The next time Anna came around she experienced a whole different me, the kind of person I usually was at home, and the kind of person my friends would describe me as. Even though I was far from being as glamorous as she was, I had put on my little black dress and the only heels in my possession, put on some make up and blown out my hair so it was falling in shimmering golden blond waves around my face. I was pleased with the look on her face when I came to see her. „Sorry I was such a buzz kill last time, I am better now; so I’ll go with you wherever you want.“ I smiled. She hugged me and shrieked „I am so happy you are finally here! We are going to have so much fun, it’ll be like I have a sister!“ I could’t help but shrieking with her and we actually did have a lot of fun with some of her friends at a bar in the city. I always fazed me that you were allowed to drink alcohol at 16 in this country and that there were so many minors with bottles of beer in bars and restaurants and even on the street. But no one seemed to mind here and it was the most normal thing in the world to just get your beer, champagne or wine and stand outside and drink it. I loved it. When I got back from my night with Anna I immediately called Joey. It was around 8 for him, so he was probably at home having dinner or playing video games with his brother. I opened my computer and clicked on the little blue symbol, found his name and double clicked it. He picked up after the second ring „Hey babe, how is everything, why aren’t you in bed yet?“ „Hey get on video chat, will you?“ „Yeah sure, hold on“, I heard him fumble with his web cam. He still had his first computer, which meant, that he had to use one of those click on webcams. „There you are, hi baby.“ I smiled when I saw his checkered PJ’s and the familiar grin on his face. „I miss you so much.“ „So do I, especially when you wear that dress. What have you been up to?“ „Oh I went out with my cousin for a little bit. Those Germans are crazy, you know.“ „Really, why?“ he mumbled while biting his fingernails. „They just are, they drink beers from these huge mugs and they smoke everywhere and even the little ones get really drunk.“ „Mhh sounds like a good time to me.“ He shrugged. „Is everything ok? You seem weird.“ He looked like he got caught stealing sweets from a little kid and immediately put on a smile „No, it’s nothing, I am just tired and I miss you. I wish I could come and see you, like, right now.“ „I know I wish that too. Do you think you could get some time off work soon?“ „I am trying, I will definitely come in December the latest though“. „Ok, I hope I can last that long“: „I really hope so too“. He kissed me good night by planting a huge wet kiss on the camera lense and I laughed. When I went to the bathroom to remove my make up I couldn’t help but wonder what was wrong with him.
The weeks until my move out date just flew by and before I knew it I was packing my bags again and saying good bye to my aunt and uncle. They had helped me set up my place in the center of the city. It was a studio apartment with a kitchen that was as big as my bed and a bathroom that held a shower, a toilet a little cabinet for all my things and a heated towel rack, which was quite useless since the bathroom filled up with hot steam every time you showered and the one thing you didn’t need was any more heat. My parents had transferred some money to get the essentials like my bed, a closet, bed sheets, towels and a carpet as well as some electronics but my aunt helped me pick out some decorations such as a seemingly hand stitched quilt as a bed spread and the softest cushions for my couch. She also bought pink soaps and black and white pictures of pretty girls with pink lips for me to hang on my walls and I had to say, I quite liked them. When my courses started I actually felt somewhat at home at my new place and I couldn’t wait to invite my newly won friends over to see it as well as Joey and Vicky. After all this was the first place that I had ever had to myself and I was proud for having made it this pretty. I immediately skyped Vicky after my aunt and uncle left and showed her the place via webcam by spinning around my apartment and walking through every room with my computer. If there were people looking at me from across my window must have thought I was crazy. „I love it Em, it is amazing and I can’t wait to visit you soon.I am so excited that this is your first apartment all by yourself and all I am gonna do is move into a stupid dorm, probably with some weird chick that is going to snore. I am really jealous“. I knew she wasn’t jealous. She would have never left but she wanted to make it easy on me. „Yeah I know it’s awesome. I am actually getting used to the place too. I know where to shop now, even though the shops are basically never open here, or at least that’t what it feels like. And Anna takes me out quite a lot.“ „That’s cool, so Anna is all right then? What about your other cousin?“ „Oh he moved away I think a year ago or something like that. Anna is really happy to have me here, why I don’t get though. She has a ton of friends and she is absolutely gorgeous. I will have to go shopping with her more often if I want to survive in this city.“ „When do your courses start then?“ „Monday, I am looking forward to finally starting my MBA but at the same time I am a little scared.“ „Don’t worry Em, you’ll do great! You are so good at meeting new people and you’ll be great in school too, otherwise they wouldn’t have accepted you.“ I would be lying if I said that that wasn’t a little bit what I had wanted to hear, but of course I also knew that Vicky was my best friend and she had to say those things. Still I felt a lot better when I packed my purse for my first day at the University on Sunday afternoon.