It's been two weeks since I've updated. Sorry to have left y'all hangin'.
The two weeks were taken up with normal life at this point, as the beginning of school, and indeed the beginning of my stay here, has ended and now we're just what I like to call: "normalcy".
The stress of residence permits, cleaning, making my room amenable, registering for classes, and getting used to the city, has subsided and now I find myself in just a regular week, with regular school, and regular shopping days. Hell, even laundry has ceased to be a challenge!
But fret not, normalcy does not entail mundanity. For a long time I've longed for the simple comforts that I experience by living alone. Getting up, making breakfast, going to school with a coffee or (on Mondays when the new issue of Der Spiegel comes out) with the intention of getting a coffee. Something as simple (or... Normal) as going about my day has a special novelty to it. The novelty that ultimately here in Germany (being in Europe adds to this) I'm ultimately on my own. I have friends here (including a slowly growing array of German friends), but I don't have anyone to cook for me (unless you count La Cucina, the delightful Italian restaurant at the Hauptbahnhof), no one to clean stuff for me, nuttin'!
It's nice.
Take this for instance, I have a busy day of seemingly unexciting activities, that I actually can't wait to start. The day involves laundry, cleaning, homework, and reading. All of which can be done uninterrupted by anything other than the completion of a dry-cycle, or my never-ending need for food.
In other reports I'm not as down on my living situation as I was before. I guess I'm still going through the phase where I'm not fully adjusted to my living space, but I'm sure I will be.
What I mean is that towards the end of the summer in Vancouver, I was pretty excited for life in a student dorm, not knowing that the Stusie student dorm that I live in isn't like your typical residence, but more like an apartment. With no windows in your kitchen (or indeed any way for smoke to get out). In the far beginning I wanted this, not knowing how much fun all my UBC friends were having in their dorms.
In hindsight I should have chosen another one as my preference, or at the very least not signed the lease, and just dealt with the bureaucratic quagmire that would have resulted from me asking the Studentenwerk for a new place; but I was naïve, and just wanted to get my European experience started.
In comparison many of the other student dorms here are much more social. They have communal kitchens and common rooms where the students of the floor converge and have the typical dorm life that you see on American TV.
As I said before, my place is like an apartment with no living room. Just two bedrooms, a kitchen, and a washroom.
I've decided to treat it just as a living/working space. I've given up on meeting people here in my residence; because of the strange way it's set up it's almost impossible.
I'm going to write a letter to the professor next year who will come with this program and tell him to somehow finangle a way to get the CYF some rooms in the more communal parts of the Stusie ('cause there are a few four bedroom apartments). Or at the very least let me do a write-up about what you can expect when coming into the Stusie. 'Cause I sure as heck had no idea...
Tschüss
P.S. I'm gonna be doing some letter-writing today. For those of you who sent me your address, sweet! For those of you who haven't, get on that!
