Woo!

Hey hey hey, I've very happy today and I'd like to share with you all the reason why! I received an email this morning from the school offering me a scholarship to pay all my tuition fees for the next 3 semesters. Woo! The Haniel Foundation will give me 4500 euros (6160 USD) over the course of the next year and half to finance my studies. Rock on! That's the biggest scholarship I've ever gotten and I'm pretty excited about it because it reduces my education costs a whole helluva lot. By the way, the Haniel Foundation coordinates lots of research and study-travel events and they provide a lot of money for exchange between Europe, Asia and USA. Here's a little note about their goals taken from their website:

The Haniel Foundation concentrates on four main areas in its work. Firstly, it supports young talent with scholarships for study trips and internships abroad and with pupils' academies. Its main focus here is on Europe, Asia and the USA. Secondly, the foundation works with selected universities to establish courses encouraging international knowledge transfer. Thirdly, it sets up platforms for exchanging opinions and experiences. For example, experts from business, politics and society discuss global developments at its events. And fourthly, the Haniel Foundation supports projects which help young people achieve a better level of education.

They have several partnerships with specific programs and one of the biggest beneficiaries of the money is the Willy Brandt School and I know several other classmates that also are receiving money from them. Glad I could join the ranks!

However, I can't take full responsibility for this good news, because the reason I got the money now was because one of my classmates is moving to the Berlin to attend the Hertie School, which is the big name policy school in Germany, meaning I inherited his scholarship money. I'm sad to see him leave because he was a very nice and fun person to talk to. But I am overjoyed that I was given his remaining funds and I hope I can carry on somewhat in his legacy. Here's to you, Lukas!  Of course I also have to be very gracious to my family who have helped me get here, and especially to Erika for living with me during this time. But it's really great being able to breathe easier and I imagine I will have a sound sleep tonight.

I'm still waiting to hear back from the DAAD scholarship which I applied for in November as well. If they select me then I will have to choose between one scholarship or the other, but since I still don't know those results, I'm very happy to have this one in the bag already.

Whew! This news combined with the beautiful weather this month has been an excellent boost of positivity. Today was about 50F, clear and sunny, and a slight breeze. Ich liebe frische Luft! Sorry to hear all the wicked weather news stateside, but all I see is an incentive for people to visit me next year. Although, it worries me that all the good things will come at once and there will be a shitty day soon, but I'll let future possibilities bother me when they are present realities.

EDIT: I discovered the name of my actual benefactor, it wasn't Amit as I had originally thought, but a German by the name of Lukas. So I changed the details around up above.