Packing & Organizing – Sunny Valley, Oregon USA

It’s 10:15am right now, and I’m sitting in the dining room at my parent’s house in Southern Oregon.  It is sunny and clear outside, like the name of the location implies.  I woke up this morning to the sounds of air compressors, circular saws, and nail guns.  The parents are having the decks rebuilt, and the best time to work on them is when it is still cool outside.  I’m still a bit groggy from last night.  We invited a lot of the neighbors and friends of the family over for a going away party… For me.  It was good to see everyone, and I wonder how tall their little kids are going to be when I get back. 

So I suppose I should tell you a little bit about myself, right?  This is my first post, after all.  So where do I begin?  I’m twenty two years old, turning twenty three in late September.  It always seems that my birthday is a time of transition for me.  I am always either starting school, moving, or travelling.  This year, it is a combination of all three (although I guess the third option implies the second).  I just finished my undergraduate studies in Mechanical Engineering at Oregon State University.  This Friday, I depart for Kassel Germany for a language immersion program that will last two weeks.  The program consists of five hour lessons each morning with afternoon activities, and I will stay with a host family.  After this, I will begin a very short internship with Mercedes in Stuttgart.  I will only have four weeks there before I have to leave for my master’s program.

 

In October, I will continue my education by pursuing a master’s degree in Materials Science at the Universität des Saarlandes in Germany. 

However, to prepare for this experience, I have to do a bit of studying first.  If you had asked me what my plans were a year ago today, I probably would have shrugged with a noncommittal “I dunno”.  I had never taken any foreign language courses aside from high school Spanish, and whatever Japanese I could scrounge from sub-titled movies and anime.  So, I surprised myself a little bit by applying for the internship with Mercedes.  I always wanted to travel to Europe, but I never imagined that I would be living there for two years.

This blog/journal is a means for me to express myself as well as to keep in contact with friends and family abroad.  Please let me know if you have any comments, questions, or just want to say hello.  Anyways, I should get back to packing my bags and double checking that I have everything that I need.