This has been a slow week compared to the previous ones. No matter where you are or what you are doing there is one thing that we all will have to focus on while studying abroad; that part is studying.
Studying abroad is not just about travelling and getting to know your host country but it is also about comparing the academic content as well as teaching styles from US and Europe. Since I have been here my course work sometimes overwhelms me. With a more than a month of field studies in my program, my whole semester course load is packed into around three months. It does seem like a daunting task but I got a very good advice from one of the alumni of the program: “Focus on school work but don’t let it stress you out”. For anyone who would think of studying abroad this is a good advice to keep in mind. I have noticed that most professors know that you are trying something new by simply being abroad. They have told us the work we need to do but in the meantime they subtly express that we also need to explore more and try to have fun with our courses. Exposing myself to their teaching style lets me see the difference from American college systems but also allows me to appreciate how courses are taught in the United States.
Like I said, no matter how much course load one has, there needs to be time for fun. The sun has finally started coming out in Freiburg and all of my class mates are pretty excited about it. We did not get the best weather when we were here. There was more snow here than Michigan had which means that we were bundled but in layers the whole time. Now that the weather is getting better I have realized that sunlight gives a totally different dimension to the places we have actually been to already. We climbed up an observation deck the first week of our semester and Freiburg looked foggy but now the whole city is visible to us. The change of weather has definitely given us more to do in Freiburg now.
