A Piece of Paradise

I’ve been meaning to write about my apartment for a while now, but I was holding off until I got the appropriate photographic documentation. Now that I have it, here goes:

I LOVE my apartment. I got so lucky; it’s both super-nice and super-affordable. I live on the second floor (American third floor) in the rental apartment above one of the teachers at my school’s houses. Her daughter lived here at one point, and as H says, “Stine ist zu gut für diese Welt” (“Stine is too good for this world.”), so it’s absolutely gorgeous. The main room is large and has a kitchen area with a long table that can seat eight, a living room area complete with couch, coffee table, two chairs and a TV, and a little working niche under the eaves where my desk is. Since I’m on the top floor, all of my ceilings slope inwards, and some of the dark wood structure is visible, which I love. I spend most of my time in this room because the light and the view are so lovely. The front window looks out on a small park in front of a church (bells!), red roofs, the grocery store where I often shop, and another church steeple, visible in the distance. The view out the back is my favorite, though…the houses on my block surround its outer edge, and the middle is reserved for people’s gardens. The hodgepodge of trees, bushes and flowers surrounded by quaint, red roofs is my permanent mental picture of “real” town Germany. In the evening as I sit and watch the sun set over it all through nearly my whole western wall, I feel like I’ve found a piece of paradise. As if that all wasn’t enough, I also have a HUGE bathroom with a shower and a bathtub, as well as a nice-sized bedroom with a full bed and a nice view. Like I said…I’m really very lucky, and I couldn’t have asked for anything better. The one humorous thing is the indoor stairway…not the stairway itself, but the five, yes five, nude torsos sculpted from bronze. They’re very well-made, but I’m just used to seeing something like that only in a museum. As an Art History major, it really didn’t faze me after the initial surprise, and the Germans don’t even blink twice. Nudity is much more accepted in this society, I guess. Anyways, enjoy the pics!

Deine,

N*