Today was great. After sleeping until 2, I managed to wake up still exhausted and upset (moving to a new country is pretty upsetting=. Eating and showering cured everything and Jan and I set out to go couch and grocery shopping. We found two excellent couch prospects.. Both fake leather and both with a lounging section. One is a little more enormous than the other...so I'm leaning toward that one. I really don't believe couches are for sitting - I lie on couches and lean against couches while sitting on the ground..so a couch where two people can lie comfortably was a priority. Shopping in Germany is always an adventure and I even managed to order my own coffee! Progress.
My beautiful sister and I reunited over dinner and I'm can't help but think how lucky I am to have family in this city for my first month. I'm trying to think of ways to convince her to move here after college - I think she might.
Jan and I are going to the Bad tomorrow - the baths... So excited. I am in love with the German concept of floating around in hot water for hours to relax. I also love that at least my German feels the need to relax and re energize - which I wouldn't do on my own in quite the same way.
Well..4:37..maybe I can sleep. The jet lag / change to a normal time schedule is not going so well. Nothing seems to convince my body to fall asleep at the early hour of 8 Boston time. Tomorrow I am out of bed by 12 not matter what. I think that it's completely possible that I could spend months on the old time given the incredible darkness of my bedroom. Germans know how to design blinds that keep every tiny little glimmer of light out. I'm starting to think that's not so good when you have abnormal rhythms anyway.
So - today is much better than yesterday. Life in Germany is looking good.
Saturday, June 30, 2007
Friday, June 29, 2007
In Germanz
I'll leave Germany with a 'Z' because that's what shows up on these crazy German keyboards. It's going to take a while to get used to typing in 'German.' So here is the saga of arrival in Germany:
After a few days of furiously attempting (somewhat successfully) to organize my life and packing I went to the airport with Mom and Dad. Saying good to my amazing parents was really tough, but I was a little shell shocked in general so the enormity of it's just hitting me now, at 3:30am German time. But more on that later.
I flew Aer Lingus, which I do not recommend, for the sole reason that Dublin airport is an insane, disorganized mess. Plus it looks like it comes out of a 50s movie. I had to sprint to make my flight and navigate through thongs of distressed, also late people. Including the lady going to Portugal who cut in line! Some people just have the guts to edge into the front. While somewhat territorial of my place in line, I can't bring myself to brazenly cut. The other Aer Lingus criticism is a dreadful lack of beverage service, leading to severe dehydration when your traveling for half a day.
I had two major concerns pre flight. 1 was being over the weight limit - no problem! The other was being deported from Germany for not having proof of health insurance or something. Luckily, my two immigration officials (one in Dublin, one in Frankfurt) decided to flirt with me instead of interrogating me and there was no problem. I wasted probably hours of my life worrying about this stuff, but you never know.
So, once in Franfurt my wonderful fiance was waiting for me with open arms. He was very enthusiastic. I was too, just a little too half asleep and exhausted to be very demonstrative. It was wonderful to see him and be in Germany again. Then we went and I slept for a few hours, before heading to Freiburg.
In Freiburg I caught my first glimpse of our beautiful apartment. It's really nice and Jan has done a good job of decorating. We're going to have to make a few compromises - like he wants turntables and I want book shelves...but I think that we'll be ok.
And the kitchen that Jan and a carpenter built is amazing. Beautiful new appliances, wooden cabinets...totally incredible.
I met our neighbors who invited us over for dinner which turned into chatting till 2am. I love having them as neighbors already. They are a recently married couple, she's Russian and he's German. In our apartment building (a renovated house) there's a Croatian, an American, 3 Germans, and an Austrian dating a French man. Pretty diverse! I think it will be a wonderful place to live and I hope that we can socialize often.
During dinner we drank a few too many classes of wine leading to a headache. Once in bed everything really hit me though and the tears started flowing. Not distressed tears, just wow my life has just changed incredibly and it's pretty shocking. Also, probably PMS tears and majorly 'I miss my mommy' tears. Reading just now this article: Mommy is truly dearest at - http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/28/fashion/28mommy.html?em&ex=1183176000&en=d21df09bdbd6e1d4&ei=5087%0A
did not help!!
Well..I guess it's time to try and sleep! I have a feeling this blog is going to be excellent for processing what's going on. I anticipate being overwhelmed for some time to come!
After a few days of furiously attempting (somewhat successfully) to organize my life and packing I went to the airport with Mom and Dad. Saying good to my amazing parents was really tough, but I was a little shell shocked in general so the enormity of it's just hitting me now, at 3:30am German time. But more on that later.
I flew Aer Lingus, which I do not recommend, for the sole reason that Dublin airport is an insane, disorganized mess. Plus it looks like it comes out of a 50s movie. I had to sprint to make my flight and navigate through thongs of distressed, also late people. Including the lady going to Portugal who cut in line! Some people just have the guts to edge into the front. While somewhat territorial of my place in line, I can't bring myself to brazenly cut. The other Aer Lingus criticism is a dreadful lack of beverage service, leading to severe dehydration when your traveling for half a day.
I had two major concerns pre flight. 1 was being over the weight limit - no problem! The other was being deported from Germany for not having proof of health insurance or something. Luckily, my two immigration officials (one in Dublin, one in Frankfurt) decided to flirt with me instead of interrogating me and there was no problem. I wasted probably hours of my life worrying about this stuff, but you never know.
So, once in Franfurt my wonderful fiance was waiting for me with open arms. He was very enthusiastic. I was too, just a little too half asleep and exhausted to be very demonstrative. It was wonderful to see him and be in Germany again. Then we went and I slept for a few hours, before heading to Freiburg.
In Freiburg I caught my first glimpse of our beautiful apartment. It's really nice and Jan has done a good job of decorating. We're going to have to make a few compromises - like he wants turntables and I want book shelves...but I think that we'll be ok.
And the kitchen that Jan and a carpenter built is amazing. Beautiful new appliances, wooden cabinets...totally incredible.
I met our neighbors who invited us over for dinner which turned into chatting till 2am. I love having them as neighbors already. They are a recently married couple, she's Russian and he's German. In our apartment building (a renovated house) there's a Croatian, an American, 3 Germans, and an Austrian dating a French man. Pretty diverse! I think it will be a wonderful place to live and I hope that we can socialize often.
During dinner we drank a few too many classes of wine leading to a headache. Once in bed everything really hit me though and the tears started flowing. Not distressed tears, just wow my life has just changed incredibly and it's pretty shocking. Also, probably PMS tears and majorly 'I miss my mommy' tears. Reading just now this article: Mommy is truly dearest at - http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/28/fashion/28mommy.html?em&ex=1183176000&en=d21df09bdbd6e1d4&ei=5087%0A
did not help!!
Well..I guess it's time to try and sleep! I have a feeling this blog is going to be excellent for processing what's going on. I anticipate being overwhelmed for some time to come!
Monday, June 18, 2007
Time to Pack
In two hours Jan arrives to help me pack and visit, before I'm off. I have incredible amounts of STUFF and I need to sort it out. Luckily, that stuff is mostly clothing. But given that I haven't changed sizes in around 10 years now, and I hold on to those clothes I like, there are lots of them. But out with the clothes - in with Germany. I can only take 3 suitcases worth, so I better choose well. I don't think I'll do much clothes shopping once I get there, because the only store I seem to like is H&M..but who knows, maybe I'll discover something more. During my stint in Italy as an AFS student I managed to buy 1 shirt in a year, mostly because the Italians of Sardegna are tiny compared to me the giantess. I think that I'll fit into clothes in Germany though, so that's a plus.
I just had a cavity filled and X rays taken. My dental situation isn't horrible, but I have got to start flossing. Yuck. Also called about getting an encephalitis vaccine-apparently the ticks of the Black Forest are infecting people these days, but you can't get it in the US. I'll have to look into in Germany.
I just had a cavity filled and X rays taken. My dental situation isn't horrible, but I have got to start flossing. Yuck. Also called about getting an encephalitis vaccine-apparently the ticks of the Black Forest are infecting people these days, but you can't get it in the US. I'll have to look into in Germany.
Saturday, June 16, 2007
Getting Started
Under the recommendation of my much more computer literate sister Carolyn, I am starting a blog. In a short 1.5 weeks I am moving to Germany and starting a new life. I'm getting married, living in my very first apartment, starting a job in Switzerland and over all having MAJOR LIFE CHANGES. It's exciting, it's pretty scary, and I can't wait. I figure writing about it and having a record of what's going on will help me process everything and generally vent. Also, it's a good way to keep in touch with my wonderful family whom I love very much and will miss horribly. I am making a promise to myself to keep this up so that I can look back and read over time.
Onto more exciting things. Wedding dresses!!!! I'm not so into the whole planning of weddings- but I am very into looking good in dresses and picking them out. So I will post my summer wedding dress. It reminds me of Degas' dancers and I love it. Although I will never be a ballerina (way to ungraceful and generally uncoordinated), I can at least dress like one.
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