... And Eternity in a Grain of Sand

As of recently, I get this uncomfortable feeling that somehow, I wasted too much of my year in Regensburg. I don't mean that it was a waste to go. Rather, that I had this fantastic opportunity, and though I certainly utilized it, I did not come close to doing even more than that and expanding my world just that much more. I could have traveled more. I could have spent more time knowing even more people who would bring me just that many more new perspectives. There is enlightenment and inspiration and beauty that I missed, and I don't know why or what would have happened. There was just more there that, while one will never get everything, I missed out on too much simply because I didn't try hard enough to get it. I could have had more. I'm not greedy, but it's a confusing and uncertain feeling that I may have pathetically wasted more than I ever should have.

Well, maybe all this comes out of spending only a year there (or 11 months). It really is a very short time, once you come out of it. Those of you considering study abroad, as I have always said... Don't ever give up a full year for a half-year if you have any choice. There is only always more gain than loss.

Mittagspause ("Midday Break")

If you've ever heard the stereotype about Europeans in certain countries, such as Spain, being laid back with time.... Well, it's completely true.

During this month-long intensive language course, we'll all have a 45 minute lunch break every day from 12:15-13:00 .

I usually eat lunch with Marie, a French girl, especially because we have class together, and are better friends with each other within the group. Every day, we typically find me walking at a steady but brisk pace towards the Mensa (the campus cafeteria) in order to make enough time to get there, eat at a comfortable speed, and back before class.

It would probably take me about 8-10 minutes to get to the Mensa, but usually we get there in 15.... because the Europeans I'm with are just not in a hurry. The daily scenario is that I'm a good few steps ahead and usually have to pause my pace every so often so that they can catch up (especially if they're talking).

Not surprisingly, the lack of the time invariably comes to them at a surprise by the time they've sat down with food at the Mensa. I'm done by the time they're halfway through, though we've all got perhaps 10 more minutes to both finish and get all the way back to class. They are shocked that so much time has already elapsed.

Marie tells me about the lunch breaks in France -- minimum of 1 hour, sometimes extending to around 2 hours. She finds it almost outrageous that we only have a 45 minutes lunch break. I don't find it outrageous, but I do find the whole thing kind of funny.

Oh. And let me mention the Spanish students:

Spanish students: "So when you need to go back to class?"
Us: "About 15 more minutes. What about you?"
Spanish students: "Ohh... now. Class started one minute ago." *shrug*

Literally. That was an actual conversation we had. *LOL* And you can bet they won't be back until another 15 minutes, too. I also might mention that Germans are big on punctuality, and consider tardiness to be very rude, so we'll see if this gets interesting further into the month at all!...

45 minutes, though not a great deal of time, is still plenty for me. 45 minutes for the French and Spanish, at least (I should talk to some of the other students and see what they think), is apparently something like writing your doctoral thesis in a week.