Bye Bye Deutschland

So things are winding down. My last day of work on Friday was really weird. A little sad.

The weekend was focused on getting rid of my final furniture and clearing out the apartment. The sofa was picked up on Saturday, leaving me to sleep on the floor Saturday and Sunday nights. Not entirely keen on doing that again in the near future. Or ever again. I'm sleeping in a hotel from Monday until Thursday's departure.

Today was busy busy. After sleeping at the hotel, I had to be back at my apartment by 7am because the moving company was to arrive between 7 and 8am. UGH. So they came and packed everything up. As they were doing that, I was in the kitchen opening and pouring out a bunch of beer bottles. Twelve in all. I wouldn't be drinking them and wanted to get the deposit back. These guys probably saw me and almost had a heart attack. Beer down the drain... Sacrilegious. Anyway, the big weigh-in moment: 160 kilo, so I'm in line with my allowance of 200. I, on the other hand, weighed in at a hefty 58 kilo. Err... Diet starts Monday!

Continued cleaning the apartment and hauling out lots of trash. I also de-registered at city hall, where a favorite German past-time presented itself once again in the presence of an American. That just means that I was asked about U.S. politics and Bush's departure and Hillary's chances and hopefully the end of war and less killing and all that. I agree. But let's not talk politics. Then I went to the bank to arrange how my account would be closed. After leaving and heading back to the bus stop, a cute little gray cat with big yellow eyes peeks his head around the corner. He brought a smile to my face. I continued to the bus stop, and as I was looking back, I saw the cat heading toward the street. I froze and could only repeat to myself "No, no no." He made a run for it and a car got him. It was so sad. Boom - life gone. Some lady picked him up and removed him from the road.

I hand over the keys to the apartment tomorrow at 2pm. Not sure what I'll be doing the rest of that afternoon and evening... the final one in Germany.

Leaving and saying good-bye to people has been a very humbling and emotional experience. I'm continuously caught off guard by all the compliments that people have given me. I just never expect it. If nothing else, maybe it's minor validation that I'm doing something right in life, as I seem to have made a positive impact on many people - more so than I ever imagined. It makes me sad to leave. I grabbed a small pizza in the Aldi store around my house to throw in the oven this evening for dinner, and my favorite cashier was working. As I've always paid with my debit card - but today had cash because the bank forced me to turn my card in earlier - she said surprisingly "You're paying with cash today?!?" I'm shocked that others remember me or little things like that. We had a nice little chat and I told her I'm leaving for good. She didn't even know I was American but said I was always so friendly and she'll miss my smiling face. The funny thing is, she was that same person to me, and I'd always choose her checkout line when she was working. I don't know, I guess I always thought I did a lot of things anonymously in life, not really mattering or being noticed by others, but the fact is that people do take notice and we all have effects on others, even in something so trivial as grocery shopping. That's the lesson to which I was reintroduced over the past week.

I leave with a bit of a heavy heart, but I take a lot of memories, friendships, and life lessons with me. I plan to hold on to all of these.

How Rude!

The realtor office responsible for renting out my apartment sent over a lady yesterday evening to take pictures. She seemed nice and all. I even offered her something to drink but she declined. So she snapped some pics of the living room, the little balcony, the bathroom, the toilet, and the bedroom. Then she went to take one of the kitchen and realized her camera memory card was full. Then she shrugs and mutters, "Oh well, the kitchen isn't that pretty anyway." Umm...hello. It may not be the most beautiful kitchen in the world, and I may not have been involved in its conception or design, but it IS my kitchen at the moment, and it functions just dandy, so DON'T DISS the KITCH, BITCH. Naa, I'm not that mean. But I did find her statement to be a bit of a cheap shot, and I was happy to show her the door shortly thereafter. The fact that she went tumbling down the stairwell certainly had nothing to do with me giving her that gentle tap on the back for a job well done.

Final memories of Germany... What fun!

One more office day :-)

The Final Countdown

I'm in the midst of a little phase I like to refer to as "Honey, where's the Prozac?"

Office life has been crazy as ever. Lots of reporting deadlines these days. For some ungodly reason I have to be a part of every and any telecon with the US. As if I'm from there or something. The most interesting recent event was the realization that one of our contacts in another department suddenly had a new last name. So she got married, you're thinking to yourself... Well let me inform you that it was a man. His email address was still the same, but his last name on the account had completely changed. If nothing else, it provided a fun little diversion from the daily grind. And it was all the more interesting because I had gotten a fairly strong "friend of Dorothy" vibe from dealings with him in the past. My fellow trainee then had a chat with him on the phone and it was confirmed that he had gotten married...to a woman. Maybe she's got a penis. I don't really know.

The clock is ticking at this end… No, not the biological one. Although that one is making some funny noises as well. I have one more week in the office and then vacation (ie. relocation) through the rest of the month. I'll be flying to Chicago from here on October 18th.

I spent much of the past week spazzing out, realizing that I have to find a way to get rid of all my furniture before moving out. So I've been busy placing ads on eBay as well as some local sites, and I've had a lot of success within the past week. Not to mention, it's been a very international sale. My Hungarian coworkers bought my large candleholders, an Argentinien couple stopped by to look at my bed, a Polish couple purchased, dismantled and hauled away my large armoire in the bedroom, a German coworker purchased and took my table and bar stools to the Netherlands, and an Iraqi man purchased my entertainment center and shelves, large painting, another table, and the armoire in the front entrance. So I feel a LOT better about things and the place is emptying out. The only items left to sell are my bed and the sofa. The sofa is set to sell on eBay tomorrow. I've received two bids already, but as of right now, an additional 46 people are watching the auction! Will be interesting to see if they make some noise around auction closing time. All I really care about is if someone picks it up within the next week and a half. And if they're hot, then all the better.

(Update: The bed just sold and will be picked up in 2 hours. Looks like I'll be sleeping on the couch tonight... Just call me Bill Clinton.)

We had Wednesday off of work for Reunification Day here in Germany. YAY for reunifications. Ya'll sing with me now - "Reunited and it feels so good..."

On Tuesday evening, the landlords (old couple) and the guy they hired to find new renters were here looking at the place. I hadn't seen the landlords in two years, which was back before I moved in. The lady was very chipper and chatty with me. She said she had hoped I would have gained some weight within the past couple of years. Ha. Guess I disappointed in that regard. I should have told her that I wasn't able to afford food due to the high rent.

Basically my mind's been going a mile a minute trying to get anything and everything planned, not to mention beginning the search for living arrangements, a car, etc. in the Chicago area. I'll be in a hotel upon arrival at any rate.

To say there's a lot going on at the moment would be the understatement of the year - at least on this side of the Mississippi. But it's really an exciting time and I couldn't be more ready (well, almost) to wrap life up at this end and resume it in Chicago...

...BIGGER and BETTER.