Reunions and good-byes

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 30^th. 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 15^th). 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!