touching three countries

so. 2 days of lecture into the program, and i absolutely love it. the schedule is becoming more routine, and people are finally calming down after the overWHELMING amount of excitement this past weekend when we all first arrived. we have 3 papers due in a couple days, 2 memorized verses due at the end of this upcoming weekend, 7 chapters of reading to do per day in the Bible [in order to complete the entire Old Testament this term], our first assigned book's reading schedule started today, AND.... we spend all this Saturday climbing the Swiss Alps. no distraction there ;)
today i went on a fabulous european bike ride for about a half hour into downtown Friedrichshafen with Mckenzie, Kendra, and a German guest student named Alka [she wants to join the student body in January when 2nd term starts, and she's awesome]. we took pictures on the waterfront [bodensee], walked around town, did some shopping inside H&M, and finished our afternoon with some ice cream outside a restaurant overlooking Austria and Switzerland across the lake, wrapped in blankets and talking about cultural and political differences between Germany and America.
overall... a VERY satisfying afternoon.
though no school work was accomplished. oh well :P

each day that passes gets easier and easier to be away, because i'm becoming more and more confident in my decision to even come here in the first place. i'm cutting back on my computer time, told joel we basically can't talk because it pulls both him and me away from our personal lives and it's clearly not the best thing for either of us, and we must rely solely on hand-written letters that will be read by one or the other when we have the time and space to do so. [ps joel:: thank you so much for being the MOST incredible guy through all of this. your patience and willingness to wait for me and allow me to fully BE here blows me away and brings me to a very humbled and undeserving state of mind each time i remember just how lucky i am to have a guy like you. i adore you and am eternally grateful for having the opportunity to be with you. i love you].

duties are pretty hardcore... an hour of cleaning is done by most students every single day, and my particular job for the next 4 weeks before we rotate jobs is breakfast dishes every morning [with about 7 or 8 other students with me in the kitchen]. the kitchen is HUGE and dishes are definitely both plentiful and disgusting. lots to learn, and a language barrier between the kitchen staff and students makes fast learning absolutely vital. my first morning's experience involved milk getting dumped on my slippers.
so today.. i bought some SWEET kitchen clogs. oh yeah ;)

in short, i love it here and am definitely where i'm supposed to be. i miss home, but Peter Reid did the math for us tonight and this program, for the next 6 months, is only 0.6% of my life. setting aside a wholehearted and willing attitude to abide by these rules and devote my time and attention to getting the most out of this school year is really... in the end... hardly any sacrifice at all.
i think i can manage :]