- 24 years old
- born and grown up in Germany (more... )
- Hobbies: Swing dancing, fotos, books, sports...
- list of things I want to do before I die (more... )
- travels (more... )
- favorite fun stuff
I was born in December, 30th, 1984. I grew up in Zwingenberg, which is a small city of 5000 people between Frankfurt and Heidelberg. My time at the Altes Kurfürstliches Gymnasium in Bensheim was mostly characterized by any fun activities me and my friends could think of - involving barbecues with 70s music in the woods, excessive house parties and visiting cities such as Heidelberg, Strasbourg, Luxemburg, Leipzig, Berlin... At that time, I also owned the car I had dreamed of since the first time I had seen one: A Rover Mini Cooper. I spent a lot of time with that car, both driving in and working on it (the latter mostly involved getting rid of rost).
After high school, I moved to Freiburg im Breisgau to study Psychology. I was lucky to find a place to live next to the soccer stadium, right at the Dreisam with nice housemates. Housemates changed every now and again, but I enjoyed living there a lot: Barbecues in the garden, breakfast on the balcony, soccer fans coming along on Sundays (and after the descent of the SC Freiburg on Monday evenings), biking (I had to sell my car, and bought a camera instead) to school besides the river...
Also beyond my apartment, my life in Freiburg wasn't bad at all. I enjoyed going out in the inner city, either just sitting around on the Augustiner Platz, in someone's house, or in some café - or go out dancing.
I wasn't really aware of the fact that my Freiburg life would be over with a 3-month summer internship in Pittsburgh. If someone had told me this when my best friend Sara gave me a ride to the airport in July, 2007, I probably wouldn't have gotten on the plane... But I arrived in Pittsburgh, intrigued by the academic flair at CMU - so I decided to extend my stay for another 6 months. Gradually, I came to feel more and more at home in Pittsburgh.
I ended up being accepted into the Ph.D. program at CMU starting in Fall, 2008. I then went back to Germany for a few months, having a surprisingly hard time to readjust. But after the European Soccer Cup had started, I was totally back into it again! I ended up having a lot of fun visiting friends and family, while trying to keep a good balance of work and social life.
When I had to leave Freiburg, I was actually pretty sad, but I had a very good start back in Pittsburgh. In August, I moved in together in a gigantic appartment (even for American standards, I guess), and my moving-around finally had an end. I'm now so happy that I finally have all my stuff in one place! Well, I also started my PhD, then, but that's a different story...