Thursday, January 29, 2009
Wacky, Crazy Deutschland
So I was planning on posting a follow-up to my last post, but I am too scatter-brained to do that. Instead, I'd like to share the following things:
1) I was granted a 6-month visa today with the option to renew. WOOHOO!
2) German governmental agencies confuse the shit out of me, but I have found that a smile goes a long way, even here.
3) Today, I saw a woman comfortably riding a bike in stilettos. You go, girl.
4) Minutes prior, I saw a woman riding a bike with a kid in front of her, and a baby behind her. Wowzers, gadget! All I could think of was how awful it would be if the lot of them crashed. It was kind of neat, regardless.
5) I opened a checking and savings account this afternoon. As part of the process, the bank dude took apart the telephone my employer lent me. He needed the serial number and some identification information from the battery. Weird. That shit is lost in translation.
6) My roommate leaves the windows open all the time, to air the apartment out. It is driving me bat-shit crazy. I understand that it is good to air out the place, but ALL DAY?! In the dead of WINTER? NO, not good. We will be discussing this soon.
Anyway, that's all I got at the moment.
Peace out.
1) I was granted a 6-month visa today with the option to renew. WOOHOO!
2) German governmental agencies confuse the shit out of me, but I have found that a smile goes a long way, even here.
3) Today, I saw a woman comfortably riding a bike in stilettos. You go, girl.
4) Minutes prior, I saw a woman riding a bike with a kid in front of her, and a baby behind her. Wowzers, gadget! All I could think of was how awful it would be if the lot of them crashed. It was kind of neat, regardless.
5) I opened a checking and savings account this afternoon. As part of the process, the bank dude took apart the telephone my employer lent me. He needed the serial number and some identification information from the battery. Weird. That shit is lost in translation.
6) My roommate leaves the windows open all the time, to air the apartment out. It is driving me bat-shit crazy. I understand that it is good to air out the place, but ALL DAY?! In the dead of WINTER? NO, not good. We will be discussing this soon.
Anyway, that's all I got at the moment.
Peace out.
Saturday, January 17, 2009
Arrival, Part I
I have writer’s block. It seems ridiculous to me that I haven’t written one million blog entries since I arrived in Deutschland 8 days ago, but alas, it is true. I have given this silence quite a bit of thought and have decided that there is simply too much to say, so I was sort of opting to say nothing at all. Much easier that way.
In hopes of getting the words rolling and the blogs coming, I am just going to start slow. So here is how it all went down, part one.
After a lot of planning, packing and crying, I left Boston on January 6th and headed to New York for two days. My original flight was cancelled at some point last autumn, so when I went to rebook the ticket, every itinerary was going to route me through New York, but for like, a gazillion dollars. I was like, screw that, I can get to New York for 15 bones on the Fung Wah or Lucky Star, so I figured I’d just do that and save myself some cash. Then, Jet Blue, being the awesome company they are, randomly gave me a $50 flight voucher for some silly reason, and I was like, screw taking the bus to NYC, I’ll just fly! I figured it would be nice to have a couple of days in NYC, still in the States, full of laughter, fabulous friends and good food. I was correct. Plus, it was really nice to spend my last two days NOT packing and running around like a crazy person. I was able to simply enjoy the time and ease on out.
The flight over was peaceful and I slept the majority of it. I have been blessed with the ability to sleep in pretty much any situation, regardless of my comfort level. Truly a gift. It’s like my superpower. That, and my ability to hibernate for hours on end. I’m like Super Sleep Girl or some shit. Slumber Woman.
I landed in Frankfurt on a layover and had to scramble to find my gate and get through customs in time to make my connection. I hit the first ATM I could find, because I was not able to find a water fountain in the terminal to refill my water bottle, and had to purchase a bottle. The Germans seem to think tap water is not exactly fit for consumption, but I’m not quite sure on this yet. They do dig their mineral water, no pun intended.
So yeah, hit the Geldautomat, got me some Euros and wasser and got ready to board my next flight. Flying over the country was beautiful—lots of hills and snow and sunlight, and a whole lot of “Holy crap, that’s Germany!!!” going on in my head.
My AMAZING friend Anna greeted me in Hamburg with a sandwich, some Apfelschorle and lots of sweets. Very kind of her.
The worst part of the entire journey was when I attempted to maneuver one of my gigantic suitcases and my carry-on bag onto the escalator. The carry-on contained my brand-spanking-new laptop and as I got on the escalator, it fell off the large suitcase and literally bounced, BOUNCED, down the entire thing. BOUNCED. I howled in laptop pain, anticipating the worst, but it was and is fine. A miracle.
I calmed down and we hopped on the train, which warrants an entire post, and headed to my apartment so I could shower and see the new place.
I think that is a good start, peeps. More soon.
Hope you are all well,
mj
In hopes of getting the words rolling and the blogs coming, I am just going to start slow. So here is how it all went down, part one.
After a lot of planning, packing and crying, I left Boston on January 6th and headed to New York for two days. My original flight was cancelled at some point last autumn, so when I went to rebook the ticket, every itinerary was going to route me through New York, but for like, a gazillion dollars. I was like, screw that, I can get to New York for 15 bones on the Fung Wah or Lucky Star, so I figured I’d just do that and save myself some cash. Then, Jet Blue, being the awesome company they are, randomly gave me a $50 flight voucher for some silly reason, and I was like, screw taking the bus to NYC, I’ll just fly! I figured it would be nice to have a couple of days in NYC, still in the States, full of laughter, fabulous friends and good food. I was correct. Plus, it was really nice to spend my last two days NOT packing and running around like a crazy person. I was able to simply enjoy the time and ease on out.
The flight over was peaceful and I slept the majority of it. I have been blessed with the ability to sleep in pretty much any situation, regardless of my comfort level. Truly a gift. It’s like my superpower. That, and my ability to hibernate for hours on end. I’m like Super Sleep Girl or some shit. Slumber Woman.
I landed in Frankfurt on a layover and had to scramble to find my gate and get through customs in time to make my connection. I hit the first ATM I could find, because I was not able to find a water fountain in the terminal to refill my water bottle, and had to purchase a bottle. The Germans seem to think tap water is not exactly fit for consumption, but I’m not quite sure on this yet. They do dig their mineral water, no pun intended.
So yeah, hit the Geldautomat, got me some Euros and wasser and got ready to board my next flight. Flying over the country was beautiful—lots of hills and snow and sunlight, and a whole lot of “Holy crap, that’s Germany!!!” going on in my head.
My AMAZING friend Anna greeted me in Hamburg with a sandwich, some Apfelschorle and lots of sweets. Very kind of her.
The worst part of the entire journey was when I attempted to maneuver one of my gigantic suitcases and my carry-on bag onto the escalator. The carry-on contained my brand-spanking-new laptop and as I got on the escalator, it fell off the large suitcase and literally bounced, BOUNCED, down the entire thing. BOUNCED. I howled in laptop pain, anticipating the worst, but it was and is fine. A miracle.
I calmed down and we hopped on the train, which warrants an entire post, and headed to my apartment so I could shower and see the new place.
I think that is a good start, peeps. More soon.
Hope you are all well,
mj
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