My Fulbright Begins!

Well, to be fair, my Fulbright actually began about a month ago and I’ve been in Germany almost two months at this point. But nevermind all that now. It started as a COVID lockdown induced need to escape to anywhere, away from Zoom university and my small apartment. Fueled by fond memories of my time living in Europe before, a desire to finally put my knowledge of German to use, and an interest in some of the research groups, a not insignificant amount of work over the next five months and half a year of nervous waiting luckily panned out.

By now, I am comfortably settling myself in the lovely town of Tübingen with most of a year ahead of me. A lot of things I am still figuring out, but I’m excited by what is to come. With that said, reflecting on my previous European experiences and limited time in Germany, here is my tentative professional/personal bucket list.

1. Start a collaboration with someone at my institute and finish a project by the end of my time here.
2. Apply/commit to a PhD program for Fall 2022.
3. Reconnect with people from my previous two study abroad experiences.
4. Take a German language class and improve my conversation skills.
5. Ski in the Alps.
6. Travel with my brother.
7. Race an ultramarathon.
8. Celebrate Karneval.
9. Run the Hardergrat trail again.
10. Compete in an Ultimate Frisbee tournament.

And probably many more things I’ll come up with along the way.