a semester in strasbourg

I have been putting off posting for the past several days because I haven’t really known what to write here.  Last weekend, I met up with Shelly (a friend from CMC) to go to Oktoberfest in Munich.  We arrived Friday morning and stayed until Sunday.  Friday night, when we got back to our hostel, I ran into another student from my program in Strasbourg who told me that earlier that day, Matt, a student from our program, had died suddenly. We still do not know exactly what happened, but as far as I know, they think it had something to do with a pre-existing heart condition he had.  We had a memorial service for Matt last night at the SU Center and resumed classes.  Even though I wasn’t especially close with Matt, the program was small enough that we were definitely friendly and it is very weird not having him around, in classes, hanging out…he had a really strong presence, and will be missed.

Obviously, this news put somewhat of a damper on Oktoberfest, though Shelly (and lots of beer) managed to distract me enough to have fun.  I don’t really know what to say about Oktoberfest other than that it was exactly what I expected: loud, crazy, dancing and singing Germans, amazing costumes, crowded…we arrived at 8:30 Saturday morning to get into a beer tent, and were sitting at a table with liters of beer by 10:15 am.  Since my parents do read this blog, I think I will refrain from saying much else (but don’t worry, Mom and Dad…I was good!) I have some good Shelly stories, so if you want to hear them you will have to ask me (and I am sure she says the same about me, but I swear it’s not true!)

Tonight I go to the first meeting for my stage at TV Campus, the university TV station. More later.