"We're not in Kansas anymore, Toto..."

In the last weekend, as I wrote in my last post, I tried to meet all of my friends in Dresden. I wanted to see them all to say goodbye. I gave them some presents (that I brought from Israel) and promised to stay in touch. I really hope that I'll be able to keep my promise. Rob and I thought that we should come visit in Dresden every few months, something I would love to do, just that I know that it's not going to happen as often as we'd like.

On Monday Rob defended his thesis, and got a very good grade for it. His parents came to Dresden especially for that, and we spent the afternoon with them.

Our last night at the apartment was very weird. It was almost totally empty, except for our suitcases, an inflatable mattress and some other stuff that Rob left behind for us to use till we leave.

We left early on Tuesday morning (after sleeping for just a few hours, since I really wanted to see Andrea one more time the night before), knowing that we'll never go back to that place again. It's so weird leaving a place that you really liked, but I think I've talked about it enough already.

We got to Munich on Tuesday night, after stopping at Rob's parents for lunch. We had a carload of stuff to bring upstairs (I'm reminding you that our place is on the 6th floor with no elevator), which made Rob go up the 102 stairs 9 times, and me 6 times. I was so tired at night, but still didn't sleep that well. I still need to get used to this place.

We had quite a few problems here since we moved in, in the beginning the fridge door refused to close (that was already fixed), then the washing machine wouldn't turn and suck the water out (which was a mistake in the connection in the end, and was fixed by Rob), the lights in our bedroom don't work now, coz the fuse there burnt (going to be fixed, hopefully in the next few days) and finally: we haven't found a closet yet, that fits the size of our bedroom (since this is the attic the ceiling is tilted, and there's also a window in the middle of the only wall that can take the closet). I've been living in my suitcase for more than a month now, and I don't like it. Oh, and the bathroom mirror that we had in Dresden, broke while Rob was trying to take it off the wall, since we glued it too strongly.

The weather here is really cold (maybe in other places too, just my impression is that it's really cold here), winter decided to come early, and it's already 5 degrees outside (at night). I hope next week is gonna look nicer (the temperature is suppose to rise) coz Yifat is coming tomorrow for a week!!! This will be great! I can't wait till she's here.

I still have a lot to do, like sign up for a German course (coz I have to- for my visa), and then get my visa longer, and register here in Munich, and next Saturday I have an introduction day to the open university program that I signed up for. I still have to look for a job too (have to sit down and write applications, coz in Germany everything is complicated, and just sending your CV is not enough). I don't know how I'll do all that- learn German, study alone in German, for a Masters, and have a job, but I guess I'll just have to figure it all out.

Here's to new beginnings! The day we moved to Munich was the Jewish New year- so... I hope it'll symbolize a good new beginning for us.

Till next time from Munich...

A headache and some denial

Even though we packed and sent a lot of our stuff, it still seems like we have tons of things here. I just put all of my clothes in my suitcase, without the socks & all and it's full. I only put one pair of shoes in, and I still have a few to go. Non of my coats are there (have 3 here) and I'm sure that by tomorrow, I'll find more things that didn't fit. That's after we sent 2 big boxes full of stuff to Germany already, and gave one small backpack full of stuff to Rob's colleagues to take with them to Germany this weekend when they go home. I have another small backpack full of stuff that is supposed to go to Israel- but only when I'll know if my dad is meeting me here in my last 3 days in Shanghai- I'll know whether to send it by post or give it to him. It's just amazing the amount of things ppl collect in 6 months. For a lot of reasons, one of them is obviously denial, I was a bit indifferent to the packing. Rob was a bit more worried than me, seeing all the stuff still here in our apartment, as if life is not about to change in a few days. But I still think it's an optical illusion- coz all of the furniture isn't ours- and it stays here in it's place- there is the feeling that nothing is changing. I have a little bit of a headache- even though the weather is brilliant and I was walking outside and enjoying it today. That might be the reason for my confused bundle of thoughts here... I apologize.
So- tomorrow 19:00 we give our apartment back- then going to Andrew's for one night (he's a walking hotel this guy I tell ya- with a 5 star service), I'll be borrowing Charles's big backpack (wonder if it's the same one he bought for our trip in Hainan 2 years ago) and on Saturday we have our flight to Chengdu. Therefore, I will probably not post a lot, well, I might, it's not like I'm going to a desert, but still- Blogspot is obviously blocked again in China (have I mentioned how I'd like to get out of here already???) and I'm not sure I'll be able to post from every computer here.

OK I'll stop now- coz I can't even keep up with what I'm saying- too tired, and my head hurts...

Oh! And everyone- have a happy Pessach!!!!! (it's Passover if you don't know...)

Last week living in Shanghai

Where should I start? telling about my last week or about the next week? Logic says that I should start with the last week- so that's what I'll do. By the way- the word 'logic' in Chinese is pronounced 'luo ji' - guess where it came from... How typically Chinese to not have that word...

OK last week... On Wednesday I went to Chinese conversation club again, as I was standing next to the gate- I didn't feel like being there, was too tired mentally, but in the end it was one of the nicest evenings I had here... I was sitting with 3 students- all there for me- speaking Chinese to them. It was fun and we laughed a lot. After that Rob came to meet me there and we went to an Italian restaurant- that had ok food for too much money. The next evening we were invited for dinner with one of Rob's bosses from Germany, and he asked us to choose a restaurant- so this time we chose a good and not too expensive Italian place. That day we also took care of Rob's registration form (I got to go to the police station 3 times just for that). On Friday we were invited for dinner with Rob's colleagues, where he works, in a nice Chinese restaurant. On Saturday we were invited for dinner with Rob's ping pong club friends, as a goodbye party for him in a nice Chinese restaurant close to our place (they were so excited to have him in their club, the manager of the club, a young guy, even gave him a nice present). Conclusion from this dinner: drunk Chinese ppl are funny. That was last week- lots of dinners. This week Rob is having a fare well dinner party in a nice restaurant close to where he works- with everyone from work- hopefully the last big dinner in a while- I'm not used to eating so much anymore! (these Chinese dinners usually contain so much food!!!)

Yesterday we bought a flight ticket to Chengdu, in Sichuan. We're giving back the apartment on Friday evening and our flight is on Saturday. I must say that as much as I'm ready to leave China- I'm tired of moving. In the last 2 and a half years I left and entered apartments about 5 times and I'm definitely tired of it. It's mentally draining. But I have no choice, and now I must move on.

***

We watched "An Inconvenient Truth" last night, Al Gore's movie. I must say that even though I was already convinced by the environmental issue before- this movie showed me just how acute it is.
Yesterday I was reading about the 15 British solders that were kidnapped in Iran- and I thought to myself- damn it! the world is full of bullies as leaders. These leaders don't want us to care if we'll all die in a Hurricane next year, as far as they're concerned, who cares if we'll all be flooded and under water and hundreds of millions of ppl will die??? Most of the world feels that if ppl like Ahmadinejad or Bush or Olmert wanna make us believe that our lives are depended on them- so be it. Let's all fight each other. Why not really. It would be really ironic if we'll all fight and kill each other and one bright day we'll be all under water - just coz we were incapable of looking ahead just one more day. This makes me so furious!!! Especially in China- where you see how little they care about keeping the environment clean. In the big cities they're a bit better, but it's still very very bad... I think to myself- what can I, or anyone for that matter do, to show the ppl in this world that our daily problems are just daily- and if we don't wanna be the ones to kill earth with all its living creatures on it including ourselves- we better change our ways. I think about Israel- the little crazy place I'm from- and I think about all the ppl living there- what they would probably tell me is: 'I have bigger problems now! I need to support my family, and I need to protect myself from the leaders of this world who decided that I'm their little toy on a game board'. From that little spot on earth nobody can see the real danger. The danger is the bullies that make us believe there are no other dangers than the other bully. They keep our perspective very limited- they make us see things in a very narrow way- they make us not look to the sides, only look towards where they want us to look. But the danger is coming from a totally different direction. And it's time we all see it. It's time we realize that we're ruining ourselves, killing ourselves with our bare hands. We must stop blaming other ppl for trying to kill us. We're doing it ourselves.

And here's what we can do to stop global warming, even if just a bit:

Click the picture to see it bigger.
(The information is from the website linked above)