Okay, so, I have been a bit of a slacker with the blog posts, and I will endeavor to do better. It's strange how fast this past week went; it seems a bit crazy to me that I've already been here more than two weeks. I have thoroughly impressed myself with my ability to procrastinate.

While I still go through spells of feeling utterly isolated and alone in this foreign land, in many ways I am settling in quite nicely. I am fortunate that the folks at the Institute are quite friendly. On the vast majority of days, I can count on having someone to go to lunch/coffee with, since I've been here I've been to a few parties and multiple dinners out, and last night I went out dancing with a group of girls. The last was a fun experience for a number of reasons; first, it's nice not to be the only awkward female academic on the dance floor. But also nice to be with others who seem to embrace or at least own the fact that they are lacking rhythm, and who will just go for it, regardless. This group is extraordinarily international- five girls, five countries, and there is no one language all of us share. Seems to mean that there will be a lot of French spoken around me, but, I have taken French on multiple occasions in my past, so maybe I'll start to pick up bits and pieces again? One can hope. I suppose I *should* focus on my German before thinking about any other languages, tho.

I think that's what is on the docket for today- German language CDs. I really should have started with those months ago, and, at the least, since I arrived here, but I've been spending my evenings chatting with people online rather than working, so, yeah. One of my friends proposed that I really need to wean myself away from the internet- from my connections with people at home- ostensibly because it could take away from my time/focus on my life here, and getting to know people here. And I'm sure that as I continue to settle in here, I won't spend quite so much time on the computer, but for now, I'm glad to have the support network.

Time for Sunday chores...