Preface: Still no Internet at home. I’ve been calling (no one speaks English) and finally decided to leave work early yesterday to stop by the store (as I’ve established, this is the only way to get things done). They made a few calls and told me “2-3 days”. My initial estimate a month ago was one week. So I’m not hopeful that I’ll have Internet by the weekend. I have a backlog of blogs, so fingers crossed I can start up regularly again.
I also stopped by the cell phone store since my phone Internet has slowed to a crawl. Again, trying to piece things together in a mixture of broken German and English, but no one can tell me why my phone is using so much data. I know nothing about this (because everything in America is unlimited), but I’m quickly learning. I’m also learning I might need to stop by the Apple store (yes they have one here) or the other cell store with technical support. I’ve already visited that store a total of 4 times; the store in my neighborhood: 4 times. A total of 8 visits to the cell phone stores so far. When the guy told me last night that I had to go to the other store for technical support, I just looked at him and shook my head and said “please don’t make me go there again.”
Last night I watched an episode of Portlandia I had downloaded on my iPad in case of emergency. I watched it in bed. It was one of the best decisions I have made so far. It’s amazing me how little reminders of home can bring so much comfort to me.
On to parties and new friends…
Saturday night, I headed to a co-worker’s housewarming party. She is French, but has lived in Germany for a while now. A lot of the people there were French, but I also met a woman from Russia (she convinced me I should visit St. Petersburg before the end of summer) and a woman living in Vienna (she convinced me I should visit Vienna in the fall).
As the French champagne flowed, we danced and laughed.
On Sunday, my upstairs neighbors had a cookout on our shared patio and invited everyone in the house (myself and two other couples).
These Germans have parties down. They brought out their benches and tables (think German style beer garden benches), outdoor stereo system, and multiple grills. The food was never ending and the wine spritzers were abundant. The weather was perfect: unseasonably warm for a German summer, I’m told—and I’m not complaining.
The wife of the hosting couple is from Canada and many of the people at this party were friends she had made in German class. I sat next to a woman from Brazil who’s marrying a German man. She spoke to me in mixed English and German and explained to me that Portugese is her native language so she gets German and English mixed up in her head (at which point I felt totally dumb as my head is confused with just two languages up there).
I got to chat with all my new neighbors. It was a perfect end to a #spiritsunday that I had spent with my beach chair on the Main river watching the Iron Man athletes run by.
On Tuesday, I was invited by one of my new neighbors to watch the Germany/Brazil game at their friend’s house. It was really great to just chill with a small group of people. They had homemade pizza, wine, beer and eis (ice cream).
Slowly but surely and little by little, I’m making a few new friends and feeling welcome. Celebrating these small victories, parties and new friends.