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Long-time no see. It has been three weeks since I moved to Germany and here is (finally) one of the first blogposts about this journey.
It was quite hard to say goodbye to my friends and family, even though I knew I was going to see them soon. The day before I moved, I had a small going away ‘party’. Note; it was not really a party, more a nice come together before I went. I am glad I was able to see my friends and family all together before moving.
Let me tell you, I was not prepared as well as I thought I was. To be honest, I was too lazy to start packing etc. which caused me to do a lot last minute. However, I am lucky I am close to the Dutch border haha!
What did I pack?
· Clothes
Well, I obviously need clothes haha. I just packed what I wear often and then made a separation between work clothes and casual wear.
· Make-up/wigs/wig stand/ accessories
· Food !!!
They don’t have hagelslag here, so I needed to pack that with me. Hagelslag are little chocolate sprinkles that I put on my bread for breakfast/lunch. However, I took way more with me. When my family or friends visit, they take bread with them from the Netherlands, because German bread tastes more sour than Dutch bread. I am lucky they also make it "in American style" here, as that does not taste as sour as the other German bread here :)
· Microwave/boiler/toaster/centrifuge
Those things were not available in my room, therefore I took them with me.
· My bike
As I am 17, I cannot drive a car and I need to be able to go somewhere.
· Soft blankets
I mean.. how am I going to live without them?
· My TV
Do I need to say more than the fact that I can watch Netflix on there? Also, do you know what I did not bring? The REMOTE. So yea, during the first week my TV was of no use, because of my stupidity. But, as it was my grandpa his birthday a week after I moved, my family brought the remote with them :)
This is just a short summery of the things I took with me, but do you see what is not there? Indeed, plates and cutlery. Luckily, after 4 days my grandparents visited me and took those with them. My family (parents + grandparents) visited me more times and now I finally have all the things I need!
· Enough storage to put my stuff in – clothing rack, boxes, containers.
· Enough necessities to ‘cook’.
· All the basic things like shampoo, tea towels, toothpaste, cleaning agent etc.
The first three weeks
First of all, I am really not a kitchen princess. I make the easiest meals and got plenty of food to put in the microwave from my family (thanks!!). I do not mind being alone, it gives me some sort of peace. Furthermore, I did not do much yet, as I don’t know many people here and most of the time, I am tired when I get home from my internship.
However, I am really enjoying myself here. Kempen is beautiful, it really is. I have always liked small cities, so this fits perfectly.
I have been bald in public a few times. Obviously, people stare, however that also happened back home. I do feel a bit awkward without my wig here, but I think that will change soon. People don't know me and as I speak Dutch or bad German most of the time and I am bald, I guess they have to get a bit "used to me" as I am getting "used to them". What is quite funny is, that in the middle of the street there is a display with different wigs and hats! When I first walked passed it, I was like "uhm what is this doing here" haha.
I often walk when the weather is beautiful and then I just sit down somewhere and enjoy what is happening around me. There is no pressure to ‘do something’, I don’t know how else to explain it.
Kempen and my room already feel like home, which is great. Last week, my friend came to visit me and after a day she said "It’s weird, tomorrow I am leaving but it already feels ‘normal’ here, like you have always been in Kempen." Just a small shout out to Jessie, as she cooked my dinner that weekend, helped me with the dishes and got me (Dutch) food!
If you are wondering what we did there; we went swimming and as there was some sort of festival, we just sat outside and watched what was happening. The days where I don’t really do much with my friends, are actually the days I enjoy most.
Internship/school
My internship has been great so far! My colleagues are sweet and I have already learnt quite a few things. I start at 08.00 and finish at 17.00. I really need to work on my German, as it is quite bad right now. I hope this will become better during the time that I am here. Though, they tell me here my German is quite alright. What I did found out, is that my brain cannot cope with three languages at one time. Sometimes, I think in German and then I am unable to speak in Dutch and most of the times my English has disappeared. It is quite the wonder I am able to type this in English right now haha!
A few colleagues already know that I am bald and they had such a sweet responds. Saying I still look good and that if I don’t want to wear my wig, I should not. They said they had respect for me!
Fun story: I had one colleague on WhatsApp after the first workday, as I am going to school with him. While we were discussing how we would go to school on Wednesday, I changed my profile picture to a bald selfie, not realising I did not tell anyone about my alopecia..oops. However, the next day I explained I am not sick and he said that I look great without a wig as well and did not make a problem out of it. I think we sometimes overthink the way people will respond, when in reality they really don’t mind.
As I want to get the EBBD certificate, I also need to go to school here. So far, I went to school twice. I would almost say I would trade this class for my own haha. The people are nice and take my poor German into account by talking slower or helping me find my words. The lessons are difficult to follow, as they are in German, however Google Translate is my best friend! I am also lucky to have a colleague that tries his best to explain everything to me, so I can somehow follow the lessons.
I made an English writing test at school. Everything that needed to be in the letter, was written in German (Yay!). Meaning, I had to translate it all to English, as they did not have a German - Dutch dictionary. Two things happened, I really lost all my knowledge of the English language! I just could not come up with the words. Secondly, I did not understand most of the translations, as they were multiple German words put together, which were not in the dictionary as one word. When you try to translate a word, using the two words separately, it is confusing.
One more funny story before I close this blog post :)
I was showing pictures of my room to a classmate, however, I did not realise 2 things:
1. You can see that I am bald in the reflection.
2. My wig stand, stands pretty obvious in my bathroom.
So, when he was looking at the pictures, the bathroom picture came by. I have never seen anyone so confused haha.
To be short, the first three weeks have been great and I cannot wait to see what is coming! Thank you for your patience and for tagging along with me on this journey.
Tschüss! Bis später
(Bye! See you later)
Thank you for reading xx
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