flat mates - a certain kind...

Having left "Pension-Mama" and moved in with three friends of mine was probably one of the best dicisions I've ever made. Apart from the fact that now I have to do my own washing and cook my own meals (more or less...since very often I can't be bothered spending too much time in the kitchen), I can't come up with any drawbacks living on my own. Well...I'm not particularly living on my own since I have three wonderful people sharing a flat with me. We get along almost perfectly well. Almost ...

But let me introduce you to my flat-mates: There's Anna, an old friend of mine, who I've become very close to since we've been living together. Any interesting news are instantly shared as soon as one of us gets home. If one of us feels like talking it's like: turn off the TV, close your book, stop writing your essay and forget about all the homework! Sometimes that's kind of a problem...especially if I have to get something done. But never mind, friendship should be a priority. Anna and I do a lot of crazy things together and there's not one day we don't make each other laugh about some stupid thing.

Then there's Oli. He studys law, and actually I didn't really know him before we moved in together. At first I actually thought he was kind of weird...it's hard to explain what exactly I mean with 'weird', but now that I know him much better we get along very well. He's the kind of guy who has an answer for every question, and if not..well, "hang on a second, I'm gonna check it out on the internet! Google provides an answer for everything". He always wants to find out about stuff right on the spot. Even if it's the most unimportant thing. Lately, for example, we were somehow talking about Latin (I can't remember in which context) and then he was like "what is actually 'walking' in Latin, I can't remember?". None of us did, even though we had been studying Latin for about four years at school. The days were gone in which we were able to conjugate hundrets of verbs, in all 7 tenses, all 6 cases plus conjunctive one and two. So maybe now you can understand why we were a little frustrated about the fact that we've forgotten almost everything we've learned at school and actually started wondering whether the subjects taught at school were useful or not (but that's another long story). So within seconds he came up with the answer (eo, is, ire, ii, itum) and we kept discussing whatever we were just discussing. Oli is always open to any discussion, but sometimes he gives you a hard time since he only rarely changes his point of view, which to my mind, is not always the right one. If he claims to know something, which I know isn't true, well then I have to somehow prove it or he would never believe me.

Quite often we also argue about how certain things are called. No I'm not kidding. The thing is, Oli and Martin (my other flat mate) come from St. Lorenzen, some tiny village in the Mürztal. So coming from the countryside, they kind of speak a different language. The other day, for example, we were arguing whether the lovely "thing" Oli's Mum had made for us was called 'Nussstrudel' or 'Nusspotize'. Oli claimed that the word 'Potize' didn't even exist as he had never heard it before. Well, I could prove him wrong on this one, since I simply had to call one of my work mates, who as cooks should be familiar with this topic. A 'Nusspotize' is not the same as a 'Nussstrudel' though, so what Oli's Mum had baked was actually called a 'Nussstudel'...

Oli is interested in all sorts of things and he loves to read the newspaper. So at least once a day he comes into my room and goes "Astrid, did you know that....Astrid, guess what...Astrid, listen to this...!" He just always wants to share his newly gained knowledge with us and tell us about all the amusing things that he's just read. I've already mentioned before that he studies law. And for him, believe it or not, it's so damn interesting!! Not for me though...but never mind, I still give him the attention he needs, listen to him and pretend to be just as amused, astonished or interested as he is by whatevr he has to tell me.

Now I've drifted off a little with all my anectodes, so let's get back to introducing my flat mates. The last one ist Martin, as already mentioned. He´s the only one who doesn't always stick to the rules that we've set up and he constantly has to be reminded to do his chores. Not that I don't like him, no, that's certainly not true. He actually used to be one of my best friends, but to be honest, moving together hasn't done our friendship any good. You know...he takes everything real easy, tries not to overdo himself and likes to hang out with his friends all night. The problem is, his room is right next to mine and his friends don't understand the meaning of "would you please be quiet, I'd like to sleep..". So that can be annoying at times. Martin is the kind of guy who's fun to hang out with, but not necessarily to live with...

Ok, so I guess that's enough for today, but there are many more episodes of 'WG'-life to come :)