“The Atlantic was born today and I’ll tell you how.” - Part II

After talking with Regine (who speaks very good English) on the payphone, she picked me up in about fifteen minutes and drove me to my dormitory apartment, which is very near to my place of work (on the campus of TU Darmstadt) and a trolley station. Also near my apartment are a swimming pool, stadium, and some open fields. Regine had warned me via email that the apartment would be small (and indeed it is), but upon entering and seeing it for myself, I tried to keep a positive attitude despite the small quarters in addition to the dirt, dust, hair, and insects (dead and alive) that were on the floor, in the cabinets, in the sink, and on the wall. One of the first things I did was to check the Internet to see if it worked but it did not, and as I had arrived on a Saturday, I would be unable to seek help with it until Monday. At that, we left together so that Regine could show me how to get to the trolley and to the city center, where to buy groceries, and how (and when) to get to Church. Despite being with someone who could understand what I was saying and was there to help me out, walking through the city under the bright sun, already emotionally and physically exhausted, was pretty overwhelming, and my upset stomach hadn’t yet left me.

After about an hour of being shown about the city, we parted ways at a mall in the city center. If Regine and her family wouldn’t have had a very important party to go to shortly thereafter, I wouldn’t have been left so soon. But, circumstances were what they were, and there were a few things I had to take care of before I could return to my room. It was now Saturday afternoon in Darmstadt, and my last substantial meal had been on Thursday night at Sam and Marcy’s, so I was extremely hungry. I found a Chinese place in the mall and ordered the only thing on the menu with the German word for chicken on it that looked remotely good. Apparently, I agreed to purchase an alcoholic beverage with my meal which probably served to dehydrate me more. In any case, after eating my less than satisfying meal, I went to the grocery store (also in the mall) and tried to purchase enough bread, peanut butter (made in the USA!), jelly, and bananas to provide dinner for that night and breakfast for the next morning. I also bought a few newspapers for the construction of my curtains.

So I left the mall, and went to the trolley stop carrying my awkward grocery bag. I tried to purchase a trolley ticket from a machine, but as this machine was different from what I was shown earlier and as it was entirely in German, I had no idea which ticket to buy or how to buy one. When a line would build up behind me, I would act finished and casually linger until there was no one else working on the machine only to resume my increasingly frustrating efforts. But, eventually I made it back to the room only to be confronted by the difficulties that awaited me there.

When I arrived, I cleaned off all the shelves and put away all my things. For some reason, when I found that my power adapter for my laptop, shaver, and camera would not work in the room, all of the emotion that I had been holding back the entire time came forth, so I heavily cried. It didn’t take too long, however, to distract myself in the work of creating my curtains. After that was completed, I took a warm shower (which felt awesome) and proceed to make myself dinner. Between the time I took a shower and the time when I went to bed, at various times for different reasons my emotional composure would break down and I would heavily cry. None of these breakdowns lasted more than thirty seconds at a time, but with every breakdown I knew that it was more and more important for me to get to sleep as I was in no state to fully consider what lay behind or before me.

I went to sleep somewhat hungry at 6:00 PM local time while it was still daylight and slept until 8:00 AM the next morning. I ate breakfast and began to write about transition from the United States to Germany. Perhaps because I was still tired or perhaps it was too soon to a traumatic experience, but I almost lost my emotional composure as I had done the day earlier. So I distracted myself in my search for the church and found it in due time, praying for the virtues necessary to get me through everything all the while. After Mass, I headed to the city center (which came with its own set of difficulties) to find a substantial meal and chanced across a Chicken House. Even though I am sure now that the meal was terrible, it was one of the best I had tasted in a while. After getting a solid meal in me, things really started turning themselves around. I wouldn’t say that I was a completely different person or that there haven’t been further difficulties, but things would from that point only get better. The sights and sounds weren’t quite so daunting and my challenges weren’t nearly as difficult. I was able to walk through the city without any plan to where I was going. Eventually, I made it back to my apartment and ate the last of my bananas (for peanut butter sandwiches) and went to sleep again early. My first weekend in Germany was over.

I know that this post and the one prior to it have mostly been doom and gloom, but for the first 48 hours in Germany, my experience was mostly and significantly negative. I don’t want you to think that things haven’t improved at all – they absolutely have. Seriously, things are going amazingly well right now. After experiencing my first couple of days of work, meeting my excellent coworkers, getting a regular eating and sleeping schedule, and walking through the city on my own, I can honestly say that I now have complete comfort getting to everywhere in the city that I need to go. But I hope that my current comfort and happiness is due to more than simply knowing how to go everywhere in the city that I need to, because in life you can never know everywhere that you need to go. I hope that my experiences the last few days, the good and the bad, will have helped me to grow and to learn about myself and the world around me. I know that things won’t always be easy from here on out and that that I will face hardships and shortcomings further down the road, but I can honestly say that I am now better prepared to face them. I look forward to seeing where my experiences take me. Now, it is “full speed ahead!”