A Little Place of Which I Can Call My Own

Finally, I'm in my own apartment.  I feel so grown up living on my own, having my own mailbox, keys, elevator, grocery list, etc. etc.  Sure, last year I lived on my own in the dorms, but it was never quite this liberating.  I mean, I had to do my own dishes last night for cripes sake.  I'm in the real world now! Well kind of.  Eh.  Anyways.  My apartment is so adorable! It's bigger than i had previously thought, which was quite a pleasant surprise.  I have a small kitchen, bathroom, large walk in closet, balcony, and a large room which is shared as my living room and bedroom.  My kitchen is all black and white with some cute tiling on the wall, a hidden refrigerator and a stove top which is nearly impossible to control heat wise.  Burnt dinners, here we come!  Looking on the bright side, it'll be something to write home about.

My bathroom is brand-spanking-new; freshly renovated by the parents of the girl who really owns this apartment.  That too is black and white, and very retro-modern.  The accents are all silver, and the shower confuses the heck out of me.  It took me like 20 minutes to be able to stand under the water this morning.  There are two different temperature handle things on the bath, one hot, one cold.  Of course you have to find a happy medium between the two, and i'm not sure if I'm just like completely stupid or what, but I was either literally scalding myself, or turning a never-seen-before shade of blue.  It was one of those "life experiences" I suppose.  But dang.  Never have I had to preform a new version of the tango in my shower out of pure fear of water.  Eh.  Still, this has not shaken my joy in this new apartment.  Besides, as you can see, it's totally cute.  You can't be mad at something so cute.  

The balcony is somewhat small, but you can seat two people there comfortably on my two chairs and small table.  The view is just outrageous- I can see basically half of the city from my balcony, along with the sprawling landscapes of the mountains and fields.  I have no temperature reader thing here, so my theory is just to walk out on the balcony every morning and surprise myself.  This morning it was a bit cool, almost brisk.  Like a fall morning usually feels.  It was sunny when I first woke up but now those ever infamous clouds are returning.   But hey, as long as the rain doesn't arrive, today seems like it will be pretty dang nice. 

So yep.  Those are the views!  My walk in closet has so much storage space, I really have no idea what to do with it all.  I had no problem fitting my obnoxious 3 suitcase load of clothing and miscellaneous items into the storage unit running along the entire wall, or the shelves across from it.  Walking space in there is tight, but it works just fine.  The owner of the apartment left a lot of her books in the closet towards the back, and I'm assuming I'll probably start diving into them within the next few weeks.  There are some old American classics, along with some modern German novels.  So, between the two, I should be fully occupied reading wise.

Ok so last but not least, the "big room."  I have this large room, the main room of the apartment, which I split as a living room and bedroom.  In one corner is my low-lying bed with a floral comforter, the other a couch.  In the middle of the room is this modern, large, white bar with a glass and mirror shelving unit.  I'mt not really going to use this much I predict, but it does look pretty cool.  It also helps to divide the room.  I have a nice large desk in here which I also tend to use as a table since the kitchen is too small to contain one, and a nice little coffee table.  There's a TV with a dvd player (score!) and a quite random juke box.  Oh and I have 2 plants, which I need to water, I think?  Eh.  But yes.  This is where I spend the majority of my time.  It's quite cute if I do say so myself.  Most of my pictures are from when I was moving in, so if it looks a little messy, please bear with me here. 

I added a picture of the entryway just for kicks.  The door panneling on the back is a huge collage of words.. it's pretty cool.  So yes, my apartment is cozy and I love it.  The carpeting is brand new too; I can't seem to remember if I already mentioned that or not. 

So in other culture shock news, I have discovered that the understanding of being "dressed" for the day is completely different here.  I, being American, love to sport my cotton t-shirts from the Bellin run or some random high school or college event, with some bright colored athletic shorts and a nice pair of good old flippy-floppies.  This, here, is viewed as just plain ridiculous.  Do not, I repeat, do not, whatever you do, wear this in public here.  You should be wearing jeans, a nice shirt, earrings, makeup, most likely a scarf, and a nice pair of either tennis shoes or ballet flats before you even think about leaving your house.  I'm serious.  I've already endured the odd stares and elevator eyes.  Just don't do it.  I'm currently about to leave to run to the local H&M in search of a nice fall jacket, since fall has clearly already hit here, and my jacket is more for the dead of winter.  Maybe I'll pick up more of a sense there on what I should try to alter my outfits to.  Their H&M is like our American Eagle; everyone wears it.  I'm attempting the German look today; I even threw on a scarf.  Oh and some makeup.  This is a big deal folks, big deal. 

My program starts tomorrow, although tomorrow is just a "get to together" to meet the other people in my program.  I already know I'm the youngest, but whatever.  I'll be fine.  It's not like I haven't endured being around older people my entire life as an only child.  It'll be fine.  Plus, I've already chatted with a few on facebook, so it's somewhat comforting knowing I'm not going in completely blind.  Thursday I'll have my German language placement test for my german language course, and then in the afternoon I'll take off on a train headed to Berlin.  Apparently we're doing something for my history and culture class, but I failed to read that email explaining exactly what I'm doing in Berlin, but hey.  It'll be an adventure.  After I return from Berlin the next epic adventure will be to master the washer and dryer.  That isn't going to be pretty.