Things have improved slightly since my last post. I have tried to overcome my lagging heart by absorbing myself more fully into German life. That means reducing facebook face time and forcing myself into bed sooner. Last night, I finally succeeded in falling asleep before midnight. Actually, I fell asleep around 10pm and woke up at 5.30 this morning! It turns out that the promise of a skype date with Andy in the wee hours provides a strong incentive to wake up. :-) Andy and I had the chance to talk for nearly an hour, which was a nice little taste of home.
The skype date brightened my spirits for the day, but I am also celebrating little victories of embracing my German life. My lightbulb went out this morning and I had to go find the house master to figure out how to fix it. Even with my limited German, I succeeded in obtaining the needed Glühlampe (sounds like Gloompa when spoken by meine housemeisterin) and thus will actually have light tonight. My second little victory actually came from paying bills. Bill payment is rarely a pleasant activity, but I am happy that I successfully navigated my German bank website to pay my student fees for the next semester AND pay my German medical bills. (I should be reimbursed for the bills by my Fulbright health insurance). I successfully paid the bills all by myself. :-) Of course, my bank website comes in English so I cheated a little bit. ;-)
My third little victory came at the post office. I ussually went to the automatic post machines each time I needed stamps for the postcards I mail back to the US. However, the automatic machines only accept Münzen (coinage) and I never carry more than 4 Euros in coins. It became really annoying to walk all the way to the Post just to get 1-2 stamps at a time. Today I was able to ask for and recieve a packet of stamps and make sure that my reimbursement letter for health insurance was mailed. All in German of course! So day by day, my ability to navigate this country becomes easier.
Now for the last little detail...I saw Neo on the bus today! Perhaps I am in the Matrix? A very tall slender man with long black hair stepped onto the bus wearing a long black leather jacket and dark sunglasses. I seriously expected him to break into a fight with an agent at any moment. Perhaps my time in Germany is just a very complex computer simulation?
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1 comment:
charity
glad to hear you're feeling a little better.
believe you me, i know the feeling, when you're sitting there, at 4am [or 5, or 6] and you're going to bed at the same time as people back home, and then you get to thinking about the stuff you're missing.
i'm always around if you need a sympathetic ear.
no, like, literally, too. attached to the computer, now that i'm on "spring break" until april.
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