Day 4 - The Dastardly Search.

Day 4, and the sickening search for an apartment goes on. It's only been 4 days but I already feel so fatigued by the constant everyday droll of searching through pages and pages of advertisements looking, not even for anything to my tastes, but anything at all. Initially I had been picky and applied only to those that strictly fit my criteria, but now I am just about willing to take anything less than 45 mins away, and costing less than 350 Euros a month (up from 300). The past few days have been spent on this incessant and seemingly fruitless search for apartments so rare the entire hostel is unable to find any. Had I know how difficult it would be, I would have immediately taken up Vincent's offer.

Why it is sickening, you may ask? Well, without a contract, you cannot: get your Bank unlocked (the service staff was nice enough to help me unlock and state the temporary address as the hostel I'm staying in), get your insurance confirmed, register at the Bürgerbüro (Citizen office), lengthen your Visa, get your place in the Uni completely confirmed, purchase your semester ticket etc. The list goes on. Besides all these official stuff, however, I also cannot settle down properly and put my stuff down for real. I cannot buy groceries per se as I can only buy for the day's needs. I can never be sure that my belongings are entirely secure and thus I lug my laptop everywhere. My meals have largely been bread and fast food, and I cooked my first pack of maggi mee just now. It is surprising that I started on my maggimee a mere 4 days into my journey overseas.

The search aside, it's been really interesting mixing with the crowd here. I find myself spending my time primarily with the Chinese here from China, who are also looking for a place to stay in. They are very friendly and seem genuinely interested in me, despite the difficulty in communicating (my horrid command of chinese). We had a meal in a Chinese restaurant (Yang Da) yesterday which was surprising worth the money I paid and did not taste bad.

As for today, the morning was spent getting my Immatrikulation done. Despite being half an hour early, I found myself both dismayed and amused. Dismayed because there were already 10 people ahead of me, and amused because 7 of them were Asians. As I have always remarked, stereotypes exist because of a significant portion of the population acting so. Unfortunately, when it finally came to my turn, the lady informed me that my insurance might not be valid (which it was, but not ideal) and that I could not pay the semester fees with cash. Thus, I made my way to DB and got the payment and subsequently, the proof thereof. With that, I rushed back to the International Students' Office and got my (conditional) Immatrikulation done.

I'm glad that Yujay linked me up with Vincent, who has been rather helpful in giving me tips for settling down and getting around. I'm glad for Denise as well, who gave me some key tips on getting an apartment in a place suffering a lack thereof. Daniel (bona) also linked me up with a guy studying music here – a certain Jared, who has so graciously offered to ask around his friends for a place on my behalf.

Right now, I'm just waiting for replies and my 4 appointments tomorrow. The first being a test ride on a bicycle, the second being an appointment for apartment viewing, and the last 2 being Open House(s). Hopefully, something will happen tomorrow. Until then, I'm homeless.

Maybe this is part and parcel of studying overseas. This uncertainty and uneasiness about the near future. I find, at this point, that I'm really not a person who is self-driven. It takes so much effort to push myself to continue searching for an apartment. Much of my time is spent simply waiting for some good fortune to hit me, which, I now realise, is really not how it works. Getting things to happen requires active effort and an extra step, which your competitors had not made. That said, it suddenly feels like I'm getting caught up in the competition, which is also not what I came to Germany for.

Still, much about the next month, what more the next year, is far beyond me. I have absolutely no idea what the immediate future holds for me. Current step, next step. Current step, next step.