Life Lately

It’s been over a month since I’ve last written.  Partially for good reason, partially not.  At the end of September and beginning of October I wrapped up my A1 German course, relished in our last Dresden moments, and moved to Leipzig.  For one week, we had no furniture in our apartment but a couch we bought off the German version of craigslist.  We slept on that couch every night, which remains one of my favorite memories of the past month as it capture the sense of “starting over but relishing it” feeling in our lives.

Then for the next two weeks, I mostly hibernated.  Partially to recollect myself but also partially due to the anxiety of waiting whether I would receive my visa or not.  When one’s life trajectory comes down to the decision of a German bureaucrat, one spends a lot of their day meditating and releasing fear.  I eventually found out that yes, I would be receiving visa which released a floodgate of feelings.  One feeling of THANK GOD!!! And another feeling of reality inducing “wow, now I must build a life here now”.

Last weekend, I took a bus down to Florence, Italy and spent the weekend gorging on Italian food with my beautiful little cousin, Lydia.

This week, I went back to work.  And just like that my life has started to feel more ordinary again.  I told myself December 31st of 2017 that by choosing to move to Germany that this would be the most demanding year of my life.  Each season has required something different of me, a different level of growth and faith, a different level of tenacity and breaking through self-imposed limits and general organization and action.  This year has included: 6 months of a long distance relationship, selling my possessions and furniture, moving out of my house, a community college German course, saving my money like crazy, many savored moments in Ann Arbor with friends, quitting my job, sleeping on friend’s couches for 2.5 months, a road trip out west in a 19 year old car, 2 weeks of the trip being on my own- sleeping in rest stops in my car in Wyoming, camping in the mountains with my best friend, reuniting with Gregor, saying goodbye to everyone, two months in Dresden, an intensive Germany course, finding a job, interviews, getting a visa, starting work, moving to a new city- Leipzig, buying new furniture and household items, and now finally, the small ordinariness of building a new life day by day.