Catching Up

Servus!

I’m not quite sure where to start this post. I’ve stopped and started so many times that it feels almost silly to try to jump ahead to this moment from when I last blogged. I am hoping to do this more regularly and keep it up to date so I may speak on more of the minutiae and interesting stories that happen day-to-day but this blog will most likely serve only as a summary of how things have been and my current situation now. Suffice to say, things in my life have progressed so radically and so swiftly that I almost don’t recognize myself.

I graduated UF in May, walked across the stage and then had 2 months to pack up my life completely and say goodbye to everyone I had known. I now live in Germany, working at an army installation that also serves as a ski lodge and vacation getaway for all U.S and Department of Defense military personnel. Don’t worry, I didn’t enlist (although my ex was almost swayed by the recruiter), I am just a contracted, limited tenure employee even though it does sound a lot cooler to say I am a contractor for the Department of Defense. All jokes aside, it is actually a really cool opportunity as the resort pays for your airfare out to Germany and back to the states when the contract is up. There is also free lodging on base, which is a double-edged sword in more way than one, but the ability to live without paying rent is ultimately unsurpassable. Lastly, Germany is right in the heart of Europe, meaning that travel could never be easier. Colmar, France is a 6 hour train ride away, Cinque Terre, Italy is a 5 hour car ride and Amsterdam an hour and a half by plane. I have never had so much access to so many destinations and it is ultimately the greatest perk of working here. I just need my bank account to catch up so I can keep the good times coming.

When I first arrived, I was placed in the laundry department of the hotel and, suffice to say, it was not the job for me. I have stories on stories that I can share about that place that I’ll be sprinkling in the rest of my blog posts until the day I die. From the first day I walked in, I couldn’t help but be struck by the dense, oppressive atmosphere permeating the entire basement room. It felt like I had walked into a mental institution; the walls, the machines, the entire aura completely lacked color or imagination. I wondered if maybe I had walked onto the set of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest; even the cast of characters working down there were as crazy if not crazier than those in the movie. It was not dissimilar to prison as I was not allowed to switch out to a new department for at least 90 days and to leave permanently would mean paying a great deal of money to the hotel for the flight to and from Germany.

So I was stuck. I felt completely isolated. I missed my friends, my girlfriend, my parents and life back home. I also had a roommate who, to put it delicately, I did not enjoy living with. We both came in the same group of six people and were the only two guys so naturally we were placed together. Within the first few days I could tell we didn’t vibe together but I didn’t seriously consider switching rooms for another couple of weeks and figured if I stuck it out it might get better. The moment I realized the living situation was probably going to have to change was his “redecorating”. To give some context, each hotel room has two queen beds, two 6′ dressers, two desks (usually) and a TV. He was on the facing the TV and I was the bed close to the window and one day, I guess he decided he was tired of looking at me at night and decided to spread the beds apart and place the two large dressers right in the middle, parting the red sea and effectively isolating me on one side of the room. I couldn’t see the TV, I had to try to dodge the giant things in the dead of night when going to the bathroom, and I honestly couldn’t even hear when someone was knocking on the door. More drama ensued the next two nights after the redecoration and by then, the writing was on the wall. Three days after my version of the Berlin wall, I texted the Housing Manager and was out of the room the same day. I had my own room for 3 weeks, which were some of the best weeks hitherto. However, new people were soon going to be on their way and, rather than room with an unknown person and possibly repeat the process again, I moved in with a guy who I knew and liked already and it has been a much better experience.

So, with the roommate situation settled, I could turn my attention to getting out of laundry. Luckily, I had made some friends in high places who knew how unhappy I was in my current job. While we are technically supposed to wait 90 days to transfer out, I had made it very clear that I needed to leave. It happened to work out that many of the people I’ve gotten close to here are chefs and they all began putting in a good word for me to the executive chef. After a little more than a month, he approached me and told me he would be willing to take me in as a kitchen steward (pretty much just dishwasher), assuming my department head was okay with it. Long story short, she wasn’t. She was blindsided and claimed that I had to wait my 90 days before transferring out. So I resigned myself to my fate but secretly began looking for jobs back in the states as I didn’t feel my heart would be able to take another 2 months stuck in the soul-sucking basement. I figured it would be better to get a real job and pay the airfare back to the hotel than be completely unhappy. However, one day I was pleasantly surprised when my department head told me that new people were coming in a month, and if I could hold out for them, I would be able to transfer out when they replaced me.

Looking back, I truly believe this is the moment when things changed here for me. While I had been making friends and going on small trips, I still felt as though I didn’t belong. I was living in the past more than the present and not making the most of this opportunity. When I realized that maybe there was a brighter future ahead here at the hotel than back home, I began to truly live how I should have been all along. My attitude completely changed; I no longer harbored resentment toward the decisions that led me here and now live each day as fully as I can, knowing I’ll likely never experience this level of freedom again. While this has been good for me, it led to a hard goodbye to someone back home as well as distancing me from many of the people with whom I used to be close. Of course, this is never easy and I can’t expect to just travel and experience complete freedom without consequences because nothing is ever truly free; however, I don’t regret one bit of this journey so far. The dreams I used to have about the places I wanted to see don’t hold a candle to the true beauty of what I have seen. Life here has completely surpassed anything my imagination might ever have conjured up and it has not even been a full three months yet.

As it stands right now, I am in a very good place all things considered. Working in a professional kitchen has been an incredible experience and has me seriously considering whether I might want to stay in one the rest of my life as a chef. I have several trips planned for the next coming months, including Amsterdam in a week and Madrid at the end of the month to celebrate my birthday (assuming my bank account allows for it).

But, to say the least, the last two months have been a whirlwind. I don’t know if the person I was just 3 months ago would recognize who I am now as I do feel as though I’ve changed a great deal over time, even if I didn’t realize it at the time. To be a long-term traveler, I’ve realized you have to be willing to change to deal with the unexpected which I feel has greatly helped me mature as a person and be more inclined to try new things and go out my comfort zone. It doesn’t hurt that I’m surrounded by some great people who, more or less, share the same attitude as me which has been great at keeping me moving forward and always up to something. Life is very exciting to live right now.

This blog was mainly just to catch up on how the last couple of months have progressed. I regret putting this off for so long because I experienced so much in this time that it would be impossible to try to fit all of it into this blog so I figured I would do a quick summary and then go more in depth in the coming posts, if I actually manage to get them out. This will probably be a two parter, followed by a post about my latest trip to Cinque Terre, a place I still see in my dreams at night and made up some of the best moments in my life.

Auf Wiedersehen