Back to school

These last few weeks have been scary good.

I first had the hard decision to choose between an opportunity to go back to school, or to take up a job at the Indonesian Consulate in Frankfurt.  I bet I created some enemies with my final decision, but oh well, I also hope not, who knows.  And then my husband and I got this crazy idea, well, more my idea actually, that in the 2 weeks time between registering time and the beginning of the semester I could actually visit Yemen.  

And there I was.  In Yemen again, after more than 1,5 years away.  Strangely, things at the house haven't changed that much.  As a matter of fact, on the surface, things don't change that much.  I am one of those unprivileged people, who had no real contact with the people on the street to find out what it actually means for them, but I didn't feel any unsafer, or safer, than I was before.  Not even when we were driving in a 'restricted' area for caucasians.  With my being so often mistaken as being a Filipina, I had considerably less restriction when it comes to my movement, although to be honest, I was also extra cautious.  It would be stupid if a week of impromptu visit to Yemen had ended up not so pleasingly, wouldn't it?

Had some troubles with the stopover both way in Dubai, with Emirates Airline, but there's enough material to write another full post on that one....unfortunately.

Safely landed back in Frankfurt, I realized that I didn't come home unscathed from my visit to Yemen.  You see, during my visit, my husband had a nasty cold, and of course words such as , 'You'd better watch that I don't get sick on the first week of school,' didn't really stop the virus from actually infecting me.  So with my temperature keep raising and head thumping, I was understandably not very enthusiastic for the first day of school.  When the thermometer showed 38 ++ Celcius, husband tried to stop me from going to school, but a couple of Paracetamol tablets later, I could hold on long enough to survive the first 4 hours of class.  

Wow... and s*it.... I am back to school...

Time and time again, I am still wondering whether I have what it takes to study again.  Especially after I sent that mail to the Consulate, expressing my regret of not being able to take up the position, and hoping that they will not put me on a blacklist for being so ungrateful.  And even worse when it slowly dawned on me what a Master program means, almost every single class is seminar, except the language classes. No courses, just seminars.  And I don't know either whether one day I will finally understand the difference between old plain Seminar, Proseminar, and Hauptseminar, and how it contributes to my chances of surviving the program.  Oh well...if I provide a very bad example, maybe next time they wouldn't take any Master student from people outside their BA graduates.  So, please beforehand accept my sincere apologies, dear people who are interested in taking Master in Southeast Asian Studies at Goethe University, who are not currently taking their Bachelor program.  But then you'd better wish me luck, because otherwise you won't get your chance ;)

Anyway, I guess it's time to stop freaking up.  Decisions are taken, and though I have to admit that I feel quite loss in this jungle of academic jargon out here in Frankfurt, I am hoping that by simply pushing for it would get me somewhere. Oh, and I still have to somehow overcome my aversion to libraries.... Seriously, am I crazy to put myself through this?

Hoping that you had a less nervewracking beginning of the week.

Frankfurt, October 16, 2012.