I'm about to go to sleep for the fourth time in Hamburg, I'm posting sprawled on the wooden floor in my spacious room in the Bahrenfeld section of Hamburg, not far from the eponymous S-Bahn station.
I arrived without any luggage. British Airways had cancelled my connecting flight from London-Heathrow to Hamburg, so I'm charitably assuming that it's due to the fact that they rebooked me onto a Lufthansa flight that was leaving at the same time as my original itinerary, just a different terminal. Not due to gross incompetence in handling bags, which seems equally possible. I also got into Hamburg a few hours late because it was foggy in London. Um... aren't you guys used to that yet?
I have two roommates in the apartment, Hendric works with me at Jimdo and Daniel's got some six degrees going on with the company as well. They're both moving out at the end of the month and then I get to live with the two trainees, Martin & Sebastian.
I don't have any other furniture than the bed you see in the pictures above, but some is arriving from various sources this weekend, supposedly. There's no light in the kitchen, which makes late night snack runs difficult (not a bad thing, necessarily. Just saying). I think we may also have one small plate, one large plate, and one large pot. So far, combined with the lack of luggage, it's kind of been like camping inside an apartment.
Thankfully, one bag came on Monday (yesterday) and one came on Tuesday (today), so I've now got all my clothes, toiletries, and everything else I thought was necessary when packing last week. Matze had lent me some t-shirts and contact solution, so that helped me get through the weekend.
Work's been quite exciting, challenging, and a bit overwhelming all at once. The German aspect of it is sort of limping along. I suppose I'm not particularly articulate in English either, but I've always been acutely conscious of my deficiences in German. There's definitely that start-up atmosphere, with more projects cooking than I can hope to find out about, much less understand and keep track of, people laughing and having fun, coming early, working late, etc. I really want to jump in head first, but I keep forgetting how there's so much to just absorb in the first few weeks and months at a new place. I don't even know everyone's name yet!
I'm hoping I'll be able to work in some weekend trips over the next several weeks, over to Bremen to see folks like Malte, Thetje, Nadine, and Solveig (sorry if I forgot anyone...), down to Munich to see Philipp, Maria, and Gundula. It'd also be nice to visit Berlin for more than an afternoon... Sophia's there and maybe a few others I could visit.
Then again, it almost seems silly to be planning trips when I haven't even managed to walk around the neighborhood I'm living in!
I'll close with something weird and random I've had in my status message tonight:
My Golden Globes acceptance speech: I'd like to thank Hendric for his leftovers, Matze & Fridel for their one-sided wrestling match, Steffi for teaching me wiki-editing, Amélie for answering my stupid questions, and Amélie's dog (Virgule) for all the times I almost ran over her in my chair