19 December 2002 ---JOURNAL ENTRY FOUR---
Feunfundzwanzig mehr Tage = 25 more days. In 25 days I'll be gone. There is so much to do before then and so much to do afterwards but right now there is calm. I just watched Seinfeld with my parents, it's 10:38pm and soon I'll go to bed and prepare to work two 10-hour days on Friday and Saturday. I just put my notice to terminate my employment at work today which helps to make things seems real. My manager made comment that she couldn't believe that the time was coming. Little does she know how I feel.
Money: Today I made the most money I've ever made in a restaurant, 190 dollars! I'm so stoked on that, I put 140 in one pouch that pays bills and 50 into another pouch that goes directly to me moving to Germany. That was huge. I'm hoping to make at least 100 bucks for Friday and Saturday night, that would be very beneficial for me. It's strange how I'm doing everything I can to make money so that it won't have to be so important to me.
Things have changed a bit. Last weekend I realized that no matter what, I need to make SOME money while in Germany. It will be possible to live on a mere 600 dollars a month there but if I don't make any money it will be gone in a year and I'll be home. Granted, of all worst-case scenarios, that one is pretty damn good but still, I want to go and leave on my terms. In order to do that I'm going to have to make money. It's ironic that I'm leaving a part of the world where money-making is one status of success and happiness and moving to an area of primarily students and it's going to be difficult for me to make even 600 dollars a month. Hell, I'm going to make that THIS week if I have a good weekend. Thus came the decision about teaching English. I had thought this was my best bet 5 months ago and now that I'm staring this experience in the face it's come back full tilt. I'm going to have to earn a TEFL (teaching english as a foreign language) certificate most likely but I have to do what I have to do, just like you do, whoever you are. It may be possible to get a job teaching English without it but I'll have to feel that out when I get there. I'm slated to take a one-month intensive German course at a church nearby to where Assiyeah lives to help me get back into German but after that I have to figure out what's what. Here is my choice of now:
It'll end up costing me about 1500 bucks which is nearly three months worth of living expenses but if I can "invest" this money so that I may pay my own bills by halfway through the year then I'm succeeding. All I want is to be able to be self-sufficient. This includes German classes. They cost about 175 dollars a month which I could justify if I had money coming in but hey, that's all at least 25 days away so why worry, right?
Xmas is just 6 days away, it's hard to believe. I'm all done shopping and all the presents are wrapped. I really like many of the gifts that I bought my friends and family, I hope they dig them. Goddamn, I can't believe what I've gotten myself into! I've spent the last 3.5 years looking for something big, searching well-traveled places for the same inspiration that others have gotten and I still haven't been fully satisfied. Travelling is a drug, don't kid yourself. It's my favorite addiction. Experience, confusion, frustration, acceptance...ahhhhhh...
Today's lesson in German is below:
Wie spaet ist es? = Vee shpate eest ess? = What time is it?
