Making up for lost time...

Being exempt from household chores is cool. Like not having to cook dinner or clean up or wash dishes. It's the cough-and-cold part that sucks. I got blatantly hit on by a father of one of my students today. it was a little weird. i had to step back from my life for a moment and say "hey, wait--this is my life, not 'Must Love Dogs'!" Turns out we're practically neighbors. Weird. I'll probably run into him grocery shopping sometime and it'll be awkward.

(So yeah. This is my second try with this post: I stopped writing 3 days ago, so I don't know under what date it'll post, and then Lennard, the friend of Stephan's who rescued my internet access a few hours ago tripped over my network cable and Stephan then exited blogger, thus deleting what I'd already written. And all while I'd gotten up to be the good, solidaritous female roomate and plan a conspiratory trip to IKEA next week sometime with Cindy. Grrr.)


Anyway. New news is that I got strongarmed into going to the doctor Friday. I don't like going even in America...but here, it's really a whole different ball game and most of the time, I leave feeling vaguely taken advantage of. Like last year, when I went in with Bronchitis and the fucking doctor gave me an ultrasound of my sinuses. I was like "Doc--that's not where it hurts! HERE'S where it hurts!" but he just kind of stared at me uncomprehendingly and stuck some kind of camera down my throat. I left feeling thoroughly voilated, and with a bill for 150 Euro. We'll see how much this visit runs me. Theoretically, my insurance *should* reimburse me, but it's weird German "travel insurance" and I have no idea how to even file a claim. This should be an adventure. But I made the acquiantance of Dr. Waltraud Pfeifer. Yep, her name is "Walt-rowd". It's a woman. It was pretty cool. She didn't stick a camera down my throat and she didn't violate my sinuses, either. What she did do was give me these kick-ass 3 day antibiotics and prescribe me some German birth control (the stash from home is almost out and I DO NOT need any mini-Stephans or mini-Me's running around). So I'm feeling all around much better. The dear Doctor also wrote me this handy little note which supposedly prohibits me from working. That's how they do things here--they write the note from your mother that excuses you from school. And it works when you're an adult, too. Well, almost. Not with my boss. She was just like "drink some tea and suck it up. Play Cds for the kids." This, however common it might be in America is rare here in Germany and was the source of much outrage among my roomates. But I'm tough, I'll survive. I kind of have to. There's a lot going on this week. Among other things, I've got this test-lesson at an elementary school which wants to outsource it's first and second grade English classes to our company. Somehow (personally, I believe out of sheer desperation) my boss has decided that I'm the one who's going to nail this contract for us. And take the hours. I told her I'd definitely do the test-lesson and I'd see about the actual hours. They shouldn't start until January--but just between us, with the hours I'm working now, I'm kind of all set for money (once I get paid for a full month of work that is) and as I've mentioned, the stress is more than enough with the hours I have. We'll see. She's still under the impression that I'm the greatful immigrant slave who will be loyal to her company for years to come. And that I'm still hot for the full-time position she promised me for next year. Boy does SHE have it coming. I'm tempted to avoid the subject completely and then spring it on her at the last second. But that'd be shitty and they have done a lot for me, in terms of filing paperwork for my visa and work permits (which of course I still don't have...).

So we'll see. This coming weekend, we're also slated to drive up to Rostock. Poor Stephan is languishing because he hasn't seen his family in, like months. I feel kind of bad, taking him away from his family and all his friends up there. It's basically because of me that we moved to Berlin. He wanted to study here, but for this semester it didn't work out. Because the universities here are funded by the state, money is tight and the slots in a class for a certain major are few and far between. But next semester is supposedly a sure thing. I hope it works out. Otherwise he'll get even more restless than he already is. But I'm excited to go back up north. I miss the Rostock kids and the bars and Stephan's family. They're a really great, chaotic pack. His brother also has all of my Family Guy DVDs. And the weekend after that is the double 70th birthday party for the grandparents, in this tiny little mountain village on the former East/West German border. The last weekend in November, there'll almost certainly be snow. I'm so excited! Berlin's not much for snow--it's more rainy and raw than anything else. When it does snow, it doesn't really stick, sadly. Just a lot of grey and wetness. I gotsta get me some sexy Euro winter boots. Tis the season, and I wore my black pointy ones from last year out. Literally. We're talking cracked soles and walked-down heels by New Year's. They barely made it through to March. God, I loved those boots. Sigh.

Anyway, the Hackbraten (meatloaf, I believe) with Feta cheese is calling me. And Stephan is so preoccupied with his new steering wheel for his video games that I don't think he'll be eating or sleeping for the next few days, so I'm on my own.