Two weeks in

I knew leaving would be painful.  I knew at first living here would be hard.  I did not know how long it would take me to start to relax and feel comfortable in my strange new home.  After a mere two weeks, things are unquestionably better for me, though I know I have a long way to go.

Thanks to my workaholic tendencies, I quickly found a rhythm by immersing myself once again in work.  MPIA is an entirely different environment than what I am used to.  Instead of being the only one in my field, stumbling around in the dark for the most part, I am among the world's experts on my research interests. They have a mountain of work to do, and it was there for me to dive right into.  Work-wise, I feel like I couldn't be in a better place.  And that's not just because my office is right across from the coffee room.

I've been pretty impatient for everything else in life to catch up with the progress made at work.  I'm staying in a guest house on the far end of town, which feels pretty isolated.  I have a dreadful walk home if I'm out past midnight, and it's really only residences out here.  With no car, that becomes laborious.  It became clear to me right away that I am just a downtown kind of creature, and as much as people generally annoy me, I prefer to live in places where there are always people about, maybe showing me that life carries on whether I'm pissy or not.  I'm very excited to be moving into a new apartment at the beginning of next month that fulfills all of those promises I made myself while living in squaller during grad school: great location, big kitchen, manageable walk to work.  It's going to be expensive, but I feel like now is a good time to start cashing in some of that good life for which I've been waiting so long.  

I'm very lucky to have had some friends here before I moved.  Those friendships have quickly branched to a wider network of good-natured individuals who are nearly all in the same situation as I, which fosters a good rapport where we all watch out for one another, always reaching out and involving everyone.  Having some people with whom to spend my downtime has done a lot for my sanity, not to mention that of my Skype mates, who would be on the receiving end of many sobbing phone calls if it weren't for the beginnings of something resembling a social life.

And, German.  How I wish I knew German.  Even in a place where most everyone speaks some English -- hell, half the time I'd say I'm within punching distance of an American -- I would still love to better communicate with people here.  Unfortunately, having delayed my arrival here by a few months, I missed the beginning of the free German course offered at the institute.  I guess it's back to the Rosetta Stone sessions for me!