Getting charged...

My eldest sister gave me this incredibly cute card when she was visiting last weekend. I don't know when I'll see her next (living in different cities doesn't help) so I was a bit sad when she left to go home. It's really strange to be thinking about how I won't see people who matter for such a long time... but I love that she did something as sweet as this, as well, and that wouldn't have happened if I wasn't leaving. So, thankyou.

The other thing that has taken up a great deal of time in the past day or so is getting all my electrical gear organised. I'm taking my camera, which runs on 4x AA batteries, so this rather flimsy Ikea charger has been helping me thieve all of Dad's rechargeable sets. Granted, Dad is doing his best to make sure I have everything I need, so he's more than happy to part with them. I'm more than happy too, seeing as how they cost $20!

Computer cables have been sorted, cable tied, and have joined my backup hard drive and cd burner in the laptop bag. M's German textbook has been herded into my backpack with my only set of gloves and a German phrasebook, for study on the plane. My beloved Lonely Planet Guide ("Europe on a Shoestring") is in there as well; between the books and the camera, it's going to be a hefty backpack.

All my documents are sitting, waiting patiently on a shelf, with my passport resting on top. My suitcase is bulging (I'll have to do something about that) and the smaller bag I have is waiting for the last-minute packing of Summer clothes and underwear; things that I'm still using, basically. Today I'm going to the city in order to buy some adaptors for European power points so that I can take my hairdryer and other 'necessities' - and that's what it all comes down to. What do I most want to take, or least want to leave behind? Most of my clothes are coming, simply because I know the winter will be a huge shock to my system. But I'm trying to be practical. Trying...

Whatever the weather...

So today I had the bright idea of checking exactly how cold it is in Paderborn. Because, you know, I thought I'd like to know what I'm in for. Now I'm not so sure. Today's maximum temperature is just four degrees c. FOUR!!! With a low of minus one. MINUS!!! I'm going to have to invest in some thermals. My coat is being dry-cleaned, and I'll pick it up in a week. That one is going to have to go with me on the plane.

I've managed to squish all my Winter clothes into a suitcase, along with some towels and a sleeping bag. Now I have to somehow fit all my summer stuff (thankfully much less fabric there!), underwear, toiletries and a few pairs of shoes into the other, smaller bag that I'm taking. Everything else, including the shiny new laptop, will have to go into my backpack. I'm a bit worried that the suitcase weighs a little more than it should, but I'll just have to pay excess baggage if that happens. I don't want to leave anything out, because I think I'm going to be needing those winter clothes...

There's still a list of things I need to buy: rechargeable batteries, power adaptors, and other miscellaneous items that all seem to cost more than I've anticipated. But that doesn't matter too much; I've accepted that there are necessary costs. I think finally getting my Annual leave payout from work has alleviated some of my fears, because it's brought the amount that I'd hoped to save up by just that bit more. I've got enough cash in my account to live for half of the year, and the rest will be transferred in when I need it, courtesy of the Bank of the Parents. Interest-free loans ahoy! Plus Jo has told me that the government has finally taken the 20% tax off of the OS-help loan, which means that I can have that as a backup option. It just ends up as part of your HECS debt, and is charged at the same interest as the rest of it. So it's nice to know that I won't be going hungry!

So really, what else can I organise? I can't pack the clothes that I'm still wearing, or the items that I'm still using. I don't need to call the bank to give them a heads up until just before I go. I can't cancel my phone until just before I go, either. I can't get Centrelink payments while I'm away because Flinders are being incredibly disageeable, so I have to cancel that. Oh well, probably better for my tax return if I do that. Small consolation for not getting free money, I know!

So... what else is left?

I'm feeling like everything is going ok.

Therefore I have undoubtedly cursed myself somehow. But in the meantime, I'm getting organised for going away. I haven't packed anything yet; there's not really anything I can pack that I won't be using at all before I go away. But as of today, I have a fantastic new laptop, and I'm getting all my stuff loaded onto it in preparation. I'd like to be transferring music files and the like onto the new external hard drive, too, but sadly my desktop computer has crashed and I'm going to have to get Dad to intervene in an attempt to salvage all my stuff. He's much better with electrical items than I am.

I'm still a bit tired from sleeping badly lately - I had an ultra late night after going out on Thursday, which was the necessary postscript to my last shift at work. They didn't give me any parting gift, which is a tad impolite... but in that people usually get a little box of chocolates etc, and I can't eat those kinds of things because of my lactose intolerance, so I don't claim to have any logic whatsoever. Still... I saved their asses more than a few times, so I still think it would have been nice to at least have a goodbye note.

Yesterday was a long day, but a very good one. My brother got married! I got to get all dressed up, and we had fun having hair and nails done. However, as much as it was fun to have a girly morning, I'm not keen for repeats; I scratched myself more than a few times in the weeks that I was trying to grow my nails. Once, to the point where I bled. So, really, it's nice to have a reminder that I'm happy to be something of a tomboy, or at least, far too practical to bother with long nails.

The wedding itself was nice; by the beach, with good weather and I managed not to get sunburnt! Then, plenty of wine and finger food and catching up with family friends. The unconventional couple provided the most relaxed wedding I've been to, and consequently the most fun. The bride wore pink, the groom wore shorts, and the wedding cake was a giant tower of cupcakes. Definitely awesome.

In other news, I've been running the red tape with the BA Office lately. I wish there was somewhere I could complain to, but really, there's nothing I can do about it. Because, you know, it's obviously a bad thing that I'm taking an active interest in the quality of my education. (Sorry, I do tend to get sarcastic!) It's just a pity that people are too busy chasing my money to care about how I might feel about said education.

Irritation aside, everything else seems to be going swimmingly. I have a housemate who has been incredibly helpful, I'm organising a farewell where I get to hang out with friends who will be sorely missed during my year away, and I've been enjoying the fact that I've quit my job. Really, quitting there was the best thing I've done in a long time. I only feel sad that I'm leaving some good friends behind to suffer on their own! But hey, it's only two and a half weeks until I leave, and I'm starting to get excited...

Moving in with strangers.

It's a little under a month until I leave, and I feel like things are pretty well organised. Just don't get me started on the list of things that could go wrong... but hey, it's not like I'm unwilling to take the gamble. This whole adventure is an exercise in me forcing myself into an unknown environment, which isn't something I do too often. Maybe I can call this "character building" afterwards... if I become a fan of cliche school-teacher phrases like that, which I sincerely doubt. And then there's the added bonus of being able to speak another language, which is relevant to further study. So it's most definitely a good idea.

That's not to say it's not daunting. I'm excited, sure. But there's a couple of things that still concern me, not least of which is the prospect of moving in with a stranger. (In my defense, I have chosen someone who appears to be a very friendly stranger, and whose English skills are awesome, so that I don't need to worry about how awful my German is going to be for a while.) And the room is reasonably priced, very near to the city centre, and a decent size - much better than some of the shoeboxes that I encountered during my searches.

My sister Jayne summed it up nicely: "So how do you know you're not moving in with an axe murderer?" Well, really, I don't. If Dexter is anything to go by, sometimes you don't know, and sometimes you really don't need to know. But that's me taking this example a bit too far. I suppose living compatibility is something that needs to be tested, and the only way to test it is to move in. I'm lucky that I lived with Ben and Dale for two years - we had a peaceful house, and I believe the only time anyone got seriously annoyed was me when someone ate all my pesto and put them empty jar back into the fridge. No one left my condiments empty after that though, so I guess my being sour for an evening had its intended purpose. ;)

Worst comes to worst, if my housemate and I decide that we don't like eachother, I'd like to think that we can amicably agree that I'll move out after finding another room. There's a point in life where you realise that the things you would have thought were a big deal many years ago just aren't a big deal anymore. (That's how you know you're getting old, haha!) I'd like to think that I can deal with problems as they arise, but that's not to say that I haven't written down the emergency contact that Matt has given me. It pays to be cautious. So, fingers crossed, and into the unknown. Still a few more things to organise before I go, not least of which is what to take. But hey, I have a place to live now, which is a definite plus.

All the things I should be doing...

I confess that I've been a bit lazy today. Well, not lazy exactly... I just haven't done a couple of things I should have, like contacted uni or had passport photos taken. Before you panic, for the record, I already have a valid passport - these are just photos I'll need for ID and the like when I reach Paderborn. In my defense, it's a hot day, my hair isn't looking that great (ok, that's a lame excuse) and I was cleaning out my wardrobe.

I have to explain the wardrobe thing is a bigger task than one might expect, despite this being my fourth or fifth clean-out in the past few months. I owned more clothes than any human being rightly deserves to, and while I never had a shortage of anything to wear, I decided that I needed to downside when I left my house on Leader St. So I did. Twice. Most of them have since been sold in Irving Baby, and I'm looking forward to picking up my handsome sum at the end of the month. And since moving in here, I've done the clean-out again, in varying stages. Today was my final attempt at being ruthless, and I made a particular effort to be thorough. This is why I finally got onto the stockings.

Now, if you're a man, you might like to avert your eyes - not for the sake of modesty, because I think we all know I'm beyond redemption there, but because you're going to have even less chance of understanding why I own so many pairs of stockings. Unless, of course, you're a fan of wearing them, then by all means, enjoy the show. But 30+ pairs of tights is a little more than a person needs. So most of them (all the pretty colours, really, with the exception of some red pairs) have gone to St VdP.

(RIP Stockings, you will be forever missed.)

So, melodrama aside, I'm cleaning out my wardrobe so that the room I'm currently occupying will be available to guests after I leave. There will be some things still there, like all the nice dresses I've worn to weddings etc, but there will be at least enough space for a guest to hang up some clothes. So it's all a step in the right direction.

Speaking of right directions, I finally said goodbye to bleaching my hair to ridiculously light colours. Sure, it was fun, but I'm much too lazy to bother, and my hair was starting to feel pretty dry. So, goodbye blonde:

And hello copper:

I thought the colour looked a bit like a salmon, but Jesse decided it looked like a fox, so I'm going to stick with his version. Oh, and in that I don't think I've shown these off very much yet:

These are the world's most attractive reading glasses, as owned by yours truly. Just thought I'd put that in there. C'mon, you have to admit that these are awesome.

Anyway, I should probably finish what I've started. I still haven't gotten replies from the couple of WG enquiries I've made, so perhaps I should just apply for the single-room apartments... kinda tempting. I don't blame people though, there's no way I'd let someone move into my house if they didn't speak my language. Waiting on photos from one person (the only one who had replied) so keep your fingers crossed for me.