29 August 2017

Moving to a foreign country on your own is no joke

It sounds so adventurous and exciting, moving to Europe!  I'm independent!  I have wanderlust!



Dude, this $&#@ is difficult.

It took 3 months of living out of 8 deteriorating cardboard boxes in an AirBnB to find an apartment, because housing is expensive and Germans don't like to answer inquiries from someone who doesn't speak their language. Fair.

(I swear I wasn't picky.  Although, I did say no to the 3rd floor walk-up featuring a shower in the kitchen.  Just sitting right there next to the stove.  You can multitask and stir your soup while washing your hair!)

It took 2 additional months to get internet once I got into my apartment because when Germans say they will be there between 1200-1830 and my piece of crap car broke down at 1145, so I didn't get there until 1215 and missed them arriving at 1200 promptly, but I didn't realize that until after I wasted an entire afternoon waiting because they put a slip in my mailbox and I didn't check it until 1700, so then they had to reschedule me and couldn't do it until another week later.  Ridiculousness.

I bought a car.  It broke down.  Repeatedly.  This last time the mechanic fixed it he also ran it into a curb, so now I'm in a negotiation over how to get him to replace my bumper.  Uncool.

I bought a stove because one wasn't provided in my apartment.  It was to be delivered today.  Turns out when you buy the cheapest model, it wasn't meant for my type of kitchen setup, and they have to return it and I need to order a more expensive one.  Sucks.

So I plugged in a hot plate I bought at Ikea, and just placed a pan on it.  I got an error message that means it's the wrong type of pan for that surface.  So I can't use any of my pans.  Frustrating.

I've been desperately trying to paint my experience as perfect and beautiful, and it is... sometimes.  I've tried to believe in the Field of Dreams mentality.  "If you build it, they will come."  If I fake it on social media, it really will be.

It really is an inviting, nice, gorgeous, fun country!  I realize that many of my gripes are because of my own choices or mistakes.  They're all things I'm learning along the way.  If I could just get a few less lessons, that'd be great.

I'm having a hardcore 'Under the Tuscan Sun' experience over here.  Not the part with the handsome man, or the fun local characters, but the part with the huge storm, and the house falling apart, and the exasperation at knowing you chose this and you desperately want it to be what you dreamed.  That part.
I feel ya, Diane.