new side of the home street

So how is my new house? I've been telling people to read my blog and find out but things have - like always - been busy. But finally, here it comes!

I moved to the other end of the Karl Heine Street. The reason I had to leave my nice house was that the house managers wanted "ein neues Wohnkonzept", meaning the wanted the house only for the rich bitch people who could pay the higher rent. All the students were kicked out. Well luckily there are loads of free rooms in Leipzig and the rents are really low. I found my new room through the university interenet notice board. Daniel, whose room I rented, is travelling exactly the time I need the room (til the end of July). Perfect.

Moving up to number 108 showed me also some other sides of my home street. First of all its much longer than I thought and this end of the street is the total opposite of the beginning. My first house was fully renovated, with shiny wooden floors, white walls and a dish washer. My new house is also old, but totally unrenovated. The woorden floors are creaking and the paint has is quite worn away. In the first end of the Karl Heine Street there are a lot of big villas with lawyers' offices and nice gardens, but as you move towards this end everything gets crappier - and livelier. There is a huge compound here nearby where there are consatanct art exhibitions and an alternative movie theater and nice bars. And I have a natural products store right around the corner!

My rent is now 1oo euros less (only 160 euros) and I have 1,5 rooms in stead of one. There are not so many furniture in here, mainly a big bed and a big stereo, but I lived from my suitcase. Daniel is living quite Spartan and he also left all of his stuff to the only closet in the room. The heating is, like in many unrenovated houses in the old DDR area, by coal. I'm happy that it's summer so I don't have to get coal from the cellar the first thing in the morning... But the green fireplace for the coal is really beautiful!

In our aparment live officially me, Thomas, Natalia, Chrisu and Marina. Marina pays the rent but she is never here, I haven't seen her. Apparently nobody knows where she exactly is. Thomas is a German natural medicine (Heilpraktiker) student who also gives tango lessons. He's very nice and resposible for the rent and many other practical stuff. Natalia (34y) comes from Argentina and doesn't speak German. She is a tango teacher and has lived in Germany for one year. She has a lot of visitors the whole time, now a friend with her boyfriend and next month her mum from Argentina is coming for a month. Crisu (Christiane) is a friendly young student girl, who I already infromed that her nickname sounds very Finnish and she told me her mother made it up.

All the people living in the house form a kind of family and it's not uncommon to find our down- or upstairs neigbours cooking breakfast in our kitchen. Only I'm not yet sure who are the people actually living in this house and who are just visitors.. Well, I just introduce myself anyway. There is a garden where you can barbecue and I've heard there are quite often two cats hanging around. :)

It's a quite hippie house with a lot of music and visitors but surprisingly things like washing the dishes don't form a problem. I hope to learn maybe some basic argentinian tango and spanish while I'm here - I almost hear spanish more than German. Well, maybe the Argentinians are just noisier... ;)

I've been sleeping okay in my little bedroom corner and have all my things finally somehow organized in the room so it feels quite home. Also my roommates are very very friendly and social and nice. So I'lle be alright here for the last two months, although it does feel a bit temporary.

O, I have to tell how I moved my stuff from my old house. It was hilarious! Suvi from Helsinki was here last weekend and we were sleeping in my old house while all the furniture disappearing one by one - the last 24 hours we didn't have a kitchen as it's here quite normal to take the kitchen (meaning all the cupboards, machines, everything) with you. Monday morning we stacked all my stuff on my little blue bicycle and Suvi carried the heavy backbag on her back and was pulling my suitcase - as she said it would be too heavy for me. So I walked with the bike full of things and well, there were some constructor worker whistling at us when they saw our system... About the half way we thought we should've taken a taxi, it would've cost something like 4 euros, but well, we got some exercise at least.

The weather has been very sunny here, and warm, like summer. Last Saturday I went hiking with the other exchange students in the Saxony Switserland and it was unbelievably beutiful. Next weekend I'm going to Berlin on Friday to vote and to be a tourist, and Saturday again on an exchange students trip, this time to Weimar. I have loads of things to do for the university and I have been doing also some stuff with the young greens here in Leipzig. And I finally found a good salsa school! Sot it's as busy as in Finland ;).

Now I have to go and do some German bureucracy - to go in person with my passport to the city hall to change the number of the house I'm living in... - and then I have some school. Liebe Grüsse!