Mittwoch, 24. Juni 2015
Liz Finally Posts!
durhamfamily, 15:10h
Hi!
I've re-written my opening sentence four times now. I have no clue where to start. Weather, moving from place to place, finally settling in our apartment, frustrations with learning German, the brutal hiking landscapes. Everything is different and makes me feel off balance. I cannot speak for Kyle, but these first several weeks have been difficult. Kyle keeps reminding me that our life is incredible (and believe me, it is!), but it's so easy to find stress in the constant change that has surrounded us.
Everything I've seen in Germany is beautiful. Baekerei are everywhere and the food is cheap and usually organic and always delicious. Everything we need is within walking distance and there's a shopping "mall" about 300 yards from where we live. There's a forest museum within a 20 minutes walking distance from our side of the city. It's the most eerily purposeful and beautiful trail I have ever seen. We have more space than we need in our apartment and Kyle and I have enjoyed furnishing it with fancy couches and a big tv. There's a fountain right outside our living room window next to a doener shop, and the smells of lamb and chicken and fries are constantly wafting through our open windows. The people here are so kind and go out of their way to help us. Some speak English. Others play charades with us until we understand each other. Between the people, the food, and the landscape, Germany is truly a wondrous and magical place.
We lived in four different places before finally settling into our apartment, most of which were in this teeny town with horses and goats that lived in people's back yards. Five weeks after ordering furniture, it was delivered to our *real* apartment and we could finally move in. We didn't have internet for a week, which was not as brutal as we thought it would be. It felt like Christmas when we finally resolved all of our connectivity issues--I just about hugged the cable installers before they left. Yup, still no kitchen. We wash our dishes in the bathroom and pray that our microwave can get the bathroom sink water hot enough to make pasta or cook a potato. Every time I see a dog or a cat in town, I almost break into tears because I miss my animals so much.
Everything is different. Interacting with people on the street is different. The non-verbals and language are different. German Language classes or not, I can't understand 74% of the Swabian dialect. Hoch Deutsch, I'm good. Voices on the radio, fine. But every single time I go to Kaufland or Aldi, I have not a dang clue of what is coming out of their mouths.
The fact that Kyle has an eidetic memory is little help to my intellectual self-image when learning this new language. I've mentioned to Kyle a couple of times that it would be easier if we moved to England where everyone speaks English. And in true Kyle form, he reminded me that moving to England would have been too easy. That the whole point of moving to a different country is to experience a new culture and the challenges that come with it.
I've known one person in particular who moved to another non-English speaking country for a year and when I saw her again, she was an even better version of who she was before. I was in awe of her, of this person I've known for so long, and I admired and envied these experiences that seemed to have changed the very core of her soul. I hope to experience just a fraction of that evolution and learn enough to be a better person when I come back home.
I'm sorry that my posts will most likely not be very linear or event-based like Kyle's. He's so positive and kind and presents the best side of things, which is one of the many, many reasons why I married him. But I HAD to talk about the difficulty of this change and of my frustrations of these first couple of weeks. If you want to hear about the passive-aggressive Norwegian man who verbally harassed my friends and me in Munich, or about my quasi-fake heart attack while walking up a trail that was an 87° incline that led directly into the sky/Bargauer Horn, or about the very nice Nigerian-Italian-Brooklyner man who asked me to have a drink with him "even though [I] have a husband," please: email me. Fb me. Skype me. I miss you all so much and the realization that I won't be back next month or the month after crushes my brain.
In a final attempt to get you to come visit us, I'll leave you with this direct quote from our intercultural training facilitator: "The only dangerous things about Germany are:
...
Ticks and Neo-Nazis."
Much love.
--E
I've re-written my opening sentence four times now. I have no clue where to start. Weather, moving from place to place, finally settling in our apartment, frustrations with learning German, the brutal hiking landscapes. Everything is different and makes me feel off balance. I cannot speak for Kyle, but these first several weeks have been difficult. Kyle keeps reminding me that our life is incredible (and believe me, it is!), but it's so easy to find stress in the constant change that has surrounded us.
Everything I've seen in Germany is beautiful. Baekerei are everywhere and the food is cheap and usually organic and always delicious. Everything we need is within walking distance and there's a shopping "mall" about 300 yards from where we live. There's a forest museum within a 20 minutes walking distance from our side of the city. It's the most eerily purposeful and beautiful trail I have ever seen. We have more space than we need in our apartment and Kyle and I have enjoyed furnishing it with fancy couches and a big tv. There's a fountain right outside our living room window next to a doener shop, and the smells of lamb and chicken and fries are constantly wafting through our open windows. The people here are so kind and go out of their way to help us. Some speak English. Others play charades with us until we understand each other. Between the people, the food, and the landscape, Germany is truly a wondrous and magical place.
We lived in four different places before finally settling into our apartment, most of which were in this teeny town with horses and goats that lived in people's back yards. Five weeks after ordering furniture, it was delivered to our *real* apartment and we could finally move in. We didn't have internet for a week, which was not as brutal as we thought it would be. It felt like Christmas when we finally resolved all of our connectivity issues--I just about hugged the cable installers before they left. Yup, still no kitchen. We wash our dishes in the bathroom and pray that our microwave can get the bathroom sink water hot enough to make pasta or cook a potato. Every time I see a dog or a cat in town, I almost break into tears because I miss my animals so much.
Everything is different. Interacting with people on the street is different. The non-verbals and language are different. German Language classes or not, I can't understand 74% of the Swabian dialect. Hoch Deutsch, I'm good. Voices on the radio, fine. But every single time I go to Kaufland or Aldi, I have not a dang clue of what is coming out of their mouths.
The fact that Kyle has an eidetic memory is little help to my intellectual self-image when learning this new language. I've mentioned to Kyle a couple of times that it would be easier if we moved to England where everyone speaks English. And in true Kyle form, he reminded me that moving to England would have been too easy. That the whole point of moving to a different country is to experience a new culture and the challenges that come with it.
I've known one person in particular who moved to another non-English speaking country for a year and when I saw her again, she was an even better version of who she was before. I was in awe of her, of this person I've known for so long, and I admired and envied these experiences that seemed to have changed the very core of her soul. I hope to experience just a fraction of that evolution and learn enough to be a better person when I come back home.
I'm sorry that my posts will most likely not be very linear or event-based like Kyle's. He's so positive and kind and presents the best side of things, which is one of the many, many reasons why I married him. But I HAD to talk about the difficulty of this change and of my frustrations of these first couple of weeks. If you want to hear about the passive-aggressive Norwegian man who verbally harassed my friends and me in Munich, or about my quasi-fake heart attack while walking up a trail that was an 87° incline that led directly into the sky/Bargauer Horn, or about the very nice Nigerian-Italian-Brooklyner man who asked me to have a drink with him "even though [I] have a husband," please: email me. Fb me. Skype me. I miss you all so much and the realization that I won't be back next month or the month after crushes my brain.
In a final attempt to get you to come visit us, I'll leave you with this direct quote from our intercultural training facilitator: "The only dangerous things about Germany are:
...
Ticks and Neo-Nazis."
Much love.
--E
... comment
carolewilliams,
Mittwoch, 24. Juni 2015, 6:21 PM
It's all part of the big adventure. Get out and enjoy the humanity of Europe!
Love, Mom
Love, Mom
... link
... comment
arboretum,
Mittwoch, 24. Juni 2015, 9:53 PM
I can't understand 74% of the Swabian dialect.
Don't worry, many native German speakers don't understand it either. :-)
Don't worry, many native German speakers don't understand it either. :-)
... link
... comment
