So many possibilities

I'm in Cologne, reader! For real! I moved in! \o/

So here are 5 things that I love about my new appartment, and 5 things that slightly worry, or worried me.

1. Worrying: my roommate's e-mail the day before I arrived, suitcase already packed and all: "You are aware, of course that the room is not furnished?!" I wasn't.

1. Cool: my roommates (N and I) are very helpful and provided a blanket and a matress for my hopeless self. (Yes, for my hopeless self. I played it Jane Eyre style the whole week through. I read Jane Eyre again, and it's still as good as ever. I especially enjoyed the part where she said mother nature would have to provide her with lodging free of charge. I could rely... ok, right, I'm overdoing it again, now...)

2. Worrying: The heater doesn't really work, and I'm freezing... my... bottom... off. (Actually, apparently, it's not that the heater doesn't work, but that there is, litterally, no isolation whatsoever.)

2. Cool: I'm actually OK since yesterday's trip to Ikea. I bought a nice warm blanket and I slept much better last night. I nearly never came out of the Ikea Köln alive, reader. I might have died in there. I went back in to eat köttbullar once I had paid for everything, and I had my blanket with me, and I figured, of course, I can get to the exit directly through the restaurant. I couldn't, and had to go back to the checkout counter. I ran through the whole Ikea again, explained my situation to the security manager, and looked absolutely ridiculous (and like an evil blanket-thief, as well. Blanket-thieves are the worst kind there is. Despicable really). BUT I did manage to get out, with my blanket and all, and now I have a nice cozy room, with a bed and curtains, and life is beautiful.

3. Worrying: There's a cow's head on a stick in the garden. One of them skeleton heads. And its horns are painted bright orange. I am slightly worried by this. I think anyone would be, really. It is a slightly worring fact, by all accounts.

3. I haven't found the bright side to having a dead cow's head on a stick in your backyard, but I'll keep you informed. Meanwhile, let me mention my cool roommates again (I cooked for all of us yesterday evening (ha ha. I the roomate. Not I me. Ok, for the sake of clarity, we'll call him Ing)... where was I? Yes : Ing cooked for all of us yesterday, and we all seem to be getting along really well). Also worth mentioning in the cool category : though really cold, my room is very pretty, with little golden things painted in the corners, and real floorboards. I love my room.

4. Worrying: My roommates asked me yesterday if I had any plans for the evening. I did not. I do not have plans. They have an actual word for it in German, "Planlos" (Planless, obviously, though I never heard it used in English and they use it a lot in German. Mostly in my presence. Somehow).

4. Cool: No plans = an infinite choice of possibilities. So I'll just be not lazy for once, and maybe go for a drink and have a look at the christmas markets (and eat apple-sauce and drink some glühwein), and then maybe I'll go to the movies. I'd like to see Tangled, and I figure it's OK to watch animation in something else than the original version.

5. Worrying: I'm a little roommate-shy. I'm catching myself not getting out of my room when there's someone in the kitchen, and I keep checking everything I say twice before saying it out loud, and end up staying silent.

5. Cool: I know I am roommmate-shy, it's OK to be like that for the first two day, so I'll just get used to things and remember that if anything I want to say does not bear to be thought about twice (that's not English, I know, but you get my meaning anyway), I'd actually better stay silent. Maybe I should do that more often even in French... And as for roommate shyness, I just now went to the kitchen to have a coffee, and my problem is nearly solved. Life's schön.

So basically : some freaky points, but the cool side is winning by far, and I can't wait to know a little more about the city and to go have one more look around this afternoon. I think maybe I'll go take a walk along the Rhein as well, though I have no idea if it's more a "take a walk along the Rhein and be a pretty princess" area or rather a "take a walk in the industrial port and get murdered" area. I'll keep you informed.