It has been quite a while since my last post, so I decided to write a short one just to update everything. We are now in the eighth week of classes and all of my courses are going well. I have unfortunately recently discovered that I will not be able to receive quite as many credits as I originally hoped for. For three University of Wyoming credits, you must meet for 45 hours throughout the semester. Unfortunately, classes here only meet once a week for two hours, adding up for a total of around 28 or 30 hours.
Other than school, however, I have kept myself pretty busy with regular 
visits to the City Center and hanging out with friends. On weekends, you can always usually find a group of us exploring some new city close to Oldenburg with our "Semester Ticket". All students are required to buy a "Semester Ticket" for 178 euros. This is not only your student ID, but also a bus ticket which allows you to use the bus systems in Oldenburg as well as all the trains and buses in all of Lower Saxony for free. Therefore, traveling to Bremen or Hamburg or Hanover for the day is absolutely kostenlos. (I have come to love public transportation and now often wonder why Wyoming hasn't caught on).
visits to the City Center and hanging out with friends. On weekends, you can always usually find a group of us exploring some new city close to Oldenburg with our "Semester Ticket". All students are required to buy a "Semester Ticket" for 178 euros. This is not only your student ID, but also a bus ticket which allows you to use the bus systems in Oldenburg as well as all the trains and buses in all of Lower Saxony for free. Therefore, traveling to Bremen or Hamburg or Hanover for the day is absolutely kostenlos. (I have come to love public transportation and now often wonder why Wyoming hasn't caught on).Besides trips around Lower Saxony, there are also many trips to else where in Europe. Next week I, along with 11 other foreign exchange students, will be heading to Alghero, Sardinia for a few days. We are camping in "Bungalows" right on the white sand beaches. After a couple of looks at weather.com, we should be able to expect temperatures around 85 degrees (yeah...I'm a little more than excited!!). A couple weeks after our trip to Italy, I will also be going to Dresden, Germany (a city in east Germany) with the International Students Office with several other foreign exchange students (we tend to stick together). A smaller group of friends and I have also begun planning a trip to London in July. Trips around Europe while here are almost impossible to pass up with things like Ryanair which offers flights as low as 4 euros round trip to London or Italy. And with all the European hostels, a few days in another country is so incredibly affordable. For the next two months almost every weekend is already booked with trips and activities somewhere.
I am amazed that I only have two months left! It seems like only a short time ago I was arriving in Germany scared and excited out of my mind. Still sometimes scared and often times excited, I have somehow ended up with only 8 short weeks left with so many amazing experiences already behind me. And although I know that those weeks will fly be all too quickly, I am at the same time so excited to return home to family, friends, and Matt.
