Friday, July 20, 2007

Furniture and Furnishings

I can't believe I've been in Germany for so long! It's wonderful though. I am getting adjusted slowly...

Recently we have been very busy with furnishing our apartment. On Wednesday we spent the day going to used furniture stores and IKEA, deciding what we might get. Then on Thursday we bought a bunch of stuff. Now it feels like we're making real progress. (although we still sleep on a mattress on the ground and have random piles of stuff everywhere). Our big exciting buy is a black faux leather L shaped couch. I really am excited about having a reclining section. That will fit perfectly into the living room.

We also have more storage space in the kitchen, although we probably should have bought a cabinet twice the size.

Anyway, it feels good to be creating space and getting settled. It just takes a looong time.

I also attempted to start German language lessons, but the class really wasn't good. I just went one day and decided it wasn't for me. I'm not sure that I'll really feel comfortable in any 'integration' class, given that I'm a very abnormal integratee. The teacher assumed my German was far better than it is and kept saying that I'd catch on quickly. Perhaps this is true, but I really have had limited formal German instruction. The other class attendants included two Russian women, six men, and two kids from Switzerland. They all did not participate much, so most of the class was the teacher talking. The other problem was that everybody had been attending for four weeks already, so I was way behind. Now I am looking into classes that will start from the beginning. I think that will be a lot better.

For the last two days I have also been a bit under the weather...really sore throat and exhausted when I have to walk far (or wander around IKEA for three hours). So I am sort of taking it easy. Hopefully I'll feel more energetic shortly.

I'm going to try to update more regularly while I have action in my life. When I do have time to update, it will probably be when nothing is happening.

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