Optimism on a rainy Monday

After a long week(end) - well, actually two long weekends and a week - I'm relaxing with a homemade hot chocolate in my WG on a rainy Monday afternoon. You know you're from Oregon when the first good rain of the season makes you happy. It's that rain you've been anxiously awaiting since you decided you were tired of the summer heat. That said, I'll admit that this past rainy summer didn't exactly leave me dying for a bit of that Oregon sunshine AKA rain, but it still made me happy during my fifteen minute walk home from school today. Without an umbrella. Without a rain jacket. With, however, a smile. The rain brought a homey and happy feeling with it. Since I arrived in Germany a short two and a half months ago- and especially after my great trip to Austria- I've been feeling quite reproachful about my whole decision to come to Germany. Spending a good ten days the Austrian Alps, eating Austrian food, and remembering all the things I associated with Austria didn't exactly help make me feel happy and optimistic about my time here in Germany. I started to think about why I turned down the position I was offered by the Austrian government as an ETA in order to take on the position Fulbright offered me (somewhere) in Germany. The answer is a simple yet somehow disconcerting one: it's all in the name. Although I may have better enjoyed living in Bludenz, Vorarlberg, sitting at about 1,600 feet above sea level, I decided to take the ETA position in Germany (at the time I didn't know where), because of its Fulbright title. So, all of these things combined with it being pretty hard to make German friends who aren't friends of my roommates, and not exactly loving my school, left me feeling pretty pessimistic about the decision to spend the year here. Mostly, though, I think that knowing next year I'll start grad school in economics - something I had the opportunity to do this year but turned down, once again, for the Fulbright, as well as something completely unrelated to what I'm doing in Mainz as an ETA - was the source of most of my dissatisfaction with this whole year. Going to Austria was just the cherry on top of the icing on the cake, so to say. But my outlook is changing, keep reading to find out how/why.

Last week I made an exciting trip to Freibrug im Breisgau to celebrate Nelly's 21st birthday with her, something I'd been looking forward to for a while. It was nice to be back in Freiburg (I spent a week there during my stay in Vienna, two years ago), and seeing Nelly is always great. Not to mention the delicious Mexican food she somehow managed to put together...I honestly didn't think it was possible to make good Mexican food in Germany, especially not after I tried that salsa that tasted like sweet and sour sauce! Nelly, her roommates, Zach and I ended up staying up way too late watching funny YouTube videos icluding this gem and this one; the next day we watched the best movie "the little princess" auf deutsch! before going to o'kelly's and agar later for more birthday celebration. Friday I went on a short hike, then spent an hour and a half in an awesome little coffee shop called "Aspekt" while Nelly worked at her internship, then we took a mitfahrgelegenheit - basically pre-planned via the internet hitchhiking and my saving grace (cheap, fun, adventure) - from Freiburg to Mainz. There was a huge party for my roommate, Natalia's, birthday at our apartment on Friday night. Germans definitely know how to throw a birthday party. Here's a picture of some of the aftermath - the aftermath all over our apartment took about 4 hours to clean on Saturday morning. Well, after we woke up and started the party again until 3 pm. 

Ricarda, Natalia, Me, Pedro (roommates)

Good morning, kitchen slash train wreck!

Yep. We woke up to the toilet seat floating in the bathtub...not quite sure how that happened..

 

 

Lust auf etwas.. (insert your favorite adjective her!)

 Saturday morning Nelly and I at some brunch at Nelly's Frühstücklust, a surprisingly Portland-y cafe. I like the place quite a bit; I'll probably start going there to read or plan stuff for school sometimes. I miss the coffee shop scene that McMinnville had going on, and doing my homework in those coffee shops. Also, not having homework is really weird.
All in all, it was an event-filled and fun weekend...one that I really needed.
Back to the main point of this post: optimism. Sometimes you just need a friend to help you realize all the good in something. Nelly helped me remember that I need to focus on all of the good that's coming of this year, and, well, that I'm getting paid to live in Germany! That said: it's time to stop living in the subjunctive and start enjoying the present tense.
Cheers...with a half-full glass,
Ashley


While using stumbleupon! today, I found this fitting little story to accompany my blog post. Check it out!

PS - stay tuned for a post about the rest of my time in Austria and Northern Germany tomorrow or the next day.