13 Things (That Happened to Me Yesterday)

Yes, my lovely followers, it's true, I'm finally in Chemnitz!

I'll be posting photos soon, but for now because I'm still a wee bit jet-lagged, here's a list of a what happened to me yesterday (or was it the day before yesterday? Anyway, it doesn't matter):

1) A long plane ride to Amsterdam (Note to Self: get aisle seat next time)

2) A long wait at the Amsterdam airport for the flight to Berlin where Your Humble Blogger who never drinks coffee, discovered the joys of being fully awake thanks to coffee.  I WAS NEVER MORE AWAKE IN MY ENTIRE LIFE.  And then it wore off and I wasn't. Bummer.

3) A very short, but very embarrassing bus ride to the main train station in Berlin with all my luggage. Contrary to popular belief, some Americans can speak German and we understand just perfectly when being scolded by Germans. (Note to Self: Take taxi next time.)

4) Hanging out the Berlin train station and munching on the world's biggest Bretzel.  Am happy to report that it was delicious and perfect.  Also happy to report that using the ticket kiosks in the train station brought back all my latent German, including several swear words.

5) Train from Berlin to Leipzig.  Met an adorable little old lady on the train who wanted nothing more to chat with me in English until she got kicked out of her seat by someone with a reservation. Also learned about seat reservations on trains.

6) Train from Leipzig to Chemnitz.  A group of drunk punk-goth gypsies (yes, you read that right) got kicked off the train.  Sadly, most of the yelling and the police intervention happened on the platform, not on the train, so no gossip.

7) My cooperating teacher, Andrea, picked me up from the train station!! She even had a little sign! I was so happy to see her.  She loaded up all my luggage into her car (it fit, thank goodness) and she drove me around town a bit.  We went into the city center to get dinner where....

8) We ran into Maria and Kaylee, two of the ETAs from last year in Chemnitz.  Luckily, Maria recognized me from my photos on Facebook! Huzzah for the internet!

9) After dinner, Andrea took me to my apartment where my landlord, who is really nice, gave me a pick of 4 rooms in several WGs (Wohngemeinschaft aka a flat share) in the apartment which he both lives in and renovates.  I am the first person to live in this new WG so I may be all by my lonesome until October, when the semester at the Uni starts.  I picked a big room with lots of natural light on the 3rd floor and I have a lovely view of a little park behind the apartment.

10) Andrea is amazing - for many reasons, but especially because she brought me sheets and towels!

11) Maria and Kaylee draw me a city map on a pizza box lid since I have no paper.

12) The three of us head down to Lidl and I get some food for breakfast. Mmmmm yogurt and Musli. I feel German already.

13) I crash onto my new bed for a blissful 14 hours of sleeping.

In Case You Were Wondering How I Feel Right Now

(You probably weren't, but I'm going to tell you anyway.)

This has been my life today.

Frantically doing laundry:

 

Discovering I scheduled multiple appointments at the same time on the same day:

Apparently I can't be at the dentist and getting my hair cut at the same time? 

Trying to fix that:

Unable to find my Official Fulbright letter:

Trying to make lunch while my brain melts:

Overall:

How to Avoid a Pre-Departure Panic Attack in 8 Easy Steps

Step 1: Refuse to quit your 9-5 job until the last possible minute. Being forced to wake up early and go to bed early leaves little time for pondering the terrors of being abroad.  Practice the zen of the cash register, my friends.

Step 2: Find a tv show or book that you've forgotten about or everyone has been talking about and become ridiculously invested it. Worry about the problems of fictional people and remind yourself that your life could be much worse.  Like Breaking Bad worse.

Step 3: Take up a large, time consuming project.  Like souffle-making.  Or knitting a sweater on size zero needles.  Or an enormous cross stitch pattern.  Something that goes along well with Step 2.

Step 4: Don't pack until the last possible minute. Otherwise, you'll just keep having to do laundry because you'll take favorites out of commission. No thank you.

Step 5: Visit with friends and family and try to avoid talking about going abroad.  Pretend you have a normal job like a normal college graduate to obscure the truth that you're absconding off to Europe. (Plus, bonus points, you get to be with the people you love.)

Step 6: Take out the empty suitcases you plan on packing at the 11th hour in an attempt to fool the Parental Units into believing that you have outgrown your college ways of procrastination.

Step 7: Every time you feel like crying, swallow it deep inside you.  Hysterical sobbing should be reserved for the plane ride.

And...

Step 8: Make sure you put your passport in spot where you can remember where you put it when you're frantically packing on the eve of traveling.

Of Course Everything Comes Together Last Minute...

A couple of days ago, I got an email from my coordinating teacher.

In English! (Gasp!)

Who seems really, really nice.

She also complimented me on my German.

Oh, stop it.

And I got an email from the former ETA there and he just about gushed rainbows and kittens about the school, the faculty, and the students.

Which made me really, really happy.

But best of all....

 I finally have an apartment!!

So I guess I should start thinking about packing?

Nahhhh, probably not.