My last Days in Konstanz

So this is it, my last day in Konstanz has arrived. It has been quite an experience these last few months. I have done a lot of cool things, meant new people, and has many new experiences. This post was just going to be about the process of doing the paperwork to leave Germany properly, but that turned out to be much easier than I anticipated, and I am feeling in a reflective mood, so this post is going to be about a number of different things.

Firstly, I will address the process of leaving German, as promised in my last post. The hole thing sounded like it was going to be quite a pain to go through, but it turns out it is actually quite simple. Firstly, I had to deregister from the university. This kind of has to be first, because you need the proof of deregistration for several other of the steps. All this required was going into the student services office and filling out a form. Then you take that over to the library, so they can stamp it to prove you do not have any books out or need to pay any late fees. Go back to the student service center, sign a document of two and you are done. After This you can cancel your health insurance policy. You need the registration form from the school to prove that you are no longer with the university, because your insurance is tied to your status as a student. You also have to deregister from the city, which means that you have to go down to the bürgerbüro. I thought this would be a pain, because the bügerbüro is basically a DMV for people. I was actually in and out in under 15 minutes, most of which was just waiting in line to see an official. Then I just showed them my passport, signed 2 things and was doen. Then I cancel my bank account, which was similarly painless. Just walked in, told the person behind the desk I need to cancel my account, signed to things and was done. 5 minutes. Even getting signed out of my apartment was easier than I thought. Seezeit, the company that runs all the university's housing, is usually quite a pain to deal with. I had to make to appointments to move out, the first they came through and told me what needed to be done to be signed out the next time. The actual move out appointment was actually even easier. The guy who did my room inspection barely looked around and signed off on me getting my full deposit back. So overall, quite painless.

This last week has not been all easy, breezy though. I had my last final and am still working on finishing my last paper. What has really been hard though is leaving all of the people that I meant while I was here. The international groups from Go Konstanz has been my whole social sphere for the last five months, so it is going to be weird leaving that bubble behind. Here, being an international student gives you a distinctive identity, and gives you an automatic way to connect with other international students. The hardest though will be leaving behind my groups of friends that i have here. We went out for one last time last night, and at the end I had to say goodbye. That was a very weird experience for me, because it was not just bye for now or bye for a long time. There is a good chance that i may never see some of these people again, because we are catering to the corners of the earth. I certainly hope to travel and see them again, but there is no guarantee. It is quite sad that i will be leaving the people that have been my constant companions ever since I first came to this country. Without these people my experience in Konstanz would have been much different, and I would not trade the adventures I have had with them for anything. But this is the nature of study abroad. People from all over the world meet in a foreign land, and become friends. But we all know that it is a temporary situation. Sometimes that is a good thing, because when you are feeling home sick you can get through it by thinking you only have X amount of time left. But a the the end it suck, because you wish you had more time.

My trip home sort of brings this thing full circle. I will be taking another long, overnight train ride to a large far away city for my flight, to save a few dollars. This time the city is Frankfurt, not LA, and the train is Deutsche Bahn, not Amtrak. And once again, I will initially be flying into a city thousands of miles from my ultimate destination to visit people on my way. This time the city will be detroit, which is decidedly less exciting than Athens. I did not plan for my return trip to be a mirror of my flight out, but bring a nice sense of closure to the hole thing.