4th journal entry

May 11

Things are finally starting to turn around here in Deutschland. On Sunday, I went to see the room and it was amazing! The room itself was about 3 times the size of the entire apartment I’m living in now and it costs less. It turns out the woman subletting it, Susann, is actually going to Canada. Her brother lives in Saskatoon. I went to see the room at 2pm and by 5pm, I found out that I was successful! (Someone else wanted to live there). I’m really excited to live in that house. I met one of the roommates and he’s very interested in energy generation and environmental issues - I’m sure he and I will have lots of good conversations. Also, Susann wants to meet with me next week to do language exchange. I’m also going to meet someone tomorrow who knows my German teacher and she wants to improve her English. I hope my German will improve quickly...

On Monday, I went to German class and after that, I practiced Japanese with my German teacher. He spent about 2 months in Japan, but his Japanese is at about the same level as mine. He’s studied quite a bit of the grammar, it seems. We had a nice conversation and it was great to speak Japanese again, though I realize I’ve forgotten lots of words. I like the sound much better than German - it’s much softer. Later on, I went to the weekly anti-nuclear protest here. I think the protests started after Fukushima. Before we started marching, a few people spoke and it was quite sombre. I didn’t understand most of it, but it was still interesting. There were also some minutes of silence to think about the victims. I really wanted to say something, but I’m not sure what I would say. Yesterday, I actually bumped into one of the women from the protest. Her name is Ines and she works at the university. I told her I lived in Japan and she said I should definitely say something. I’ll have to think about it... At the protest, I was lucky enough to meet another Greenpeace volunteer and he said I could interview him. I’ve also heard back from volunteers in Frankfurt, Stuttgart, Freiburg, and Cologne, so it looks like there’ll be lots of travelling. I’m excited! Not this coming weekend, but next weekend, I’m going to Munich. I was hoping to interview someone there, but I haven’t heard from him. However, I’ve already organized a couchsurfing host and a rideshare, so I’m definitely going. It’ll be nice to get away... On Monday night, I had dinner with a couchsurfer named Jonathan. He’s really nice and he has quite a bit in common with Nick. He’s one of 4 and he’s becoming a high school teacher. We had a nice dinner at a Chinese restaurant. The food wasn’t bad, though I do prefer Chinese food in Toronto.

I had a pretty good day yesterday. My phone finally works! I had to go back to the store on Monday night and they promised me it would work within 2 hours and it seems that it did. Yesterday morning I met with my supervisor again and I also met some people on his team. I talked with them for a bit - there’s Johannes, who’s doing research on collective identity, Michaela, who’s analyzing Holocaust films, Irina, whom I don’t know much about, except for the fact that she’s from Kyrgystan, and Stephanie, who studies white collar crime. They’re all pretty nice people and they told me there is indeed space for me to work. I stayed there in the morning and then we all had lunch together. That was quite nice. I’ve spent too much time eating meals alone, so this is a breath of fresh air. I stayed there for a few hours and then I came back and did laundry. I had thought that I could get a drying rack here, but the staff didn’t even understand what a drying rack was. I put my clothes in the dryer and then I made the mistake of putting my card in after the clothes were done and more money was deducted. I had also selected the wrong setting and my clothes were still damp. I had thought that there wasn’t enough space in the apartment to dry the clothes, but it turns out there is. Especially now that I’m wearing sandals, I won’t be washing too many pairs of socks. Last night I had Irish and Scottish dancing and that was fun. I danced with one of the teachers and he was cracking me up - it reminded me of Nick. I talked to Eva, who lived in Canada, and she and I will do something this weekend. Finally, I’m starting to make friends here... I realize that I can be impatient sometimes and I know that I’ve only been here for 2 weeks, but the last week in residence has been pretty lonely.

Last night after dance class, Janina’s friend Bler came over. We finished off the apple and rhubarb crumble that Janina and I made. Bler and I talked about how annoying some people can be here - it can be quite hard to make friends and lots of people like to spend time alone. Bler is from Albania and I get the impression that people are quite friendly over there. I think Bler and I are 2 peas in the same pod. We’re both pretty friendly, love dancing, and get tired of shallow girls. She lives in the same residence complex as me - it’s nice to have a friend here.