LINCOLN, NEBRASKA TO MUNICH, GERMANY
Hello everyone! Thank you for taking time out of your busy schedules to stop by my website and read this blog post. For those of you who don’t know me, my name is Alexandra Martin, and I’m a third year doctoral student in Health and Human Sciences. Last October (2018), my advisor asked me into his office for our regular weekly meetings, but his tone seemed ominous immediately. Sure enough, he informed me that he accepted his dream position at the Technical University of Munich in Munich, Germany. Though my first reaction was panic at what I was going to do, he quickly extended a position for me to follow him or stay at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and switch advisors/research agendas, where I had been in some capacity for nearly a decade.
Deciding whether or not to move to Germany was a huge decision that required careful rumination and serious thought - so naturally I decided I wanted to move within two days. After broaching the subject with my then-boyfriend, and now-fiancee, I told him that he should take a considerable amount of time to think about his options, which were as followed: 1) long-distance relationship (which we had done successfully before); 2) move to Germany together and figure it out along the way; and 3) end our relationship as dear friends. While the third option was admittedly terrifying to propose, moving to Germany felt so inherently right for me that I was willing to do whatever it took to see this dream come to fruition.
I’m sure I will mention it frequently over the next year, but getting your PhD, and graduate school generally, is brutal and soul-crushing at times. Every student I interact with on a daily basis has made tremendous sacrifices for the pursuit of knowledge, and when finally faced with a huge, life-changing decision, I knew that I would sacrifice anything to finish my education. To my great happiness, and within about a week, Matthew (sweet baby Matthew aka my fiancee) jumped at the opportunity to move to Germany together, and we slowly told friends and family about our move and embraced this whole experience as a beautiful adventure to grow from.
With that said, the goal over the next year is to fully immerse ourselves in European culture and experience as much as we can. We want to travel as frequently as possible, eat the most amazing street food, and honor the incredible structures and stories that are in abundance all over Europe. The purpose of this blog, for now, is to document this adventure. This next year proves to be invigorating and inspiring, but also tremendously challenging and stimulating in terms of writing a dissertation and living in a different country for the first time.
So join us. Tell us where we absolutely must go in Europe and what we absolutely must do. Have you been to a hole-in-the-wall restaurant that will forever be implanted in your mind? Did you stay at an incredible AirBnB that you can recommend? Though we will be very far away from Nebraska and “the good life,” let’s stay close.