Wed, 28 Sep 2005
Viva Leipzig!!
Well, the biggest piece of news certainly is that I finally moved to wonderful Leipzig! I arrived here at the end of August and have since settled in quite nicely. So far I really love living here! My place is (rather by accident than by intent) in one of the IMHO most beautiful, atmospheric and interesting parts of the city. It's mainly populated by students and young families, most of them with a slightly alternative lifestyle and a rather left-tending (is this proper English?!) political view, which does a lot for the cityscape in this particular area. There's lots of really nice cafes and other places, second hand shops, fair trade stores, ... and basically anything else you might need or wish to have. All within comfortable walking/bike distance.
My place itself is rather small (a little one room flat with a separate bath and kitchen) but I feel at home there and after some "customising" I finally have everything arranged the way it suits me best. It's "interim rent" (no idea if there's a proper English word for that.), which means that the actual tenant keeps the place but leaves it to you for a few months complete with all furniture, equipment, tableware, ... etc. In my case, my "landlady" is a student who also does an internship at the moment, but in another part of Germany. Such arrangements really are a nice thing! The actual tenant avoids paying double rent and the other one doesn't have do move all his/her stuff around for just a few months.
Though, at first it felt a bit awkward, like living in someone else's place, but after putting some of my personal stuff up and replacing Metallica and Franz Kafka with Uma Thurman, the animal and some general Life-and-Linux-Memorabilia, it really feels like my place now and I really enjoy coming back home in the evenings.
My new job is pretty much okay, my workplace isn't the most cosy of all, and the work itself is a bit dull at times, but - considering that this is an internship - I know I could do much worse. So I am okay with it. What took (and is still taking) me most time to get used to are my work times and conditions. My job here mainly consists of coding, and usually I do that when I am in the according mood (which mostly means feeling creative). With some nice music or the radio on, feet on the table and some tea and/or sweets next to me. Now, on the other hand, getting up at 7 am, starting work at 8, sitting nicely on my office chair in an otherwise completely empty and featureless room, surrounded by dead silence, only alleviated by the humming of my computer and the scratching of my chair's wheels on the white tiled floor does *not* put me in that kind of mood! But I guess that's what "normal work life" is like and thus it's something I'll just have to deal with and get used to. :-/ At least for now.
(Any hints on how other people deal with this would be very much appreciated! So far I am doing my work okay. But I know I could do much better if I managed to dig up some more motivation.)
Last but not least, my mood that has lately been a bit melancholic has very much lightened up. My little journey had the desired clarifying effect, though, in a lot of very different ways from what I'd actually anticipated! But, alas, life has this funny way of always *not* doing what you expected it to, so let me just say that - little troubles aside - at the moment I am really happy! :)
Posted at: 13:53 in /english/personal
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