Endlich!

I'm finally here! It is still so surreal that I will be living in Deutschland. Austria will always been near and dear to my heart, but I am so happy to be spending my third extended European stay in the Vaterland. The last couple of months have been absolutely crazy! I think I was in denial (disbelief?) that this was really going to happen. I felt like I was going through the motions -- packing, saying goodbyes, job training -- just waiting for someone to tell me it wasn't happening after all.

It truly didn't hit me until I arrived at my hotel on Sunday. I knew I wouldn't be able to check in at 7:30am, but of course I still came straight to the hotel. After they told me they could get me in my room at 9:30am, I stored my luggage and walked right over to the Alster Lake. I barely made it to a bench before I burst into tears. All I could think was, “What are you doing?! Why did you just leave a perfectly good life behind?” Clearly, exhaustion also contributed to this breakdown, but I let the tears flow for a good 30 minutes. It was early, but people were already up running and walking dogs and rowing. It was wonderful. I did some walking of my own while keeping my teary eyes hidden with my shades.

Once I made it to my room, I was so excited to see “strudel” comforters (if you’ve spent time with me abroad [or on your own] you know what I mean!), but I apparently still had 5-10 minutes of tears in me. Clearly I needed sleep. Despite sneaking in a few hours of sleep on the plane (post movies—Something Borrowed and Bridesmaids), the mini breakfast did not fool my body into forgetting that I didn’t get enough sleep. I only planned to sleep for a couple of hours, but after some much-needed snoozing, I was feeling much better four hours later.

My first destination was my new place of business. I wanted to locate my new office and plan my route. Thankfully, the office is only about 10 minutes away from the hotel. Then I decided to head toward the city. I was getting hungry, but I knew most grocery stores wouldn’t be open on a Sunday. Then I saw it. A train station. Duh! I needed money and food and both could be achieved at a train station. After picking up some Euros, I decided I actually wasn’t that hungry yet. So I decided to head out of the train station and keep heading toward the city. I passed parks with people playing soccer, lots of dogs, and lots of babies. After a while things started to seem familiar. That didn’t really make sense to me, but I kept going. Then I saw water. I thought, “Great, I found the smaller part of the lake – I’m close to the city.” But as I got closer, I realized I was in fact still at the big part of the lake and looking at hundreds of sailboats. (Did I mention that it was in the high 70s and sunny?) Classic Lynn. When I left the train station, I came out the same way I went in. Of course, now I was really hungry. So I retraced my steps and went back to the train station.

After choosing a tomato mozzarella sandwich and an Apfelschorle I parked myself on a bench where I could watch some pickup soccer games. Then I noticed a man drive a car with a trailer to an open area in the park. The truck had an advertisement for hot air balloon rides. Before I knew it, this guy was starting to set up a hot air balloon! Since I had never seen this done and I had nowhere to be, I sat and watched the preparations for over an hour. It was pretty neat to see. Lots of people helped him and even more people stopped to watch like me. I still can’t decide if I’d be more or less inclined to take a ride after seeing it all come together. After lift-off, I trekked back to my room to fight off jetlag. The only thing I didn’t accomplish was finding wi-fi. And then I discovered there was free wi-fi in the hotel lobby. Duh again. It was nice to finally be able to tell people I had arrived! I think I made it until 7:30pm, which I thought was pretty good. Before falling asleep I watched Pysch auf Deutsch. It’s so interesting to see which shows make it over here.

Naturally, Monday was a holiday—Reunification Day. Again, the weather was unseasonably hot and sunny. I wasn’t hungry for breakfast (I was hungry for dinner at 12:30 am…) so I set off for the city. I definitely knew which way to go at this point. I had to cross two big bridges, Kennedybrücke and Lombardbrücke. There are quite a few bridges in this watery city. I made it to the Rathaus (city hall). I can already envision the Christkindlmärkt set up here! This is when I started to long for Wien. Or maybe I just longed for familiarity. I hit up some churches as well before deciding to hit up the Hauptbahnhof. Again, I knew I could count on a train station for food on a holiday. Plus, I’d actually been to this train station on my travels four years ago. I was so excited to get my turkey sandwich on pumpkinseed bread (my absolute fave!). Then, the highlight of the train station: a Bench store! I couldn’t wait to tell my sister that our favorite fleeces could be purchased in a store and not just online.

I was feeling pretty good about myself at this point, which is why it made perfect sense that it would start raining immediately as I sat down on a bench to eat my lunch. Of course, I had taken my umbrella out of my purse because it was heavy and I didn’t think it would rain. I hauled it back to the hotel escaping with only slight dampness. I protected my freshly straightened hair with my scarf. There wasn’t much on TV and I didn’t want to risk sleeping, so I went back outside for some more walking. At this point, I really wished I could locate my pedometer. I had an inkling to walk all the way around the Alster Lake since I had read that it was 7.4km and I figured it was something I would like to do at some point. I walked pretty quickly and made it around in 1.5 hours. I had only a few minor detours involving, what else, bridges. I felt like everyone was staring at me. I had on my Pumas but I figured my Northface or my walk or my sunglasses were giving me away, but then I realized I think it was because I was alone. Everyone was out WITH someone else! Families, boyfriends and girlfriends, dogs and more dogs, rowing teams, fishermen – everyone was with someone else. I still enjoyed myself though. I kept wanting to get some ice cream, but everytime I reached a stand, the line was so crazy, so I decided to just keep on going. My legs were getting so tired, I knew I couldn’t stop or I’d never make it! Back at the hotel, I crashed. Thankfully, I could watch Teen Mom (dubbed of course) and Germany’s own version of Teen Mom (the name is escaping me). I forced myself out of bed to lay out my first-day outfit so it wouldn’t have (so many) wrinkles. I found myself watching a couple episodes of The Mentalist, which made me miss my mom.

Day 1 at the office:

I wasn’t really sure what time to arrive, so I picked 8:45am. I stopped on the way for a salami and pumpkinseed bagel breakfast. Yum. Once I reached the office, I took a deep breath and buzzed. “Hier ist Lynn.” I went up the stairs and saw a beautiful glass door with the the company logo. Astrid greeted me with a great big hug. She is the accountant and I had met her at the US office about two years ago. Next, I met with Björn, the branch manager. He presented me with my beautiful welcome flowers and I offered up some Garrett’s caramel popcorn. He asked if we should speak in English or German and I chose German. I figured I should jump right in. It was really nice to have human contact by the way. He gave me a quick tour (except for the ladies room) and I was able to see some familiar faces and meet some new people. I had already met Uwe and Berit at the US office, but I met Stephanie, Daniel, and Linda for the first time. It was so nice to finally meet Stephanie because I worked mostly closely with her and Berit and I had yet to meet her face to face. I poured myself some tea and settled into my new desk. The office was a lot bigger than I imagined. It has a lot of big rooms and offices. I sit by Berit and Stephanie. We’re right by a big window that gets wonderful light. They rearranged a bit before my arrival and I think it’s perfect. I’m currently working on both my American Mac laptop and a German PC desktop – complete with German keyboard. [This may be a good time to mention that my typing is a little off and that I can already tell my brain is in a place where I’m speaking and writing bad English and German.]

Björn, Berit, and Stephanie took me out for a welcome lunch at an Italian restaurant called Mama. I had pizza. I considered the tuna fish pizza (a fave) but went with a classic margarita. I’ll be back for that Thunfisch though. Björn seemed quite sad that I didn’t want any tiramisu, so he eventually convinced me to try a bite of his. It was pretty good. The day went by fairly quickly. I spent most of the afternoon starting my apartment search. Then Berit and Stephanie took me out for my welcome dinner. We went to Hatari. We Prosted with wine and I chose the Käsespätzle and Salat while they chose burgers. Then we moved on to Zoë III, which was a cool bar that was full of big, antique-looking couches. I guess that’s the big thing. Berit said we should call it my “Ketten Tag” because it was a day full of chains. All three places we went to were actually chains in Hamburg. Fine by me. I have never felt more welcomed in my life.

Day 2 at the office

I spent most of today working on some translations and searching for apartments and banks. I sent out some inquiries and found a place that is pretty near perfect for what I need. For today’s lunch I went to the supermarket with Berit. I found some yogurt with fresh fruit and a sandwich. We ran into Daniel as well, so we all headed back to the office together. They seem to eat around 12:30, which is actually working for me. I feel like I reset my internal clocks, so I’m making it work for me. I was so tired today, I felt like I could have fallen asleep on the walk home. I stopped back at the grocery store for some dinner and it felt like I was there for an hour trying to decide what I wanted to eat slash what I could eat as a person based in a hotel. I settled on fruit and yogurt. My appetite is coming and going. I was going to get some Schokomüsli, but I couldn’t find the Milch and I just didn’t have it in me to ask for help. Wednesday is the night for Desperate Housewives. It’s not a show I normally watch, but it hit the spot. And then I watched Body of Proof. Same thing. And what came on next? How I Met Your Mother of course! I watched two episodes before I realized that this very tired girl was now up until 11:15.

Day 3 at the office

Today I felt very productive. We had a meeting and our bi-weekly conference call. It was so strange to be on the other end of the call! Björn asked me if I had ever had a Currywurst before. I actually hadn’t so he suggested I try it. So at lunch, I went with Uwe and Daniel over to the Thursday-only market. We had taken a few steps outside of the building when the sky just opened out of nowhere. I’ve never seen rain start to quickly. We ran back for umbrellas and to wait it out for a few minutes. Thankfully, due to a last minute purse purchase, I had an umbrella. I knew I wanted the purse when I saw it, but when I saw that it included an umbrella in a special pocket—I knew it was meant for me and my life in Hamburg. Needless to say, we eventually got our Currywurst and I loved it. They cut it up into slices and you eat with a teeny tiny fork. I got mayo and ketchup for my Pommes. The other highlight of the day, which made up for sitting in wet clothes all afternoon, is that I made an appointment to see an apartment this Friday! (Berit helped me a lot I have to admit). Another fun part of the day was when Daniel called Stephanie’s phone and then Berit’s phone and then finally my phone so he and Marcus (who I met today because he’s been out of the office) could ask me what mfg. meant on an agenda. “Manufacturing.” “Ok, thanks!” It’s the small things.

Today’s evening plans included a stop at the grocery store and a walk. I was actually in search of Eis since I’ve been thinking about it since Monday. I hope I didn’t miss the boat! A lot of places were already closed because it was after 7p, but some places looked closed for the season. A lot of places like that are seasonal. And the rest of the evening has been spent writing four pages of words so I can get this blog going.

I had a lot to catch up on here, but, as you can see, I’m not one for leaving out details. When I was younger, my mom would ask me how school was, and my response would be something like the following, “I walked into homeroom at 7:25, I dropped my pencil at 7:31, we said the Pledge of Allegiance at 7:35, etc.” Just imagine what it is like when my dad asks me how a round of golf was!