I currently have no power or gas in my apartment. They were shut off Wednesday morning after I failed to pay my utilities bill. I was waiting to set up my Austrian bank account before registering, but need my Meldezettel, which required a signature from my landlord. Yesterday it finally came back in the mail, but the district office closed at 1. Chelsea told me I could pay in person, but that building also closed around 1. So not only am I using McDonald's for internet, but I am charging my phone and computer here as well.
It's not so bad without power, but without gas I can't cook anything, so I have been eating a lot of kebap. I bought some candles and have been able to read a bit and even practice some after dark. By 7 it's too dark to do anything in my apartment otherwise. As one of two English books I brought with me, I couldn't resist buying The Lord of the Rings auf Deutsch. I know the story well enough (especially having just finished it) that I can figure out the meaning of a lot of words from context. But I have also started a list of all the words I don't immediately know, and with two new notebooks should be occupied well into next year. Maybe it's not the most effective book to learn new vocabulary, but my sheer interest in rereading it helps me overcome the slog of looking up so many words.
Tonight and maybe even tomorrow I will go to the opera, for the first time since I've been back! I'm very excited. As long as I get my practicing in while the sun is up, I might as well do something in the evenings until I get my power back. It's the main reason I brought my scarf with me, after all.
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