Guess what? I'm still alive ;)

I haven't written in a while; we all know that. I told myself I wouldn't let this happen, but I did. Don't worry, that doesn't mean that I haven't been doing things worthy of writing about, quite the contrary.
Anyway, it turns out that exchange students tend to get a bit philosophical towards the end of their exchange year. There's a lot to reflect on and think about. We think about the new things we've learned, the wonderful people we've met, the future, life-after-exchange, and how to make the most of the time we have left. I promise myself an uncountable number of times each day that I'm going to make the best of every single moment I have left in my exchange year.
Lucky for you guys, all of this exchange student philosophy needs an outlet, and today, that just so happens to be my blog.
First, I've been thinking about the reason I gave up on my blog for a few months. I knew that pure laziness couldn't have been the only answer. And though I'd like to think it's because I've been leading such an exciting, jam-packed life that I've had absolutely no time to write, I know it's not true because I often have a lot of down time.
The answer to this question came from a friend of mine. I'd been encouraging her to keep a travel journal for her upcoming trip to Africa. I told her that I always kept a journal while traveling, but I'd admitted that I'd neglected to do so in Germany. Then she said to me, "but Brooke, you're not traveling; you're home." Needless to say, that hit me hard in the feels. But that makes sense. My life in Germany has simply become my normal life. I don't blog about my normal life in the US, and that's probably the main reason I've neglected to do so now.

These past couple of weeks, whenever I'm bored in class, I've taken to writing instead of just doodling. I figure that the former can be put to good use on my blog. Somethings I write turn out to be a bit nonsensical, for example a piece I'd been writing during physics solely for the purpose to keep myself awake. Other things are memories that I'll keep for myself, and still others I've deemed suitable to share with the internet. What I've written above was written during bio last week. And I'll leave you with another thought I jotted down in class (this is kind of where the philosophy comes in).

It's kind of cruel the way time runs during an exchange year. At the beginning, you feel like you have time, but everything else is lacking; language skills, cultural understanding, friends, a sense of belonging. By the end, you finally have all these things. It's not perfect, but it's your new life and you love it and you can't imagine leaving it. But in the midst of all these gains, you realize that you've lost something important: time.