I'm back in Austin. I don't know if that's home anymore; I'm not sure I know where home is at the moment. But I am not worried; more excited. I'm still kind of reeling from the past month-and-a-week's events, but it gets a little bit easier every day. It was SO nice to have one of my best friends, Eric, visiting these past four days. He headed out to Berlin today (I AM SO JEALOUS) and, like I mentioned, will be back to travel to Stuttgart with me. He said something when we were taking in the scenery on the terrace that I have written in my personal journal many, many times: you really have to be here and experience this for yourself, because cameras and words cannot capture the true glory of it all. Pictures are good for memories, but the eye is the best thing to take it all in. In the four days Eric was here, we accomplished a lot! We explored the town on the first day, and he got to see where I have been studying. Then on the second day, we did our epic 3-hour bike ride through the mountains. Then we did some more exploring in the city, and he bought some really cool fashionable things that made me really want to explore my fashion sense a little more when I'm back in the states and not as poor as dirt. Then the next day was a relaxing hang-out day, and we had super-German cuisine for dinner, followed by a beer on the Dreisam (the river through the town) and a glass of wine at the student favorite, Schlappen. It was a real treat for me to be able to share with someone a glimpse of what I've been up to! Today, after I saw Eric off, I did laundry and played guitar and lazed about. I am hoping to get a ton of sleep tonight, finally. I am supposed to hang out with my roommate David and past-roommate Corinna - I am going to force myself to go, because I am seriously wasted physically so I'm only going to stay an hour or something. But I haven't hung out with David since the first or second month I was here, and he leaves for a vacation in Budapest on Friday, so I won't get to see him again:( As people start heading out, everything gets more and more real. Anywho, there's more floating around in my brain, but nothing coherent:-P For now, I will just say I love music SO SO SO much and am looking forward to really getting all these last little bits tied up so I can just RELAX.