So I haven't been a good blogger lately. Main reason? Penn is HARD! I never really realized before how much multi-tasking American university life - especially Penn university life - requires of young'uns. I don't feel like such a young'un anymore. This stuff is crazy exhausting!
To give a better idea of where I'm coming home: A typical week for me in Germany looked something like this: I had class 3 days a week, usually only 1.5 hours of it each day (3 MAX!!), put in a few hours at my internship Mondays and Fridays, and spent the rest of my time doing readings for class, doing church stuff, or riding the subway. Or eating or sleeping. Of course, life got stressful then too. But let's compare mere quantity of activities. In Germany, there were 4 classes (less than 10 hours of classroom time), Bible study, church on Sunday, and either choir or voice lessons. Here? 5 classes (granted, by choice, but it's twice the amount of classroom time and at least 4 times the homework), Bible study, planning for said Bible study with the other group co-leaders, Campus Crusade, choir, church on Sunday, internship on Saturday, and more social gatherings - which, granted, are not required, but I don't want people to think I'm completely asocial - than I keep track of. And then there are things like Fulbright applications and hunting down random unhelpful people who have to approve the courses I took in Berlin so they will actually appear on my transcript and other annoying bureaucratic things... It feels like I'm running a marathon. And for the record, I can't run!
I always knew that Penn was full of super intense over-achievers, but man...
The good news: everything I'm doing (except the bureaucratic stuff and some of the homework) is fun. The bad news: everything I'm doing (except ditto) is fun. Which means I don't want to drop anything! I could easily drop a course and have no problems getting all the credits I need. But I don't want to drop any of my courses! And I'm actually doing less stuff than I did sophomore year, but I guess back then I was still a "spring chicken" and somehow was able to handle it...
Monday, September 24, 2007
Tuesday, September 4, 2007
Back at Penn: Weird, but cool
So I'm back now, and finally starting to actually feel like I'm back. It took a few days, and took finally seeing people I knew and not just running around with Mom and Dad trying to get settled and get everything I needed.
So Thursday I moved in. It went pretty smoothly. Friday morning I had coffee with Karolin, my German teacher from sophomore year at Penn who now teaches at Cambridge that I visited in her hometown of Lübeck during my year in Berlin. (That was a complicated explanation!) That was really fun. Karolin is cool and we got to speak German and talk about all the things about America that seem weird to us.
Then I met up with my parents and we ran around getting stuff for my room. I took them to Ikea for the first time, which was fun but took awhile! After a long day of shopping and a nice dinner, I spent the night in the hotel with them so we could sleep in the next day before heading off to Maryland for my grandparents' big 60th wedding anniversary party.
That was quite fun. Saturday was pretty chill; we just hung out a bit, had dinner at their "dining hall" and then presented them with the incredible quilt that my cousin Emily made (though we all had a small part in it! - we each made a square). They loved it. We let Grandma and Grandpa get to bed early, but the rest of us (minus Ann and Jim) hung out at the guest house where everyone else was staying. It was quite fun, especially the part where Emily and I realized that we both sneeze like crazy when we pluck our eyebrows. We suspect that it could be hereditary, but we haven't figured out who we inherited it from. Probably the best line of the night though was my dad's: "I get the hiccups when I clip my toenails!" That's what happens when too many Lordemans hang out in the same room for too long...
Sunday was the big day. In the early afternoon was a reception which they had invited all their friends too, and that was fun. Then there was a brief break in the action before a fancy dinner at their favorite restaurant, Normany Farms. After dinner was more chatting at the guest house, though this time many of us were much more tired, so less hilarity ensued.
Monday morning my aunt Jane graciously drove me to the D.C. metro stop nearby so I could take a train from D.C. back to Philly. I arrived a little before noon and had time to chill before the Campus Crusade meeting at 1.
Between that and a cookout tonight, I've been reunited with tons of friends and met lots of the sophomores (whom I of course hadn't met yet because I was gone last year when they were freshmen). There are some cool new people! Good times. In addition to that, me and Shannon have been goofing off together like we always do, so Penn is starting to feel more comfortable and normal and fun. When I first got here, it was mega weird; it was like having been in a time warp or something. You don't often go somewhere for a few years, then leave it for a year, and then go back. Usually when you leave, it's either for a much shorter time (like the summer) or for good. But I'm adjusting now.
Classes start tomorrow. I hope they will be good. I also have to meet with lots of advisors to figure out how to get my credits from Berlin transfered and to apply for Fulbright and to line up an internship and yada yada yada...
That's what's new!
So Thursday I moved in. It went pretty smoothly. Friday morning I had coffee with Karolin, my German teacher from sophomore year at Penn who now teaches at Cambridge that I visited in her hometown of Lübeck during my year in Berlin. (That was a complicated explanation!) That was really fun. Karolin is cool and we got to speak German and talk about all the things about America that seem weird to us.
Then I met up with my parents and we ran around getting stuff for my room. I took them to Ikea for the first time, which was fun but took awhile! After a long day of shopping and a nice dinner, I spent the night in the hotel with them so we could sleep in the next day before heading off to Maryland for my grandparents' big 60th wedding anniversary party.
That was quite fun. Saturday was pretty chill; we just hung out a bit, had dinner at their "dining hall" and then presented them with the incredible quilt that my cousin Emily made (though we all had a small part in it! - we each made a square). They loved it. We let Grandma and Grandpa get to bed early, but the rest of us (minus Ann and Jim) hung out at the guest house where everyone else was staying. It was quite fun, especially the part where Emily and I realized that we both sneeze like crazy when we pluck our eyebrows. We suspect that it could be hereditary, but we haven't figured out who we inherited it from. Probably the best line of the night though was my dad's: "I get the hiccups when I clip my toenails!" That's what happens when too many Lordemans hang out in the same room for too long...
Sunday was the big day. In the early afternoon was a reception which they had invited all their friends too, and that was fun. Then there was a brief break in the action before a fancy dinner at their favorite restaurant, Normany Farms. After dinner was more chatting at the guest house, though this time many of us were much more tired, so less hilarity ensued.
Monday morning my aunt Jane graciously drove me to the D.C. metro stop nearby so I could take a train from D.C. back to Philly. I arrived a little before noon and had time to chill before the Campus Crusade meeting at 1.
Between that and a cookout tonight, I've been reunited with tons of friends and met lots of the sophomores (whom I of course hadn't met yet because I was gone last year when they were freshmen). There are some cool new people! Good times. In addition to that, me and Shannon have been goofing off together like we always do, so Penn is starting to feel more comfortable and normal and fun. When I first got here, it was mega weird; it was like having been in a time warp or something. You don't often go somewhere for a few years, then leave it for a year, and then go back. Usually when you leave, it's either for a much shorter time (like the summer) or for good. But I'm adjusting now.
Classes start tomorrow. I hope they will be good. I also have to meet with lots of advisors to figure out how to get my credits from Berlin transfered and to apply for Fulbright and to line up an internship and yada yada yada...
That's what's new!
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