Day Two in Frankfurt.
I don't know what to say now! It's been interesting! Mostly I am overwhelmed.
So yesterday, I awoke at 2.30am and got the bus to Dublin. Since I am now a pro at travelling, security was no bother, and got away with having 2 bags on the plane by putting my handbag in a shopping bag (that's the trick, plus an excuse to buy a magazine). By the time I got to Frankfurt Flughafen, my excessive 2048 playing had killed my battery. Mist! No way to contact anyone. I thought I could change trains at the Hauptbahnhof to the office where I was being received, but I couldn't figure it out so I decided to walk, vaguely remembering it wasn't too far. So I followed my nose, felt a bit lost, but found my way in good enough time.
Arriving at work, I had the lovely Yasemin, Rebekka and Christina to greet me- some friendly faces thank goodness! Then, having already organised to see 3 apartments that day (maybe a bit ambitious), off Yasemin and I went to some far flung corner of Frankfurt.
1. So my brain is tired, I am exhausted, and we go and find this house in Eckenheim; upon ringing the doorbell, an old bearded man comes to the door. Not what I expected. I have no idea what to say. When he speaks, I also have no idea what he's saying because he has a gruff old man voice. But we go in anyway. In the living/dining room, some jazz music is playing, and there's a saxophone and a piano (I'll take it!). He asks if we want a drink; I say no but I realise a millisecond after that I'm so thirsty and haven't had lunch. We quickly look at the room upstairs- it's big and old fashioned. I can't believe how weird everything is. There's a wooden sideboard being renovated in the middle of the room. The man says another girl rents a room, a doctor, but she isn't there. Later Yasemin tells me he also said that he rents out rooms because his family died and he is alone in the big house. I nearly take the room out of sympathy, but my mum told me not to take the first room I see...
2. We then go to Griesheim, which is a much better location for work, but we couldn't find house number- after asking the number before about a room, a creepy man says he does rent out a room, but not on the internet. He asks me if I'm yugoslavian or something. He was not very friendly... moving swiftly on! We then found the house but had missed the appointment. Come back tomorrow. Feeling pretty dejected by this point and thinking that most Germans in WGs are creepy.
3. Was supposed to be on Taunusstrasse, which the girls said was in the red light district. Decided to give that one a miss.
So then Yasemin took me shopping for essentials, and showed me round the Skyline Plaza (as fancy as it sounds) and we had noodles for dinner. It's good to be able to talk away in whichever language I feel like. I think if I had to do my first day alone (as I had planned in my head), I definitely would have cried the entire time. I was tired, it rained all day, moan, moan, moan.
Whenever we got back to the office, I had a message about a WG nearby, so we phoned up, and another mumbly man answered, so from what I could understand he said that lots of people were coming to view the house at 7 o'clock. This was at 6.45. So we quick-walked about 6 streets along, and found some people waiting outside. They seemed to recognise the ridiculousness of the situation. As the 5th group of people to be shown around this "Wohnung/apartment," we soon discovered, as everyone else must have, that the landlord was charging 510 euro a month for a one room apartment which was probably less than 15m2. So half-laughing I went home, leaving Yasemin at the train station.
After some key struggles, I was alone. I wasted no time when it came to sleeping!
Firstly today, my alarm from the day before went off at 2.30. Eugh no. The real start to my day was when the doorbell went at about 8.50, and was not Christina or Rebekka, but the police! Didn't really catch what they were saying, so I just said it was my first day here and shut the door.
4. Today, Christina was accompanying me on my Wohnungssuche. The first, the appointment we missed yesterday- I already knew it was going to be small... I don't know. The room was fine, but there was no living room, and no space to eat. 2 other bedrooms with ever-changing tenants. Dark hallway... Every house I saw felt like it was a last resort.
5. Then we went to Heddernheim, which was quite far, but seemed like a nice place to live. The woman seemed lovely, was a quite young psychotherapist who worked from home.
Plus points: Really nicely decorated, clean, 2 cats.
Minus points: No living room, no real company, unexpected daughter who is 12! Don't remember that being in the ad.
All in all not the city living I had envisaged, but it felt silly turning down a nice quiet apartment. The room is currently reserved for someone else, so no pressure.
Also, I was talking to Christina about church, and she said I can go with her this Sunday to her church. It's so nice to be welcomed like that, and she said she was excited to have another sister to work with! So I feel like God knows I'm not very good at inner peace, so He's just sending other people who understand how much we need Him.
We then went out for lunch for my arriving and Rebekka's leaving to MoschMosch. Cute Asian restaurant. It was sunny, and I felt like I was back in the Frankfurt I loved before.
6. NEXT we get back to the office, and I have another message from someone I wrote to yesterday or so. She says come today or tomorrow, so we phone up and organise to go see. The WG is on the outskirts of FFM but we meet in town and get a taxi there- plenty of time to talk. In short, Lili is lovely, and the WG promises everything I had hoped for and more. Close enough to work, living room, loan of a bike, not too expensive, all inclusive rent, a CLEANER..! We get the lift to the 10th floor, and when I'm shown my room I look out the window and see what I wished for. Of course, the apartment ticks the boxes, but it's suddenly embodied in the view; below, children playing, old house and trees, and then further is the famous (well famous in Germany) Frankfurt skyline with skyscrapers standing like dark glass flowers.
I have a good feeling.
TO BE CONTINUED...?! Please keep praying that this will end up well. And thanks for everyone's support so far.
