11 Am- I wake up to the sound of alarm and react to it exactly like anyone else. I snooze it. That’s how my day starts. Everyone has their daily routines for their day and I have realized how they have differed from what I do back in Hope College.
11:30 Am- By the time I snooze and get ready to go to the bathroom I need to be make sure that I don’t interfere with any of my flat-mates’ daily schedule either. Germans are very punctual and I always feel bad if my slacking affects them.
11:59 Am- My tram always get by at 12:01 and if I want to make it to class after having lunch, I need to be at the stop by this time. This has drastically changed how I would sleep in for 10, 15, and 20 more minutes, put on cloths, get to class and have lunch “later on” in the Kletz. Being dependent on something else apart from my own body to get me to class in time makes has made me feel dependent on the public transportation. (Don’t take it the wrong way; I love the public transportation here.)
12:15 Pm- The Mensa. By this time I am at the student canteen ready to have some food. The Mensa reminds me a lot of Phelps. By that I mean, everyone complains about the food but in the end you know that it is healthy and efficient.
Till 1:30 PM I have some free time when I am able to do some leftover homework and just talk to the people in my program. Unlike Hope College where my classes and bedroom were less than 15 minutes apart, every time I got to class, I only intend on returning back home after my classes are done. Due to this, I haven’t had naps between classes in Germany yet.
6:00 Pm- The feeling of being done with classes for the day is the same in Germany and in the United States.
In America most people have dinner early due to which all the dining services are shut down super early. I have been used to eating late in Nepal and needing to cook has allowed me to have a flexible schedule not based on when I should eat. Even though the start of a weekday is very scheduled, it is up to me to make use of my time when I am not in classes. I have done a good job so far and always feel like I have a productive day. Today, it was a very lazy Sunday, and I felt that I accomplished something just because I did my laundry.