I’ve been keeping this blog up for over a year now, which means that my gap year is almost up and I’ll be back in school alarmingly soon. Like any other period of my life, this past year didn’t go exactly as I’d expected. Being an au pair turned out to be an even less glamorous job than I’d thought. Two hundred and sixty Euros is way less money than I had originally thought. As for my novel and my German skills I can’t decide if I’m satisfied with my progress or not, but that there has been progress on both is undeniable.

I was also naively confident at the beginning of this year that Rutgers would take one look at my grades, my LSAT score and my New Jersey residency and accept me with open arms. I’m still on the waiting list. I was also naively confident that one of the companies that was calling Ader and begging him to come in for an interview would offer him a job and a three year project in whichever US city I wound up in. He’s still looking for something. Even if he found and accepted a job in Miami today, he still has to give his current company three months notice before leaving. So it’s basically guaranteed that I’ll be starting law school alone.

Even so, I’m excited about the next few months. Work is almost over. I told Beata that I’m definitely leaving by July 6^th, and sooner if she finds a replacement for me sooner. I would of course still like to leave earlier and have more time to travel/see my friends/write, but I’m not so anxious to go now that I was promised at least one day a week free. I’m working this weekend and every day next week, but next weekend I’m not working at all and (fingers crossed) I’ll be home alone. Beata is supposed to take Julia to Allgäu and I’m really really hopeful that Gregor won’t be back from wherever he is by then. I also don’t have my German classes for the next two weeks, which gives me six free mornings.

Then in the beginning of July I’m either going to Paris—it depends on if Ader has to go on a business trip or not—or traveling around Germany for a week. Then it’s back to Munich for the last weekend (maybe with Ader if I’m lucky) to throw myself a goodbye party. Then I have about a week in New Jersey to  see everyone and go to a real beach, and then (assuming that Rutgers doesn’t come around) I’ll have to go down to Miami and get myself set up there before the first day of classes on August 21, which I’m finally feeling ready for.

It’s not possible to die of boredom because I’m still alive. If every weekend is going to be like this I’m definitely going to ask if I can leave early. I just need to figure out how early I can afford to go because I do want to squeeze in one more German class. It’s not like it’s torture here in Allgäu. In some ways it’s actually better here-I sleep in a room with windows, there’s plenty of good healthy food to eat, and I like Helmer about a million times better than I like Gregor. However. It’s sooooo boring here. I miss having a social life, the majority of which took place on the weekends, and I miss having at least one day of the week completely free. (According to my contract I should have two.)

I’ll admit that taking care of Julia isn’t hard, and it’s usually even pretty enjoyable. Still, I don’t want to do it every single day between now and July eighteenth. I’d still need to look but I think June 16^th would be a good day to go. That would leave me just over four weeks free. For two of them I’d probably have to live in a hostel so I could finish my class, which ends on July 4^th, then I’d probably go to Paris for a week and a half, then back to Munich because that’s where I fly out of, and I’d like to see all my friends one last time. Yep, sounds like a plan. I guess I just need to wait for the right moment to ask now.

But then I would probably be keener on staying if, for example, we set something up where my Taschengeld would be automatically transferred into my account and I only had to come here every other weekend. Okay, it will have to be discussed. But if I do get to go earlier I could really take advantage of the Bayern Ticket and see more of Bavaria. And without any real time restrictions I could use the Schönes-Wochenende-Ticket to go to other places in Germany I’m always saying I want to visit like Hamburg and Cologne and Essen. Actually, a long train ride sounds really nice. Pack some sandwiches and books and inflatable neck pillow…is it weird that that sounds like heaven to me right now? Like if a genie popped out of a bottle right now that’s what I’d wish for?

Well, no matter what I’m going to Paris on May sixteenth. Actually, I’m leaving Munich on May 16^th, spending a night in the airport in Brussels, and then getting to Paris first thing in the morning on the seventeenth. And then we’re going to Disney and a chateau that I don’t remember the name of which also has a zoo and a botanical garden. My point is that I have a lot to look forward to, I just need to remind myself sometimes.