A Rough Start to a New City

I apologize for not posting in awhile, but as many of you aready know, I have been dealing with such a bizarre situation since my last night in Marburg that tumbled into the start of my new life in Berlin.

I am sitting here in my former apartment, packed up for the second time in one week, reflecting on the craziness that has been my last few days here in Berlin. I will lock the door in one hour and venture to a new apartment with a fresh start to my Fulbright experience in Berlin.

Last Thursday I received a text message, followed by an email, that said my former subletter was very sick and could no longer rent me my one-bedroom apartment in Berlin for the year. The news was so sudden, I hardly knew how to process the information. One small panic attack later and several comforting words from my Fulbright friends, I went into auto-pilot trying to get things in order. I called Daddy, the Fulbright office, the sick subleter, the Bank... I stayed calm and tried the best I could to sort out the situation. The news was so shady from sick subleter, that I was not sure I could trust her any longer and knew that I legally had some rights with the contract I had signed. But I was in a foreign country and 4 hours away from Berlin... all I could do was say goodbye to my friends at Camp Marburg around a bonfire and remain calm.

The next morning was pretty bleak, with the sadness of saying goodbye to everyone I had met, the stress of packing, and the uneasy anticipation of traveling to Berlin without an apartment. I had pressed upon my sick subleter that I needed a place to stay while searching for a new place, and that she had put me in a really difficult situation. The train ride from Marburg to Berlin was simply fantastic. It was amazing traveling with 5 people to Berlin from the Fulbright program. We made a sort of assembly line to throw all of our gigantic suitcases on board (you have like 2 minutes to board the train at each stop). We were very efficient. We had a private compartment car and somehow managed to fit all of our luggage and the 5 of us inside. It was a fun trip all in all. We shared stories and watched TV on Jill's laptop in our private compartment. At the station I found a Taxi, and I was off to see my former subleter. She was extremely nice, but all is very shady. We talked, set up my Internet, she handed me the keys, and I was left alone in Berlin in my former-not so mine anymore-apartment.

Pretty much from that moment on, I began a round-the-clock search for a new place to live. The stress was weighing heavy on me, and finding a new place was shaping up to be a much more difficult task than I originally had thought. I had arrived the same weekend that all the other international and European Union exchange students had arrived in Berlin, and the competion for an apartment was stiff. In Germany you interview with students for a room in their apartment, a sort of fraternity or sorority rush event where you have a short conversation about yourself, see the place, and then they call you later to tell you if you have been choosen. But this was so much more intense, as 30-40 people were showing up to compete for one room! The odds were completely against me, especially as an international student. I think when all was said and done, I had sent around 100 emails and made around 30 phone calls. It was really a rough search, and the first few days of rejection really hurt. I was very down and could not believe this was the start to my time in Berlin.

Everyone was really fantastic and supportive though throughout the apartment crisis '08. I was so thankful for all of the thoughts and prayers, and the positive attitudes and help from both the Fulbrighters in Berlin and my new university. On Tuesday I spoke with my sob story subleter, and told her that the search was not going well. The places I had seen were not nice and people were not returning my phone calls. She came over to help with the search and realized what I had been talking about. She accompanied me to my interview that evening, explained her sick situation, gave a personal reference for me, and then I introduced myself for a bit (in german, of course!) The lady is a late-30-something divorcee that is a writer, was very sympathetic, and offered me the place on the spot! She also said I could back out within one month with no penalty and was very friendly. I am also living with another girl from England working on her doctorate. So I am pretty excited things worked out: I am paying less, in a better location in Prenzlauer Berg close to transportation, cafes, restaurants, shopping, movies, and 3 of my new friends!! So I will try and post pictures of my new *yellow* room soon!

Yesterday I had Orientation at the Freie Universitaet, and it was just like freshman year all over again. I totally got lost on campus on the way over to the meeting. I followed a group of students that looked very international, and that was my first mistake. They were actually pharmacy students and led me to the complete wrong location. So I will try to pay attention and not be a follower next time. I eventually made it to the orientation and had to sit on the floor because it was so crowded. All of the foreign students were at the meeting, and they are 90% undergraduates on an exchange for a semester from a European Union country. So I felt a little old, and also I didn't quite fit into what they were going over since I am doing more research and an no longer an undergrad : ) I ate in the Mensa cafeteria for lunch and then met up with some other Fulbrighters in the afternoon. There was a former Fulbrighter there who seems to know the answer to every question that I have ever had since arriving to Germany. She is like a walking Wikipedia and knows a lot of people. Somehow she hooked me up with a private appointment to fill out all of my student paperwork so I didn't have to go back today. Which was so comlpletely amazing, I cannot even put it into words. German bureaucracy is a nightmare! And today is a general helping day for all foreign students. So I probably would have been in line for hours. And she even gave me a temporary card to travel all of the Berlin public transportation. Brilliant!!

So after Orientation, I went to meet up with friends who moved into their new apartments. Everyone is starting to get settled here, and it is pretty exciting to know that I will be living here for a year. We had wine and then Thai food, followed by chatting and Espresso. It was a great day, following my misadventures that had been Berlin so far.

All my bags are packed and stacked near the door, so here's to a new start! I am shutting down the laptop, calling a cab, and hopefully will be nestled in my new room next time I post : )

Thanks again for all of the love!!! I miss my Marburg loves!! And of course everyone back home. Kisses and hugs!