Crazy to think that only a week ago we got hit by a winterstorm and got almost 10cm of snow when today people are walking around in shorts and flipflops at 26°C! The snow transformed the city into a beautiful winter wonderland and the streets into ice-skating rinks. So lucky me, I got to sleep in! Didn’t have to go to work until noon on Monday and 10am on Tuesday. The sun here is so powerful that it melted the ice on the streets right off – took a little longer in my parking lot but eventually the warmth prevailed – flip flops today.
Sometime during this week the weather changed. I didn’t quite notice. Thursday I stayed home sick with the flu. Hadn’t had the flu in what feels like forever. I felt really sick but in some weird way it was nice to do nothing but sleep and nap and doze and concentrate on getting better. I think a few more days and I’ll be back to normal. Can’t wait to go back to the gym!
I still love love love my apartment. It is hard to believe that I went from no furniture to everything (and more ;-)) in a little over a month. I was heavily anticipating the opening of a well-known Swedish furniture chain. Funnily by then I already had a ton of great home fillings and most even better value than IKEA pieces! Got a great coffee table (ok so it’s officially a bench) from Target for 35$ (reduced from over 100) and so on. Yay! The place really feels like my place and I feel very comfortable there.
Other than that, it’s a recession, baby! The economy is rotten. Most likely I am back to working 40 hours so that is great news! Yay! 🙂
Back from The Summer Break
Ah yes so I have decided to call my absence from the blogging world my own personal summer break like any good TV show does. Sounds so much better than saying oh I was too busy and too lazy to write and read blogs. 😉
Alas, summer is officially over in this country after Labor Day, the first Monday in September. Seeing that it has been warm here for a loooong time, I never got a real summer feeling. Hmmm. :-/
Family Visit
So shortly after I came back from visiting my sister and Uti in Connecticut, Anke flew out here and we had a great day downloading her music *rolls eyes* and going to Luca’s pool. We then ordered pizza and ate it with skyline view on his balcony. Nice!
The next day we picked up our parents from the airport. Yay!!! It was über great to see them again after all these months! We enjoyed some lovely cheesecake from the Cheesecake Factory and then watched some olympics and sent the parents to bed early and hung out with Ash for a bit.
The next day they got to enjoy their birthday gift, which was a couples massage. They really enjoyed that so I can recommend that as a gift! I went running and then did my neighbor a favor and let Bacon out. He was definitely one of the sights to see for my family. Next up was a trip to my company where the parents took their time talking to all the Italians. It was quite funny. 🙂 We then went for a walk in Latta Plantation park. Loads of cicadas (yuk) and fire ants (yuk). Quick stop at Aldi to buy some German beer and then finally we had some sushi at Ru Sans and Gerd was too cute eating it with a fork. Hehe.
It was pouring on Wednesday so we decided to go to the museum. The Discovery Place has an exhibit about Pompeii. Very very interesting. Afterwards we hung out in the general exhibit halls and had a blast playing with the optical illusions. 😀 We cooked yummy chicken that night and watched more olympics.
Thursday we relaxed and then went to Target and then walked uptown to Alive after 5. Thankfully some kids tossed an energy drink at Anke as soon as we got there so we didn’t have to feel bad for her not being 21 yet and enjoyed a cool beer. After having some fun there we took the light rail back home and started cooking. My neighbor stopped by to give me his old TV and he and his friends hauled it up the stairs. He sent them home then and stayed to have a beer with my family, which was only mildy weird. (I mean hello?!)
Friday we drove to Charleston. Oh funny story, we stopped to get gas on the way and after filling up I went inside to wash my hands. The plan was to go to McDonalds and get a coffee but when I got back, my step-dad was gone. Says Mama “oh he just walked to the waffle house”. Uhm, ok. Sketchy area and he walks to the crappy waffle house… uhm ok. So we get in the car and try to go there only to pass a garage with cars with bullet holes. Oh-kay. Well we finally make it to the Waffle House and we have a coffee and share some waffles. Totally very American movie like. It was kind of cute how my parents were so carefree and didn’t think anything about wandering around the sketchy area. Ah yeah the sweet German life.
Well once we got to Charleston we headed straight to the beach on Isle of Palms and it was oh so nice. It was overcast but warm and the water was nice and warm too and we had a great time splashing in the waves and walking around the beach. Grabbed some Wendy’s for dinner and then more olympics and bed.
Saturday we walked around the city and Mama dragged us through the souvenir shops (not that we bought anything… ;-)). Weird weather. The sky was white and it was super humid. Charleston definitely is better to see in spring.
We got back to Charlotte in the evening and hosted a little dinner for some close friends. Bratwurst, broccoli, potatoes and sauce holondaise. How German can it get?! 😉 Super nice time and then the family had to start packing again. Hmpf! 🙁 Dropped them off at the airport Sunday morning and I was really sad. It was kind of nice to have a sister in the same country and I can’t wait to see them all again for Christmas (the latest… you never know).
Trade Show in Atlanta
The day after my parents left I left for a week in Atlanta with my company. We had the industry’s 2nd largest tradeshow world wide. I love the customer interaction, all the fantastic dinner food, and getting to know your co-workers on a less professional basis. We ate at really good places and I think I gained 2kg just from that. I have to say, my favorite was a Brazilian Steakhouse where they had a gorgeous salad bar and then bring you all you can eat meat. Yummy!!! As always my co-workers and boss made fun of me big time for eating so much. What can I say, I love food!
Went out with the company to an Irish pub and then tried to party a bit more at our hotel but the security people quickly put an end to that. Hmpf! Getting up at 6:30 though was always super hard and I was glad to go back home a day earlier than originally planned. It took me almost a week to recover from that week!! But, I heart them trade shows.
Other Stuff
– I’ve been doing Podrunner intervals to train for a 5km run and I actually ran 2 miles without stopping the other day (that is really good for me! ;-)). This week my legs are hurting quite a bit though. I’m thinking split-shin and am kind of taking a break. Ugh! I miss jogging and don’t want to lose what I have just built up!
– Had a nice labor day weekend with a spontaneous surprise visit from my NJ high school friend and her boyfriend and we partied it up with some of the Italians. Her boyfriend actually plays the fiddle and we had a little private concert in the middle of the night at my place. I guess that’s gonna be a once in a life time thing. Met a cute guy at the club with them and we danced and kissed the entire night like teenagers. It was kinda nice but no dates or anything like that.
– The friggin’ economy is annoying me like crazy and I will only work 4 days a week starting next week. Grrrrrrrrr! It sucks when your life depends on one job, meaning if they’d lay me off I’d have to go back to Germany. Starting next month I will be on my other visa (and my internship is over) so at least I could theoretically transfer the visa to another job if they are willing to file the paperwork but there’s almost nothing out there right now. Very frustrating. Can the recession be over, please?! Bring on the elections!
– This week one of my best friends from Germany is visiting. He had a business thing going on in Asheville and got to stay a bit longer to visit. Yay! We wanted to hike around in the mountains on Sunday and then drop him off in Asheville but the car had a flat tire so instead we hiked around hours at Wal*Mart. Soooo annoying! And their service was horrible, too!!!
Got to Asheville at 8 and then we walked around the city for a bit and enjoyed their hippie festival. Well I had to drive back to Charlotte and got back at midnight so I have been kind of exhausted but ok. Wednesday Jensi got back here and we watched Wanted in the one theater that still had it running. Last night after grocery shopping we watched football and the boys played video games at Ash’s place. I think tonight he wants to eat steak so my stupid hot neighbor gave a me a big explanation of all the good steak options in town but I think it will be Outback seeing that my budget is getting tighter. Well, and tomorrow he is already flying back to Germany. 🙁 So nice to have an old friend here.
Visa Crap
So the time frame where you could hand in your visa application is over (and my application is there – at least I hope so). So far so good. But they’ve already received way more than the 20000 available visas for American MBA holders. Alas, there’s going to be a lottery that determines who gets one. Then if you’re not a lucky winner *rolls eyes* you get thrown into the pot of other applications, which I’m guessing is probably at almost half a million applications (think last year 133000 received in first two days and this time everybody knew you only had the first 5 days to hand your application in), for the 65000 available visas. Oh fun…. 🙁 Bloody hell….
Yeehaw…
Only in Redneck Nation… unbelievable
In other news, I finally have some good visa news! Well, it’s more like we’re going from the negative scale to 0, as the lawyer finally finally finally said that we can apply for my H1B workvisa in the American graduate degree (MBA)category. I cannot believe all the bullcrap that led up to this but finally we are at point zero and can move forward. So fingercrossing is still VERY important now obviously and nothing is sure but it’s looking a whole lot better than last week or the week before or the week before or well you get my point. 😉
I also got a great review from my boss last week, aparently he is super happy with my work. He rarely gives me any feedback so I am usually wondering what he thinks about my work so that was reassuring.
My date is doing very well, too. We spent a lovely Sunday together walking around the neighborhood for a few hours and then watching some TV. He is a very smart and sweet and hot guy. Can’t wait to get to know him even more. Right now I still feel like I don’t know him that well even though we’ve been dating for pretty much a month now (wow, where does time go these days?!). But that’s the fun of dating, right?! It’s just all about getting to know people and start digging underneath the surface of all these superficial American boys and find out about their dark sides (just kidding!).
So other then that, I did the usual things like hanging out with friends, working, shopping (Target stockholders are gonna be so rich…), eating well. Had cajun food this Saturday – can’t say that my stomach was too happy.
This week is going to be super busy! Last night I had coffee with Chadi. Tonight Vanessa is having a skin care party (think Tupperware). Tomorrow I’m gonna hang out with David. Thursday I’m having sushi with Markus who studied with me back in the day. Friday – oh a day off! And then Saturday is Markus’s birthday party and Max is in town and Axel’s birthday is on Thursday so I’m sure they’ll have a party, too. Ahhhh!
And then next week, my sister is coming to town. Yay! 9 more days! Can’t wait to show her Charlotte AND Charleston. Two of my favorite cities. 🙂