Maggie (Without) Borders: My Year in Germany

Though I am not fortunate enough to have had a host family for the past 3 months, I am fortunate to have a friend with a wonderfully welcoming host family. They invited me into their home for Christmas, and my future host family (more on that in another post) invited me over to spend New Year's with them. Christmas eve Kaffee und Kuchen. It was so, so nice to spend the holidays among a family. It might not have been my own, but it made me feel a lot less isolated. I really can't overemphasize how friendly most of the Germans that I've met have been. I mean, these people invited me into their home to spend the 3 days of Christmas (Christmas eve, Christmas day, Boxing day) with them without any hesitation. They even got me some amazing gifts: The bear's name is Fritz. Also important: they fed me. No, they overfed me. No, they fed me, and I overate. No regrets! One of the things I learned about the holiday season in Germany is that families generally ea

Frohes neues, und einen guten Rutsch! Germans don't just wish you a happy new year; they also wish you, directly translated, "a good slide" into the new year. In essence, they hope that you enter the new year happy, healthy, and on the right path to personal success, and I think that's a nice sentiment. I usually don't bother with new year's resolutions, as I don't see the sense in putting things off to the new year. If I want to be a better person, why not just start improving as soon as I note something worth working on? This year, though, I reflected on things I both did and didn't do, and decided that I did have one new year's resolution: follow through. (Okay, two. The second is to eat less cheese). It's not like I don't have the capacity to follow through on the things I plan on doing. I mean, I told myself in 2015 that I was going to apply for PPP, and here I am enjoying the start of 2018 in Germany. But I realized that there w

So, as of checks watch fourteen days ago, I completed the second part of my year as a PPPler: the university phase. I had my fair share of adventures, mishaps, and stress during the last semester, and so I figure it's probably worth talking about. Buckle up--it's a long one, and I recommend not reading if you have literally anything else to do. Why/How to Study at a German Uni So, PPP is a cultural exchange and the point is to get to know the various German institutions with which a young German professional would regularly encounter yadda yadda yadda. It therefore makes sense that we would be required to study at a German university, since most German young professionals complete some form of higher education. That said, unlike the US, they have a few different options, so here are some handy infographics to help you understand the German system: Clear as mud, right?  To Americans, this system is hopelessly complicated. Even though I feel lik