Taking Donations. (Help!)

I forgot about the curious German habit of leaving things unrefrigerated and eating them, even after a few days. For some things, such as vegetables in sauce, it seems okay to me, just kind of funny. I asked myself, "What in there would make it go bad? Nothing."

However, I have to stop asking myself when things like milk or meat are served warm. Otherwise I would just start worrying. Today I ate a piece of pizza. I at least expected the lights shining on it in the bakery to keep it warm, but it wasn't even warm. It was just an old piece of pizza. And it had corn on it. Ha ha. To make things even better, the chocolate milk I asked for came straight from the counter, as bland of a temperature as you can get. Americans must seem funny. They either want things really hot or really cold, but never room temp.

I also forgot about German pillows, which are more like a few feathers that fly away from your head when you lay down, giving no support as if you had no pillow at all anyway. Good thing I brought a fleece blanket with me. It has been very helpful.

All of this is made up for by the fact that I have gotten some excellent help through email (Francy's sister has connections who have connections who are friendly), today I decided to relax a little and be a tourist again. I saw the School Museum, the Stasi Museum, the Holocaust memorial where a synagogue was burned, the Sparkasse art museum, which was closed (hours are so difficult here), the Bach Museum (It was awesome! Leipzig is known as the city of music because Bach lived here and led the St. Thomas Boys Choir, Mendelssohn lived here, and Schumann lived here), the St. Thomas Church, and the Pharmacy Museum. I even got up the guts to ask about getting my iChat fixed at the department store, and a nice lady told me how to get to the Apple Store. I saw the sign, but I never found the store. This evening I'm going to see if I can secure the apartment that I really liked yesterday.

Yesterday when I got soaked from top to bottom despite having my umbrella, I saw a girl wearing Wellingtons and I knew that that was the way to go. It was miserable to have my pants, shoes, and socks soaked from the knee down, but if they were tucked in rubber boots with a cute pattern on them . . . Today I glanced in every shoe store I passed, only to find that one store had Wellingtons, but only in kids sizes. I should have gotten some in England! At least I learned that I wear between size 37 and 38. That might come in handy later.

One of the emails let me know that the state expects me to prove that I have a certain amount to spend every month, but I have figured out my budget several times and I am sure that I will survive on less. However, I have to prove that I have enough. According to their standards, I am 700 Euros short, or about a thousand dollars. (After I pay to have my boxes sent, it will be even less! I'm not going to be able to get a phone or a trip back, probably.) I'm waiting for an answer to see if I will be rejected from having a visa because I don't have enough money. Donations?