August 01, 2007

Contact:   Burkhard Henke

Rachel Heidmann '08

Heidmann explores Germany on two wheels.

Today is my 352nd day abroad as a participant of Davidson’s study abroad program in Würzburg, Germany. Last year on July 28 as I waited to board the plane in the Charlotte airport, I expected that this year would be a good one, but I never expected that the time would go by so quickly.

Now I only have two weeks before I am back in North Carolina with my family, and only six weeks before the next semester at Davidson begins. Summer semester in Würzburg began April 16, the same day I submitted my web tree selection of courses for next semester at Davidson. As I typed in my selections online, I still was not sure what I wanted to take during my final semester in Germany.

While Davidson friends were taking exams in May, I was still trying to remember which room I had to go to for which class, and I wasn’t halfway through the semester when I started to receive e-mails from friends with summer contact info.

I have stayed busy this semester with lecture classes: Tradition and Modernity in the anthropology department, 19th Century French Literature, East European Studies, and a French language practice group. I also participated in a weeklong anthropology excursion to Belgium and the Netherlands.

I’ve also been traveling during the last few weekends to say goodbye to friends throughout Germany. The goodbyes are always hard, but the visits have been great. Highlights include accompanying Eva, my best friend in Würzburg, to her aunt’s birthday party and getting to meet her entire family; visiting friends in Hermannsburg I met two years ago while traveling on a Dean Rusk Program Grant; finding the perfect coffeehouse while visiting friends in Hildesheim; and learning about Hungary from Hungarian friends who fled in 1964 during a visit at their home in a small city in Baden-Wurttemberg.

Now I am starting to plan how to fit my belongings into one suitcase, slowly dismantling my room, and saying goodbyes in Würzburg. It’s hard to focus, but I want to enjoy the last moments here. I am sad to leave, but I am trying not to view it as the end. I remind myself that I have many reasons to return! In the meantime I am excited about seeing family and friends in the US, and adjusting to life at Davidson.

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Posted By: Burkhard Henke