Back to Class

I had the past two weeks off from classes. As it is, I only have classes on Mondays and Tuesdays. The classes on Mondays are in the theological department, and as it was, all the classes in the department were canceled due to a special presentation about gender-equality. Classes on Tuesday were canceled across the whole university to give the students the opportunity to protest in Wiesbaden (the capital city of the state of Hessen) that the government was cutting funding for education while at the same time charging tuition fees. I have a hard time sympathizing with German students wholeheartedly about the tuition fees because they pay a very, very small fraction in comparison to what I pay for my education. Granted, I get better conditions for my eduction than they do, but I also pay for it. And with the state of things right now, funding for education has been cut in Pennsylvania for education as well - and our tuition fees keep going up each year anyhow. The thing is, that Germans come from an education system that was, until recently, wholly publicly funded. Anyhow...today I'm headed back to class after a two-week break. It's kind of odd after such a long time without doing classes.

On June 2, I'm flying to Milan to visit Matteo, friend from last semester who's not here now. I'll be there until June 6. Then on July 7, I'm flying to Rome to spend a few days there as a tourist. After returning on July 11, I'll spend the remainder of the time before July 19 in Marburg, at which time I'm flying to Venice until July 22. Then I'm flying home on July 24...The way things are looking, I'll also be heading to Oberammergau with some friends on June 26-27, so I should be busy traveling about the continent before coming home.


Cities where I'm traveling in relation to Marburg

Traveling will make the time go by quickly, I'm sure. That's a mixed blessing. I'm looking forward to seeing people at home again, but I don't want to have say goodbye to the friends I have here, knowing that I'm not going to be coming back in three weeks like I did at Easter. Kate is planning on going to the airport with me when I leave so that we can say our final farewells, and I hope that I don't get too emotional. I never can predict these things, though. We'll have to just wait and see how things play themselves out.