Americans:
Of late, I've been trying to think of reasons justifying a blog. While always thrilling, I just don't think that life as a history graduate student at the University of Alabama is something that you would flock to read about, or I would willingly write about. But lucky for us, the generous folks at the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD, auf deutsch) have deemed me worthy of some dinero and are shipping me off to Berlin for the summer. What does this mean? Of course this means that I will finally get to travel to Germany. It means that I will get to improve my German language to make me a more professional historian. All of these things are wonderful, but let's be honest--it's blog-worthy material.
What I've got for you is a glimpse into my experience in Germany. Whether it be travels, interactions, pictures, videos, thoughts, etc., you will find it here. Ideally, I'd like to post daily. Following the spirit of The Life of Brian, I foresee this as a Monday-Friday thing. I really do not know what my schedule will be aside from my weekday schedule (M-R 8:30-1:00pm CET, F 8:300-12:00pm), so we will just stick to the more predictable weekdays. This means that I should have some time in the afternoon to reflect and post. Now, time difference between Central Daylight Time (i.e. God's time) and Central European Time is seven hours. So you can take the blog as a nightcap or apart of your morning news.
I hope you all enjoy what you find. I envision a nice balance of thoughts and pictures, as photography is increasingly becoming a big hobby of mine. Feedback is always welcome, not only because I want to make this the best experience you've ever had following someone's travels in Germany, but also because I like to hear from you. If you like something, want to see more of it, less of it, the same amount of it, agree, disagree, kind of agree, etc., etc., share that with me.
Lastly and perhaps the worst news of all, this will only last the duration of my travels. I'm letting you know this up front. I've done this for a number of reasons. Mainly, I don't want to reel you in with exciting German stories and jump the shark after I return to the states. I think it would be best to leave it in Europe. I plan on beginning posts a few days before I leave (some time around July 6), and probably ending a few days after I return. Until then, I have left you with a long-winded introduction. I hope you can survive until the real deal begins later this summer.
Alright amigos. This is it. I hope you enjoy. Tschüss.
Below will be another daily feature that will help this blog be as bilingual as possible:
Deutsches Wort des Tages:
deutsches Wort des Tages--German word of the day
