I spent almost all my money this morning, but I have lots of new warm fuzzy clothes to show for it, plus a new book and hand cream. I had my visa appointment at two o’clock in Stamberg, so I didn’t have time to go to the Hauptbahnhof and ask about tickets to Göttingen. There’s a family there who’s looking for a new au pair in January, and they invited me to come visit for the weekend. They seem super nice. I know I said that before about my current family, but this new family actually volunteered to put me in touch with their current au pair before I even asked, and I heard first hand from her how much she likes living with and working for them.

My only real reservation at this point is that they don’t live in Munich, which means if I move there I have to find a new German class, new friends, and generally get used to a whole new city. All of that is doable but daunting. They also said they were looking for someone for a whole year and I can only stay until June or July. In any case, I really want to take them up on their offer to come visit, because when has visiting a new city and meeting new people ever been a bad thing? The problem is that the intercity trains are ridiculously priced, and the reasonably priced trains are ridiculously slow because they stop in every single town. I’ll just have to see…

I also didn’t get a chance to go ask about my next German class. It starts December sixth, goes until mid February, and costs 220 Euros. I don’t know if I pay for it and then find out that I’ll need to go home for a month on December 11, or that I’m moving to another city, if I can then get my money back. I also don’t know how long I can put off paying and still have my place reserved. I like my class; I’m learning a lot and have friends in it. It puts me in a good mood before a crappy afternoon of work. So if I’m going to stay in the vicinity of Munich for December through February, it would kind of suck if I couldn’t continue going.

The visa appointment today made me feel slightly better. I got the paper that says my official visa is coming and I’m allowed to work in the meantime. It’s nice to no longer be breaking the law. But it’s still true that all I can do is sit around, waiting for some office in Berlin to get their act together and hope that they do soon enough for me to be allowed to stay in Europe for my birthday.