Luck and wonderment.

Yes! Excitement abounding! A couple days ago a took my Volkskunde exam, which went well, and then yesterday I took my last grammar exam, which also went well. What does that mean? I'm officially done with the semester. What makes it even better is that I finally finished all the ooodles of paperwork and nit-picky things to be done for the Blumberg Traveling Fellowship application, which I then received. (YAY!!!) This is a fellowship through Smith College specifically for Smith students on Smith Junior Year Abroad programs. Students come up with projects at least four weeks long relating to the country where they're studying and if the committee decided the projects are up to par, they get funded. I start mine in six days. (AHHHHG!!) My project involves me staying with host families in 13 different locations around Germany through the Servas network. It's a very neat organization that is much like Couch Surfing with references. The traveler traditionally stays with the family for two nights and is incorporated into the family during that time, eating together, helping with chores, the like. The focus is all about peace and learning about new cultures and groovy things like that.

So! The project itself (A Photographic Exploration into German Cultural Identity) focuses on the question of "German Identity" in it's division between national and regional identity. There's still hype in the media today about this topic because of all the turbulence of WWII, the division and reunification between east and west, etc. I want hear the stories people have to offer about this time and its after effects and to learn how these things affect their feeling of German identity. It's hard to explain. The photography aspect is this: I want to take a photo of each host family in front of their home as a basis, and then ask the hosts to suggest areas in their community that they feel are historically or culturally significant to this German identity. Basically, I'm going to meet lots of cool people, travel to lots of cool places, and take lots of cool pictures.

The only problem is that I am a huge introvert and while I'm excited and thrilled that I received funding, part of me is also terrified at the idea of having to be in constant extrovert mode for four weeks. On this note I'm probably looking forward to the hours and hours of quiet train rides between destinations more than anything else. It's going to be a hard challenge, but once I start, there's no turning back. ALSO. Four weeks of speaking only German? Yes, please!! Yet another level of brain pinching, but one with definite advantages.

But before all that happens, I need to figure out my class schedule, look at taxes, finish preparing/packing, and spend three days in Mallorca. In fact, Sarah and I are flying south in just a few hours. To be exact, here:

Happy Valentine's Day to us! (I love you all, by the way. All maybe six of you reading this.) Why Mallorca, you ask? WELL, after theater and school and stress and no free time, I wanted to get out and go somewhere wonderful pronto, so I went to visit www.ryanair.com, found super cheap tickets to Palma this weekend, found a private room in a cheap hostel with high ratings, roped Sarah into coming, and that was that. Of course, this island is one of the biggest German vacation destinations and has been taken over by tourism blah blah and all the Germans I've told about it have reacted in such a way that says something along the lines of, "Mallorca.... why Mallorca? I'm so sick of going to Mallorca." We don't want to play on that part of the island. Basically we just wanna go hike along the mountainous northwestern coast. And beaches. Just our luck, it's supposed to be cool and drizzly the whole time we're there, but it will be far warmer than Hamburg and something new and exciting, so who cares. I also want to eat Paella. : ) And Sarah speaks Spanish. Yay, Sarah! We'll come back Wednesday evening. It's not that much time, but the island is small and I think one of us still has a paper to write (not me!).

I need to go finish packing, but I'll leave you some photos to munch on 'til I get back.

Amazing and crustless spinach quiche! Lots of other veggies and spices added in, as well as cheddar and parmesan cheeses.

And for the sweet tooths out there, yeastless cinnamon rolls. (Less butter/sugar, more spice.) In honor of Jesse's smacky ones.