Sometimes you just have to give up...

I'm currently supposed to be at an all staff start of the year potluck, but due to unforeseen circumstances, I just couldn't get there... Well, actually it's entirely my fault, I left the house without a map, the phone number to the place I was going, and just got ridiculously hot wandering around looking for the bus stop and after about 40 minutes of that, I just decided that even if I eventually found the bus stop and made it to the thing, I'd be in such a bad mood I would be no fun. Not the best first impression for all the new people I have to meet. But, I suppose not showing up isn't any better. Whatever, now I'm back home and can have some time to get things done. I'm feeling a bit anti-social anyways. I'm really tired of all the planned get togethers and getting to know new people and introducing yourself and where you're from and how did I like Dubai, and did you have to cover up, did you learn Arabic, and on and on. Oh, and I'm not any better, I feel like I'm practically interrogating people when I ask them about their lives too... Ugh. Part of me just wants to fast forward 3 or 4 weeks. 

Work has been amazing. Every day I keep waiting for someone to yell at me, or make me feel bad about something,  give me some completely random task, or just say or do something designed to intimidate me, but so far nothing even remotely close to that has happened. Instead, everyone has been great. I feel like this job is going to be a ton of work and lots of outside school hours, but I feel like I'm ready to actually work as a counselor again. I decided to coach soccer, which I've never done before, but should be fun. Between soccer, the fall trip, October break and this assessment conference I have to attend, it seems like my life is pretty much planned out through mid-November, then it's Thanksgiving, my mom's here for a little over two weeks and then Christmas Break. I have a feeling time is just going to fly by! I'm really excited to have seasons again and I can't wait for the Christmas markets, I remember really enjoying them when I went in Germany. 

Still no luck with the apartment search. I am staying with my friend Steph who also moved here from Dubai. I love where she lives, both the apartment and the location, so now I think my standards are a bit too high. I want exactly this... I've figured out a few things, there is no way I can live in a studio apartment and it has to be bigger than 50 square meters, I would actually prefer at least 60. Location is really important too. I have been looking on this website, it's all in German, so I have to go through, do the search, figure out where it is on this map and then look at the pictures and if I like it, copy and paste the information into Babelfish and then figure out what it says. It takes about 10 minutes to look at one apartment. It's such a process, and it's just annoying and expensive. They have all these first and last month rent, deposit, realtor fees and a zillion other things, so in the end I somehow need to have close to 6000 Euros to get into some of these apartments. That is ridiculous! I'm trying not to get too stressed about it, but I know I'll feel better if I could just find a place. 

Each week I am slowly adding in different things that I need to be doing in hopes that I don't completely overwhelm myself. Two weeks ago I started with work, then added in the gym last week and now this week I'm adding in my German CD's/lessons at home. I wanted to take a class, but I think I'll have to wait until I figure out what my schedule is with soccer and everything else. It's hilarious when we try to speak German, people look at us like we're crazy and they have no idea what we are saying. We just keep trying, sitting there with our little German phrasebooks... it's actually pretty hilarious. I keep thinking I'll have to eventually pick it up!