March 2013 can definitively be called an eventful month for
me. After I arrived back in Germany, everything felt kinda like back to normal
by the end of February. I had started my job again (working in an after school
care) and got settled in my apartment. But I already knew that my time in
Cologne would soon come to end, since I found a new apartment and job in Munich
starting in April. As much as I’m happy to be in Munich now, I was also a
little sad to leave Cologne behind. It was my home for 4 years and not only
would I miss the city but also my friends and my family who are living close
by. So I decided to use the time I had left to meet up with as many people as I
could. Of course those were friends who have been studying and working with me
in the city the last few years, but also a few friends I got to know back in
the USA were among them.
First, there was the reunion with Tine. Tine was one of my
Aupair friends in North Carolina. Her extended year ended last summer, thus I
hadn’t seen her in over 6 months. She is living about an hour away from Cologne
and came to visit me and spend the day with me. As a tribute to our USA
experience, we had dinner in an American sports bar and ate burger with fries
(yes, WITH mayonnaise, and no, NO refill on the drinks) J After that, we went to a
circus show we had tickets for (Circus FlicFlac). It really was an amazing
show. The artists were mainly doing acrobatic performances, but also
action-stunts like 10 motorbikes driving in a cage-like ball at the same time.
It was so good to see you, Tine!
The weekend after that, I visited my dear friend Kristin aka
Krissi in her hometown Unna. For my blog-reading-newbies: Kristin was Aupair as
well. We started and ended our year together on exactly the same dates (and
planes). Even though she spent her year in New Jersey and I mine in NC we
became close friends, visited each other and travelled together on several
occasions. Since the both of us were pretty hung-over, we just spend the day
relaxing, eating and chatting together. Which wasn’t any less awesome!
During the last days before my big moving day, I had another
special person visiting me. Delilah is a girl I met in a bar in Chicago only to
find out that we are roommates in the same hostel. Delilah, who is originally
from Manitoba, Canada has been travelling and working around Europe the couple
last weeks. A few of her stops have been in Belgium, and since Belgium is very
close to Cologne she took the opportunity to see me before I would be heading
south. We had a great time together. I even climbed one the towers of the
Cologne cathedral with her – what I had actually never done before (what a
shame for someone living in Cologne for such a long time). The view from top of
the tower was the perfect farewell present the city gave to me J
But besides doing all this fun stuff and meeting up with all
of those wonderful people, I did a loooot of packing and preparation for the
big moving day, which finally came March 30th. A big THANK YOU to
the helpers that came out that day (and before and after) to help with carrying
all of our stuff. It was exhausting, but we somehow managed all the driving and
carrying boxes and unpacking (some of) them. Since we had to take back the
truck we had borrowed to our hometown Mönchengladbach, Lars and I took the
opportunity to visit my family who was on vacation in the Netherlands
(Mönchengladbach is very close to the border of the Netherlands and it took us
about 2,5h to drive to the coast). There, we were able to just relax for two
days until we had to go back to Munich (unpacking-craziness and Lars’s work).
My job starts next Monday (April 15th). Have I mentioned that I’m
suuuuuper exciiiited??!! Well, in case, I haven’t: I’m suuuuuper exciiiited! J Until then, I’m using
my free time to unpack more boxes and be a good house wife for Lars (groceries
shopping, cleaning, cooking) ;) It’s about time for my job to start!
