I just hope that when the novelty wears off, I’m able to see things positively. Routine is bound to happen with almost any job. Routines happen in the secondary ed system. Routine happens if you’re working with kids.

Sometimes these routines can be good - there is comfort in the familiar. I was in college for a grand total of 6 years. . . it took me 4 years to really hit my stride. Once I hit it, I didn’t want to finish. So I thought about graduate school.

Unfortunately, and assuming I even get in, once that is over I will be right back where I started. Out of school, with another worthless degree. So I have begun to examine my life goals. I am incredibly fortunate to have a year away from the routine of life in America to prioritize these goals.

I could end up with TESOL certification or even a master’s degree in TESOL - I’m interested in language acquisition after observing a little girl who has grown up with two languages but hasn’t quite put them together yet.

I could end up with a master’s degree in German with bonus secondary ed license if I get into the one German program I am most definitely for sure going to apply to if my GPA meets the requirement. I’m not quite sure how to factor it, honestly. I took a bunch of English language classes that dealt with subjects slightly pertaining to German language or culture. . .

Or I could end up with a job as a paper pusher somewhere really exciting. I don’t want to say where since I don’t want to jinx it.

I’m scrambling to prep hardboiled eggs before the trip. Add this to my list of things I should have done yesterday. Also my jeans are not quite dry so I will packing slightly damp jeans. Should have put them in the washing machine earlier yesterday but didn’t quite have the time.

I think I did rather well on the exam today. They seem to have gotten easier. I think they’ve gotten easier because I’ve certainly not gotten any smarter. I have lots and lots of homework to catch up on this weekend. Thankfully I’ll have about 12 hours total travel time between here and Munich. woohoo!

Have a great weekend everyone!

I finally met mysterious 4th roommate Irina about two weeks ago. She is engaged to a guy who lives two floors up from us so she’s been renting this room for months now without actually living in it because she goes to school in Hamburg. Her wedding is this weekend and her mom and grandma are staying in her room. I don’t know how I feel about this but it’s not like I had anything to say.

Tomorrow I head out to Munich. I’m not sure what awaits me there except hopefully cool weather, LOTS of walking, good food (I don’t really care about beer), and fun times. I am confident the money I have set aside will be enough, plus I am planning on bringing some apples with me and stuff. I might go to the market today to get some good snacky food for the trip but I was also thinking it could be cool to hold grocery shopping still apart from milk. I am however out of eggs, almost out of pasta, almost out of bread. Have plenty of butter and jam and a 500g bag of cornflakes. Hm. Maybe I will go to the store after class after all. Lunch today and tomorrow is taken care of in the Mensa. . . I just need to worry about breakfast tomorrow. Cornflakes. Yup, need milk.

If you did not know me in 2006, then you did know about my roommate. Crazy Lauren. She was given this moniker because she might in fact have been crazy. One of my roommates in particular reminds me of CrayLo, who even if the trashcan was overflowing in the bathroom, would ignore it. She would ignore it to the point of disposing of her pads around the trash can. I found this out because I was tired of taking out the trash and wanted to see if she would do it without me having to say something. Dominic is the same situation.

Natalia and Imma are gone and it is just me and Dominic. This guy has been steadily getting on my nerves since his girlfriend started coming around after finals. They will cook dinner, wash their dishes (poorly), and stack them on top of the dishes in the dish rack to dry. We have a system. You take your the set of dishes in the dish rack out before you wash your dishes, then you wash yours. The next person to wash dishes does the same. Flawless, really. Great system. Except when people don’t hold up to it.

Two days ago the trash-can was about 3/4 of the way full as is the recycling, and I think “Well I will just see if Dominic does anything about it because as far as I know, he never takes the trash out.” I believe it is always Imma or Natalia or I. I’m basically only eating cornflakes at this point and I have no food waste/trash that is going into this container. So I wait and 2 days later nothing has been done about it. I take the bag out of the can and am swarmed by fruit flies. I try not to inhale and I take the bag to the bins, come back, wash the bin out, and leave it to dry. I’ll see if he puts a liner bag in it or just leaves it drying, forever. Like he does his clothes. Natalia said she will purposely leave a rack occupied because otherwise he just leaves his clothes on the rack and will move on to the next available rack, not taking down his already dry clothes. Having now witnessed this, I believe it.

I have exactly 16 more days with this place as my place of residence, then I’m outta here.

C. has taken care of the stuff the family needs to do. The good news is that if for any reason the work permit falls through and I don’t get my Visa on August 24 when she and I are going in is that my Fiktionsbescheinigung will be extended.

In other news: If I can travel on a Fiktionsbescheinigung/in between getting my Visa in my hands then I am going to Italy to visit a friend. Verona to be precise. Holla! Round trip airfare is only 150ish Euro. I know I posted about saving my money and paying down my CC but I am willing to stray from this plan for Italy. I am not likely to go there any other time since I don’t really have a good reason. Visiting a friend is a good reason.

That’s fine.

I cooked eggs-in-a-basket for breakfast since she made it for me once. It is odd that I remember it since I don’t remember eating it very often growing up. I looked at my overripe bananas and wished for her banana bread recipe, but I don’t have it. It is going to be a quiet day with a lot of reflection on her life, or what little I know of it.

Tonight Nathalie and I are cooking. I asked her if she wanted to cook something Asian, and she said yeah. I asked her what and she said it is all the same to her. I decided that Terriyaki chicken would be way good. I am going to go buy the chicken soon, I think. I should also do laundry and finish homework and study for this exam tomorrow. My professor said I could take it tomorrow, after all. That is good news for me.

I’ve been thinking a lot about what I am going to do with my job earnings. I don’t need to buy food or pay rent or utilities. I calculated that to pay off my credit card in 12 months, my monthly payments will need to be $362.50. At the current exchange rate of 1 euro being approx. $1.28, that is 282.75 euros a month, or just over half of what I will be making a month. It would be REALLY nice to not have that debt hanging over my head. I have to figure out a way to make my euros dollars and get them into my American bank account though. Bank of America said they would charge me $16 a transfer (wtf!). Thus I am going to try to transfer large amounts at a time.

I am terrible at this logistical crap.

After the credit card comes my student loan payment. I tried to e-mail them to correct their incorrect in-school date until 2012 date, but they did not respond with anything other than a generic e-mail about getting a loan application started. I really don’t know what is going on with that.

In other news, I have my Fiktionsbescheinigung but only until August 31, even though I was told mid-September. This should be enough time. If it’s not, well. . . this better work. I like the family and I don’t want to come back to a state with a 15% unemployment rate and look for a job. I did handle the office alone yesterday so I’m proud my German got me through that.

Now to cram homework/quiz terms into the next hour. Tonight will be more of the same since I opted to take the exam tomorrow instead of Friday in order to travel. But now I am sick, and would have appreciated not thinking this was a good idea. I suppose I can talk to Uta after  class and see if she can make an exception since I am sick. idk

1 whole zucchini, grated
1/3 cup chopped sun-dried tomatoes (this was a lucky find at Penny)
1/2 small onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1/2 lemon, juiced
1 tsp olive oil
1 tablespoon grana padano, grated. it’s the closest thing they have to Parmesan cheese at Penny.
1 cup cooked whole wheat pasta.

Basically I put the olive oil, the garlic, and onion in a pan while I’m grating the zucchini.  Then when I’m done with that, I toss the the zucchini in the pan and let it sizzle. Then I add some lemon juice, and then the sundried tomatoes (or not), or sometimes capers. . .  at the very last part I put the tablespoon of cheese in with the veggies. then I serve it over my pasta. Cheap, filling, delicious. sometimes. I am not a huge tomato fan but I was looking to spice it up. Next time I will stick to what I know I like, especially because spending money on something I think I’ll like is stupid

I’m going to have to expand my repertoire though. I’ve had some variant of this 2-3 times a week for the past 8 weeks.

Breakfast was french toast (mom’s tastes better) with REAL CANADIAN MAPLE SYRUP which was a splurge but honestly I just wanted some North American deliciousness. I’ve been eating a lot of whole wheat bread - American Style whole wheat I should add. And eggs. And oatmeal. And pasta. I’m trying to avoid the Mensa. I was stupid about it and had been spending sometimes 3 euros a meal 4 times a week for the past 8 weeks, just because Iwas too lazy/hungry to cook it myself. Should not have gone that route.

And now a tangent - I thought the program advisor here was way rude when I asked him for help. He said I could not be helped here, I had to go to Bonn.  He told me to called the immigration office in Bonn. I asked him the chances of their speaking English. He told me “You speak German, you’ll be fine.”

Yeah, so I have taken 4 years (3 consecutive) of German language classes. I can discuss grammatical concepts and the weather and how I feel and understand how other people feel and order food and read a cookbook written in German, but I must have been absent when we completed the “becoming legal in Germany” unit.

So I called the immigration office in Bonn on Monday. Did not understand most of it except “your au pair family will help you. good bye”

On Tuesday Michaela came over and she spent about an hour calling Bonn and then Lg. We were told to come in to the Lg office on Thursday. Normally I would need to be in Bonn, but they really wanted to help me here in Lg. so they said I could start the process here.

After about 3 hours spent dealing with this process yesterday, I just need to get a biometric passport photo taken and bring it in. I was told the best time is on Tuesdays at 8 because not so many people are waiting in line.  Herr M. (who helped me and will naturally be on vacation for the next two weeks) told me I need to ask his colleague for a Fiktionsbescheinigung, aka a temporary visa, when I come back next week with my photos and twenty euro.

There was a huge difference in his behavior and the behavior of the woman downstairs who normally deals only with Germans. She was downright polite. I understand that it is frustrating trying to speak to people who don’t understand you completely, but this is a very humbling experience.

This is why it is frustrating for me: I am a smart girl, but I can’t express myself in German like an educated speaker would. I can’t neatly deal with  things. I forget how to say things like “at least” (there are two ways for two different things), but still. However I understand about 75% of the non-bureaucratic discussion around me. I am making steps towards something resembling German fluency. Some days they are giant leaps, some days they are baby steps. Some days I forget what I have learned and I need to review. Some days I learn slang like “leck mich” which will also come in handy next time some toadface mofo on the train calls me a fat ass. At this point in my language acquisition timeline, there are just no logical further steps to take. There is no systematic way to learn.

Ugh.

Not much to post right now - I am in a visa induced panic. I feel like I have do much to do and I have like 4 weeks to do it in. Craaaaap. I have been told 3 different things by 3 different people. Michaela is helping me get this started and I think even she is having a hard time with understanding what to do. I am cooking probably our last dinner together on Thursday and I would like to make it really special for her and get her a thank you card as well. I am blessed to have her in my life.

I have discovered the best way for me to not eat crap like chocolate. I just need to buy a fruit I like more than chocolate. For me this is cherries and strawberries. Fresh cherries and berries are the bomb. Tomorrow after class - which I am biking to by the way - I will bike my sore butt to the farmer’s market to buy more fresh fruit. It is more expensive in the long run but then again this weight fluctuation is not exactly healthy or easy on my body.

After posting that it seems kind of hilarious to take about dinner. Basically all of July I’ve been thinking about my Nana. Actually all summer I’ve been thinking about my Nana, but whatever. The past few weeks have been really rough but I’ve been doing things that remind me off her in a good way. Tonight for dinner I made eggs in a basket. I only had one and used a minimal amount of butter but damn it was delicious. I wanted another but my Smartie’s binge earlier in the week plus schnitzel for lunch made it impossible.

Actually the best way for me to stay on track is to not leave the house, like ever.