Always Watching

For the first time since arriving in Germany I have a sense of time passing as my internal clock told me that today was Sunday . . . and thus my short legs practically sleepwalked me to the St. Paulus (powell-oose) Kirche, about 2 minutes walk from my apartment, at the (ironically) god-forsaken hour of 9:15am. I had read on the church's website that Hochmesse would be celebrated at 9:30 and, in an effort to reform my late-ways, I left early. It turned out that the internet was (of all things!) incorrect, and mass did not start until 10am. So God and I became reaquainted in the German language as I feverishly tried to relearn the "Unser Vater" auf deutsch. Then I learned that this mass was not just any mass, but a celebration of Father Norbert's retirment. 2.5 hours later, the celebration was finally over. It was an amazing mass though, despite the length, with some really great songs and everyone was so nice! I actually ran into two people who I know -- Frau Kramer who is a teacher at Sean's school and Frau Astrid Gerlach who is the Fremdsprachenleiterin at GSG. They both found me and said hello! It was amazing 1) to be recognized and 2) to have people care enough to say hi and give me hugs. Definitely made my day. *I was definitely dressed to impress in a pilsy, off-white (originally white) fleece, brown capris and (matching - hah) black shoes.*
It is actually sunny here today, which is incredible! I had such a nice walk back from mass and now am sitting at the internet cafe admiring the blue sky. Sean and I are going to walk around today and be tourists. We plan to take lots of pictures and generally be nerdy! So be prepared for more pics soon. Our wine/cheese/movie day went splendidly yesterday and we ate 75% of a Weizenbrot loaf, 2 wheels of herbed brie cheese and drank a bottle of Riesling out of aperatif glasses because we couldn't find any wine glasses? A gorgeous wooden thing on which to display our sliced bread, sure, but wine glasses are apparently just too much to ask.
Yesterday I also visited two apartments. One was absoltulely perfect! Two girls (i would be the third), a giagantic room with nice windows facing Theaterstr. right in the Innenstadt. Wireless internet, a nice kitchen, bathroom, washing machine, one of the girls even dances ballet (a little).It is a little on the expensive side, and they had two other girls coming to look at it last night. But I should hear back today, so keep your fingers crossed for me! The other one Sean and I went to together and it was also really nice and in der nahe von Sausalitos -- a mexican restaurant that occassionally has .49Euro drink parties (ALL drinks are 49 cents) -- which would make the walk home somewhat less harrowing. After apartments, we went shopping for more cheese and, oddly enough, chocolate. Then finished our movie night with the rest of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and Boondock Saints --> I had never seen, SO GOOD! Made me miss Boston, as Sean anticipated. Hearing the words "Comm Ave." made me feel at home. haha!
I can feel my german getting better (even if it would still earn an "F" in a school) and I am very comfortable communicating at this point, even if what I am saying is completely grammatically incorrect. At least I'm talking! Sean and I help each other along, so it's good. Well, usually he helps me, but I have the occasional good fortune of clarifying something for him. As in, it's happened twice. Tomorrow we are off to Altenberg (near Koeln) for a 4 day orientation conference. There I will have the "First Encounter" . . . ugh. Will dress my best!

Saturday Morning Rain is Falling

Yesterday was a relatively successful day in the WG search . . . we saw three apartments in 1.5 hours and two of them actually appeared to be livable (and Sean could stand up in them, which was also a positive thing). We are supposed to hear by Monday so maybe one or both of us will have something by then . . . we have two more appts today.
Last night I went grocery shopping for the first time and was most ecstatic when I found my favorite brand of peanut butter (Barney's Best Crunchy!!!) in the local Rewe. Already, I have eaten 6 pieces of bread with erdnussbutter. Amazing. We decided to save money on eating out last night and bought spaghetti and bolognese sauce to make for dinner --> viel Spass.
Oh yeah! Also yesterday, I went to the Goettingen Ballet School! I talked to the director (all in German woot!) and think I am supposed to come in next week for a trial class of ballet and point to figure out what level I am. What confuses me is that she said she will call me on Monday and I am not really sure why. Oh well, I guess I'll find out!
Today, because it is a dreary, rainy in Goettingen, we are having a wine/cheese/movie day. All day. Between the two of us I think we have etwas 900 movies. So now we will go shopping for some fresh, incredible european cheeses and brot. I took pics of my apartment but forgot to upload them, so maybe tomorrow you can see where I am living currently.

Where I'm supposed to be

Number of times Sean and I have had to clarify that we are not married or dating: 700
Number of conversations focused on square meters, size of kitchen, quality of refridgerator and radiators: 100 million
Number of really sketchy apartments seen: 2

After I finally confirmed the Paypal transaction giving me 10 hours of internet at World Coffee, Sean found a free internet cafe, where I am now sitting, meaning I wasted two days and a lot of effort for nothing. Our time is mostly full of WG searching and we have a bunch of appointments in the next few days, but if they are anything like the ones yesterday, we will be homeless. Most notably, the last apartment we saw, which was in a building built in 1537 (AMAZING!) had cielings that were 6 feet high, only 35 minutes of hot water a day, only 1 half fridge, a weed plant growing in the tea kettle (and not of the dandelion variety), the walls were painted like it was a 70s pad and its inhabitants said their music of choice was death rock. hmm. Needless to say, neither Sean nor I took the apartment. Today we will look at two or three more, and hopefully make some more appointments.

Last night, we hung out with two guys I met (over the internet) while WG-suching. They were really nice Uni students, one Syrian and a German. They gave us a lot of advice and told us about the Student population in Gtg. etc. It was cool and definitely therapeutic after our WG experience. **Sexy Back is now playing on the radio --> glad to see JT has made it safely to Dland** Jason Maraz was playing while I was in the shower this morning, which was also comforting! Even though Sean and I are together all the time, it is hard not having internet because I really expected to get to speak with everyone regularly :-( Soon though . . .

Pictures: our first Doener and "mini" Doeners of the Fulbright year!

Ahhh!

Still having a great time and I'm not yet disillusioned :-) Sean and I have been running around exploring and trying to accomplish various things! We got cell phones, registered with the police, opened bank accounts and are in the process of registering at the university . . . amazingly, we have done this all auf deutsch, which is so cool!

I unfortunately don't have internet in my apartment, so I am stealing Sean's internet right now. I found this little Cafe called "coffee world" (Goettingen's version of Starbucks because they don't actually have one! I think this is the first place I've ever been without a starbucks) that has internet. But I tried to get online for 2 hours last night and 2 hours this morning and it wasn't working. So maybe tonight. Who knows. Very frustrating though!

This afternoon we are WG-suching, which should be fun and somewhat terrifying as it will require speaking with Germans over the phone. We shall see!!

Midnight train going anywhere . . .

Göttingen is amazing. It is perhaps the most perfect city to which I have ever been . . . if you know how that French village looks at the beginning of Beauty and the Beast when Belle is waltzing around reading and buying bread -- that is Göttingen. Absolutely picturesque and the people are so nice and everyone wants to meet me and talk to me, because I am American. Which apparently the know because I wear flip-flops ... that is what they tell me anyways. I have been speaking German almost constantly and found that, despite not speaking any for a year and 3 months, I am really not that bad! I have held whole conversations and done important things like buy train tickets and order a BahnCard 50 with someone who spoke no english! Basti and I texted and he is very happy that I am here . . . toll!

This morning, Sheila took me on a driving tour of Göttingen and then to see the Geschwister Scholl Gesamtschule (GSG) where I will be working. I met many of the teachers and everyone is so nice and excited that I am there, so that is fantastic. I will meet with Astrid (Fremdsprachendirektorin) next Friday after orientation. Afterwards, I met Sean (Brennan BC 08) at the train station today, and he, a teacher from his school (Otto Hahn Gymnasium) and I went out to lunch together. It was great! He and I are plotting American dinner nights and English Conversation clubs to hold with a mix of our students at various kneipe. I think we will have a lot of fun together, and we are both very enthusiastic. I also got a tour of his Gymnasium and got to meet many of the teachers there, so it is nice to sort of have two places where I am welcome. Tonight I move into a new apartment! It is nice, but with no internet somewhat nicht praktisch for the longterm, so I hope to be out by October.

Highlights from flight over: 1) spilling red sauce on my new Product (red) shirt bringing new meaning to the brand 2) attempting to eat the unidentifiable meat that United Airlines called beef, but in fact was beef in name only 3) UA losing one of my suitcases, an unexpected blessing as I then did not have to carry it and it will now be hand delivered to my apartment for free.

Pre-Departure

So as all of you know, I am moving to Germany for a little less than a year on a Fulbright Fellowship. For the next 10 months, I will be paid 800Euro a month to hold 45 minute English conversations with 15 high schoolers at a time, 12 times a week. If you take out the 60 days of non-weekend vacation, that means I have 396 lessons to go! This will all take place in the Geschwister Scholl Gesamtschule in Goettingen. (The "Siblings Scholl" along with two others led the White Rose student resistance movement during WWII and a "Gesamtschule" is a school that has (in this case) grades 5-13 and hosts 3 types of schools: a college prep school, a vocational school and a professional school)

I leave tomorrow on a 2:10p flight to IAD and then 5:20p flight to FRA that lands at 7am after which I will wait 3 hours and then take a train from FRA to Goettingen where a woman and her husband (a teacher at GSG) will pick me up and take me to my first temporary residence. Goettingen is a University town (home to Georg August Uni founded in 1734) right in the middle of Germany. Its brilliant location means that it is only 2-3 hours from every major city, including my lieblings-ort Berlin! An interesting factoid: Goettingen and Heidelberg were part of an unspoken agreement during the Allies and Nazis during WWII --> the allies wouldn't bomb those two cities if the Nazis did not bomb Oxford and Cambridge. This means that Goettingen is an almost perfectly preserved city; the original 13th Century H&M clothing store survived unscathed in the main square.

Please wish me luck as I attempt to get my 3 50lb suitcases and 2 backpacks from New York to Goettingen without my breaking or losing something!

Pictures: 1) vacuuming air out of space bags to pack
2) weighing a suitcase

This is my first attempt to publish something via email. I think it works! This is also Karen the insomniac who tried to fall asleep 2 hours ago.