Not Having a Plan Isn’t Going as Planned

I landed in Germany about three weeks ago, delayed yet unscathed from an airline computer outage.  While exhausted, I was able to stay awake into the evening avoiding most of the jetlag.  My time here will be spent with a very good friend, Thomas, who is not only allowing me to stay in his furnished German dacha, but also already has it fitted with electricity, plumbing, insulation, heat*, and Wi-Fi.  The only needed effort was unpacking on my part.

Generally, I appreciate the TSA, but apparently they do not take well to desktops being packed into suitcases.  They did not simply take it out to perform a cursory inspection, they took it apart.  As I opened my luggage, I found the power supply and DVD drive just dangling in the case with the screws rolling around the bottom of the tower.  I think that was a little extreme.  And to continue on that theme, the box shipped the week prior (via USPS/DHL) arrived completely demolished.  In fact, it appeared to have been re-taped a couple times during its journey.  When received, there was an entire edge gaping open with the contents ready to spill out.  The positive note is that there appears to be nothing missing.

These weeks have really been spent getting settled and doing what one would expect: finding all things that will make it feel like I never left the US.  One can say that the world is so connected that there is little that cannot be found.  While that is now true for peanut butter (albeit only gross options with American flags vomited all over the jar), I am not able to easily find specific spices (what exists is mainly premixed) or tahini (no hummus to be found either) or access to the latest SNL skits (not available in my country).

I have, however, been able to find some cheese and beer supply shops online.  I am also learning that the use of wire transfers is much more common in Germany.“The use of wire transfers is much more common in Germany.”  In fact, wire transfers are free within Germany and are the payment of choice for vendors.  I was surprised and confused when I got to the end of my purchase for both beer and cheese supplies and finalized the order without providing payment information – the shops simply sent me an invoice.  The beer company was able to accept PayPal, luckily, but I was not so fortunate with the cheese store.  Fortunately, I have understanding friends who paid on my behalf, accepting cash.

As asterisked above, the heat in the bungalow is by wood stove.  My life now consists of waking up cold in the morning, cleaning out the cold stove, removing the ashes from the previous day, starting a fire that will warm the place over the next couple hours, and remembering to bring more wood in at night so that I have some that is dry and thawed.  This process was once quite tedious, but is now a comfortable routine; I often reflect on this as I surf high-speed, wireless internet in front of my only source of heat.

With the bungalow now feeling like home, I am beginning the process to ensure my goals of coming here are met.  First and foremost is the approval of a national visa from the German government, which will allow me to stay past the tourist visa of 3 months.  The initial visit to the foreigner’s office was most interesting.  The workers were not accustomed to any processes for people asking for extended stays beyond those coming for work or to study; they suggested that I find work or sign up at a university.  I attempted to clarify, but Thomas became caught in the middle.  While my ability to quickly converse in German is still in progress, I do know what was being said.  Being one of four in a room where all the “he” and “him” references are of me, I became quite frustrated.  Remaining calm, I reinserted myself into the conversation with many I-do-not-understand’s.  Their response was, “he will explain it to you later.”  So, off we went with the request to find some more information about national visas online; they would be happy to review any printouts that we can find.  Fail.  Round two in a couple weeks.

Here is one final story about reliance on a second language.  Languages are quite diverse in vocabulary and are useful because of the specificity.  I gave up long ago trying to master German; I was getting too frustrated with all the synonyms and alternate meanings – I also realized that I do not know all the English words (parts of an engine?  Come on…).  However, I keep running into people who go wide-eyed when interacting with a foreigner and decide to use only key words in the discussion.  This is played out in a scene from “Drowsy Chaperone” (“Rosa, no touch records. No touch.”).  It is easier to use context clues when I can ignore many of the words.  But when only the key, complex ones are used, I simply make a non-committal noise and nod my head: perhaps it was funny, perhaps there was a death.  Humph. 😐

Fortunately, the supplies have arrived; beer and cheese (et al.) will commence.