I thought about just giving a little life update and maybe I’ll do that next time, but I was just talking to a friend, and he basically said that he has never met someone as German as me. And by that he meant my organisation and my efficiency.
Now, I love living here, because not everything is organised, some things go wrong and that is fantastic, but there are a few very embarrassingly efficient things I do on a daily basis. And what do you do with very embarrassing things? Right – you share them with your university. So, feel free to laugh about me, but maybe you find that some of my little quirks would fit your life as well.
A big topic for me lately have been weekly plans. Every week I write down a new schedule, for university, for work. So far so good, you will say that this is not too bad. But my weekly schedules go further. They are colour coordinated, green for university, red for work and blue for free-time. My to-do list is also parted in these categories, with the different tasks written in the pastel tones of the latter colours. Sometimes I even put in when I eat or when I go to bed, and honestly, I am not very proud of it, but without these plans I would forget half of everything I need to do – like writing columns (in light blue, because societies count as free time). Even my pub nights and my dates with my boyfriend have their right in these plans – in blue of course.
I mostly study literature, which means that all I do is read books all year. With a job and with college, a reading list of six per module seems almost possible to achieve (that is, if you still want to see a bit of blue in your schedule). So I came up with a way to combine all that – I just listen to audiobooks on my way to work. Or while I cook. Or clean. Or even when I get dressed in the morning.
I told a friend about this behaviour last week and he just laughed at me and said that this is officially the most German thing he has ever heard, but then I recommended that he listen to Christopher Lee reading Frankenstein. Guess who almost had an accident the other day cycling with his earphones in. (I might or might not also have missed a lecture last week, just because I couldn’t stop listening to good old Christopher faking a European accent as young Victor Frankenstein – it is on Spotify, big recommendation).
But there you go now, those are the two things I just can’t get rid of and I also don’t want to. My room is a mess and my backpack could really do with a little tidying, but at least I always know where I have to be, and I’ll go there while doing something for university.