TODAY IS THE DAY.

Got my stipend. One of the DAAD/SIP scholars came running down the hall at lunch to say that he saw the deposit pending on his Deutsche Bank online banking screen. (We’ve all been refreshing that window every thirty seconds for the past month and a half.) We cheered, figured it’d clear by tomorrow, and we’d all go out to dinner together to celebrate.

I had some scouting around to do, like hunting down a classroom building in a different part of town. On my way around, I thought, what the hell, and checked at a Deutsche Bank ATM. It worked. There are 3,301€ just chilling in my account right now, aching to be spent on beer. I withdrew only 200€, because, you know, I didn’t want to go crazy or anything.

Sad thing is, the Radioactivity class went till 7:45pm, and all stores in the city close at 8pm. So I didn’t get to do my spending spree to trick out my life tonight, which is probably a good thing, as hopefully I’ll be a little more in control tomorrow. But before I went to the class I was able to pop into the upscale grocery store across the street from our dorm to pick up the necessities, like a loaf of bread, a carton of eggs, and a case of Augustiner. I splurged and got Augustiner Edelstof, because, well, I could.

Tonight I live like a king.

Oh, AND MY SISTER WROTE ME A LETTER. I checked my mail when I came home tonight, because I wanted to laugh at overdraft notices from my bank, as the student housing department in Munich has been trying to withdraw our rent for September and October, as well as our housing deposit, but instead all I found was a letter. To me. From my sister.

THANK YOU!