I've decided to set myself a little challenge. Berlinfusion’s own A to Z stream of unconsciousness.
Some letters may have lots of entries, others not so many. A few may just have a strangled "erm" attached to them.
And the next 26 posts will follow the alphabet. I may come back and add to these from time to time.
Let’s start:
Arrival.
Covered here. I've nothing to add to that post, but a few words have been removed in the interests of family disharmony. A closed mouth gathers no foot...
We've been here for three months now and I have very few memories of our actual arrival, so jetlagged was I. In fact, I still feel country-lagged, or perhaps this is the culture-shock I've heard about. I didn't suffer from this at all in Japan, so maybe this is reverse culture shock. Whatever it is, it's making my new life very strange but I'll plough through because that's what I do.
It's certainly taking me a long time to get used to being in a European country again. Because everyone here "looks like us", according to Rhiannon (!), we don't get the automatic "oh, they're obviously foreigners so we'll give them a break" attitude. What I'm trying to say in my rambling way is people assume we're German and our language isn't yet up to scratch yet. It makes me feel stupid and isolated. But it is something I can sort out in time.
AARGH!
See above...
All in all, this year has been pretty stressful with no immediate sign of it easing in the immediate future. With the earthquake in Japan and the move here, along with major and minor problems that don't bear airing here, 2011 has been a pain in the butt so far.
It can only get better.
Can't it?