Money, Markets and Marek

Where to start, where to start... In order to keep this post relatively short, I'm going to skip about a week of my life from the middle of November. Don't worry you haven't missed much, it was a week much like the rest.

We'll start with how I'm getting on at Westwing. The short answer would be very well, but i'm not going to be resting on my laurels. Last week I had my 3-month meeting with my boss in which he assessed my performance over the first few months and also, more importantly, how much of my bonus I'd be getting. It turns out my contract is very different (in a good way) to other interns at the company, due to the fact that I signed it when the company was sitting pretty. Not that I'm complaining. My bonus was set at 80%, with most people in the firm performing between 60% and 70%. I won't divulge the exact amount, but it's safe to say that my trip to South America next summer is looking more and more realistic (Warrick, buck your ideas up boyo!). Most excitingly at work, we've finally made our move up to the 4th floor of the office to a much cosier and quieter room at the end of a corridor. Hopefully this will mean we'll be disturbed less! It's also allowed me to move myself so that I don't have my back to the majority of the room, something which I am very pleased about. As of today, our boss is on holiday until NEXT YEAR. The next few weeks are going to be hella tricky with no safety net but it's a challenge I'm looking forward to.

Lebkuchenlikör at the Nuremburg markets

This nicely links into my next topic. Friends! Slowly but surely I'm beginning to infiltrate already formed friendship groups and I have met a lot of very nice people. It was very naive and foolish of me at the start of my year abroad to think I'd be able to make only german friends. Since i've dropped that it's been a lot easier. At work there's the HR girls, french Alice and french Chloe and german Stefan and I even went out with the HR girls last week to a bizarre party held on the 14th floor of the building oppposite our work. The room was basically a bridge between the two towers and swayed whenever people jumped around. Which was always. Not so good when you're drunk!
Outside of work my social life is picking up at last! Friends from football, friends of friends and friends from the internet are beginning to fill my time more and more and i'm loving it. I've been invited to 3 Christmas parties next week and am going out twice this weekend, - i've not done that since I was in Leeds!

Last weekend Hannah was here and we had an incredibly Christmassy time. Whereas her last trip was sunny everyday, this time it was the polar opposite - literally. Snow felll sporadically for the entire weekend. On the Friday we visited Nuremberg and inadvertently arrived on the first day of the christmas markets; cue crowds beyond belief filling the streets, desperate to see teh Christkindengl. Luckily, once the 'opening ceremony' was over the numbers dropped massively and we were able to enjoy the markets at our leisure. It was a beautiful city and even the 3 hour train journey home couldn't dampen our spirits (much). We spent saturday in Haus der Kunst, an art museum on the edge of the englischer Garten before heading to 'the best burger restaurant in Munich'. It's a very bold claim but one that I have to agree with. It was expensive but I didn't let it detract from the experience (see above re bonuses). My mexican double cheeseburger and potato wedges with a Becks was an absolute delight and I'll be back there before the month is out - especially seeing as how it's open until 6am on saturday and sunday mornings for no obvious reason!

Sunday saw us visit the Munich christmas markets where we bought postcards and retired to Starbucks in order to write them and get warm. A brief visit from the effervescent Marcus and the weekend was over, much much earlier than Hannah or I wanted. After a slight mix up over which station her train platform we said what was probably the hardest goodbye since we've been in our respective countries. Christmas can not come quickly enough.

BURGERZ

In housing news Marek has returned to the house and we have spoken about whether I can move out. The current position is that I can move out whenever but would lose my deposit which is not an option I want to consider. However, a new possibility has potentially come to light. As long as I can find someone to live in my room for the remainder of my contract I can move out AND keep my deposit whenever I like! This is certainly good news but it involves a lot of legwork on my behalf to find a suitable tenant. There may yet be a silver lining to this housing situation...