total insomniac...

So I can't sleep. It is 1:22 am, and I find myself tired, but without any hope to actually shut my eyes and fall into any sort of slumber. The house I am currently in is very full, and I don't have many options of where to go and what to do. Thankfully I have access to a computer. After wasting more time than I care to admit on Facebook, I thought I'd update the blog.

These days I'm trying to "be productive". What does that even mean? Well for me, I'm trying to read much and write often while I apply to as many jobs that I can that seem suitable to my interests and abilities. Each night before I go to sleep, I tell myself "Tomorrow, I will be productive." Each morning when I awake, I say "Today I will be productive." And while I am putting effort in to reach this goal, I still find myself feeling disatisfied--like somehow I could have done more each day.

Today, I went out in search of ingredients to make pumpkin bread. I love all things pumpkin related, and so I was really looking forward to making this for David and his family. I had to walk a little further outside of Lauf's marktplatz to go to the bigger supermarket, as I had already searched a smaller store, with no luck of finding the most important ingredient (pumpkin!). I get there and start wandering around to try and find the things on my list. Searching searching all over the place, as 1) I'm not really familiar with the store and 2) I have to try to search for ingredients with foreign names. After a good twenty minutes, I find the mehl (flour), I find the muskatnuss (nutmeg), I find the sultanis (raisins)--then I go in search for my final missing ingredient--canned kürbis (pumpkin). I look through all the canned foods I can find, and while the German supermarket is stocked up on canned peaches, mangoes, apple, maracuja, and yes, even canned sausages... they didn't have a single can of pumpkin. :( ... so instead I went and bought some marshmallows and some rice krispies and opted to make rice krispie treats instead.

Tomorrow (or today really) I will go into Nuremberg and perhaps I will have better luck there finding my beloved pumpkin.

I am three minutes away from entering the 2 o'clock hour. I think I will give sleep another chance, but before I do, thought I'd list some sites that I've found useful, in case you ever find yourself living in Germany and are in search of a job, apartment, insurance, or English-speaking friend... the following websites can assist you with just those things:


www.thelocal.de (good for job hunting and getting news happening in Germany in English, also list when and where to see movies in English (!))

www.toytowngermany.com (networking for and by English speaking expats in Germany)

www.kijiji.de &
www.markt.de (the German versions of craigslist, excellent flat-finding websites)

www.provisit.de (super duper useful in securing inexpensive yet mandatory health insurance for foreigners living in Europe for a year or more)

When I find more, I'll post them.

Until next time,

your American in Deutschland