Things I freaked out about when I was moving to Germany

The other half of the the blog title should read as: and weren't such a big deal as I had been expecting.

The problem is that I spend way too much time in my own head and think and think and think about things. On the one hand, I very rarely get bored or lonely because I always have the company of my own thoughts. Conversely, that means that I have plenty of time to over analyze things.

Below are some things that I thought would be a big deal as I was moving to Germany. It turns out that most of them weren't.

1. Very little, if any, air conditioning during the summer. For the most part, this hasn't been a big deal. Last summer produced some really hot weather so I did spend some nights after work holed up in a dark apartment, sticking my face in front of a fan. We also did pull out a portable air conditioner for a few days at work, but beyond that, it's been tolerable. On the hottest of days, a trip to the city's swimming pool was enough to cool us off (though the title warmfreibad was misleading because the pool was definitely not warm!).

2. No screens on the windows. I thought that I'd never be able to open my windows because of lack of screens; I was worried about being overrun by bugs. I do come from Michigan, after all, where the joke is that our state bird is the mosquito. However, I leave my windows open and get very few bugs. It's probably because I live in the city. I do kip my windows (open them so they tilt open from the top) since I have Moo the cat and I don't want him falling out of the windows.

3. Being naked at the spa/sauna. I freaked out about this one big time when I first got here. It turns out that it's really not a big deal and is quite a relaxing place to visit.

4. Moving with Moo the Cat and finding an apartment that would take us both turned out to be a lot of paperwork and steps but nothing unbearable. The most important thing is to make sure to follow all of the procedures properly. I also lucked out and have a landlord who loves cats and was okay with Moo living here.

5. Not being able to use my credit card at many places. I've made peace with this and get cash out when I need it. I found out that I save a little bit on foreign transaction fees by using cash instead.