Moinchen, Anna,
Kodak Darkroom dataguide 1990 had some advice, which is summarized here:
Addendum: additional interesting data here A Practical Guide to Using Film Characteristic Curves | Film Shooters Collective
MfG
Claes in Lund, Schweden
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Well, bit off topic: I left my first film at a local drug store last week on Wednesday and now I am dyieng. They still have not developed it. Although, it is written on the envelope that it takes 10 days + weekends/holidays. But I am really on the edge of a nervous breakdown.
Mmmmm… Bit of an obfuscated piece of text, isn’t it. There’s at least 1 weekend in the 10 days mentioned. So, do or don’t you have to add 2 days to that number?
Anyway: Good things come to those that are patient 
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Well I guess it just means 14 days if you hand in the film on a Friday.
You have no idea how much I have waited in my life!
No, I don’t! I do know how long I’ve been waiting and I’m sure we both agree that at times it takes to fricking long…
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Well. I gave up waiting quite a few times in my life. Actually, most things that I waited for, never came.
Usually, I was waiting for people to change or things to improve, but eventually I realized that it was pointless.
A very typical example: I waited one year for a professor to read my thesis. Eventually my thesis was accepted, but not by him.
I think I need to learn how to develop film myself.
I think that many people do. Some of us are just too nice and, at least initially, too naive. Takes us a while to realize this. Don’t want to turn this in to a gloomy topic, so I’m not going to elaborate.
It is nice to read that your thesis did get accepted though!
I used to have my own B&W dark room back in the day (think 80’s and early 90’s). It is really nice to be able to develop film and create prints, but not all that easy to do it correctly. I think doing this will improve ones ideas about photography and that analog and digital are actually rather different even though they have an, obvious, overlap.
I still think that, when it comes to B&W, nothing beats the end result of the b&w film to paper process. Silver halyde crystals beats digital pixels/noise (there’s no real grain in digital) every single time!
I do know that most is seen on some sort of digital surface nowadays, which negates the beauty of a very good print on paper. I’m all but sure that you’ve been to photo exhibitions, so I think you know what I’m talking about here.
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Well, I just want to add one more thing: recently a friend of mine had her film developed at the same drug store and she waited 8 or 9 days. So apparently they can be faster than 10 days + weekends as well.
If waiting isn’t your thing, you should probably stick with digital rather than film. 
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The good thing about waiting is that we have somewhat forgotten the photos we took and the reasons we took them, so can see them with fresh eyes. I see the emotion the photo conveys, rather than the emotion I felt when taking the photo, or the emotion I am still feeling when glancing at the camera screen.
I still have a darkroom, aka bathroom. It frightens visitors who think the 5x4 enlarger with its system of pulleys is an instrument of torture.
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that thought did cross my mind. I guess it depends on the results.
However, my friend was also quite nervous and impatient before she got back her film.
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Well. The lab destroyed my film. They put a sorry-letter (stating that they accidentally destroyed my film) into the envelope and a cheap new Kodak Gold film roll.
Time to find a new lab!
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The hardest part of developing film these days is sourcing the supplies never mind, went to look , C-41 two-bath kits seem to be widely available, at least in the US. That, a tank, and a loading bag (or a very dark room to load the tank’s reel with the film), and you’re processing film.
Here’s a chemical kit that seems dirt-simple to use:
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Ok. Meanwhile I got 2 films back, a Portra400 and an Ultramax400. I had a closer look at Portra. I think at least one stop of underexposure can be recovered quite well with Portra400, digitally.
Why not just meter well and try to expose correctly?
Because I am too lazy to carry a tripod with me all the time?
I don’t follow what does a tripod have to do with metering your scene?
There used to be a shop, at the central train station, that would develop a film with an index print, on site, in a few hours. Not that long ago, 2009.
Well, even with an ISO 400 film, I find myself sometimes in the situation the situation that the film is not sensitive enough if I don’t want to create motion blur. E.g. if a forest is very dense. Overexposure is easier to control, especially with an ND filter. Consequently, I need to underexpose slightly if I don’t want to create motion blur.