Complaints form abroad

On a chilly windy winter morning when the sun was out and the snow was melting the impotent warmth of sunlight on his skin made him think of home where winters were normal and not like it was in hell. He liked his coffee strong and decaffeinated -- got his caffeine shot from tea -- two large cups in the morning, four packs of cane sugar and four cream each, as he walked to work. The sun was comforting and nurturing, the day was going to be good it was sunny, the aroma of roasted coffee garlic bagels and freshly baked bread from the nearby bakery wafted around. He took in a big drag of the fresh morning air and shut his eyes. He smiled. The hairs on the back of his neck raised, he buttoned his jacket as he sped up.

Four months. It had been four months since he had last seen Swati. The video chats never worked; bad connections on either ends or either of them got busy friends interrupting groceries, it was as if the Universe had conspired against them. Their calls lasted hours every day, he had set it up so that the last hour of his work she was on his headphones as she completed her assignments at night. He would whisper but he had started working in the common area, his laptop set up in a corner where he wouldn't be too disturbed. It was almost like being with each other. Almost.

The professors, you won't believe, it's supposed to be English medium here, but they sprinkle in so many German words you can't go without learning the language and there's no concept of office hours unless you just grab onto them wherever you see them and don't let them go and event then they're sSOO uncomfortable with English so German again and and the school website you know where you submit homework and check for assignments and see the professors' messages, it's all in english so sometimes I use Google to translate the words but it's so goddamn frustrating and the website it's so so old Google won't even translate it it thinks it's all one big photo so now Ive just memorized the clicks I don't even know what the words mean if I need to do something new I need to ask someone to help me and the job search is going poorly not because I don't have the skills I have exactly the skills they need they're looking for people with experience in global corporate law -- that's what I DID FOR FIVE YEARS -- I shout at them but they'll just smile and me politely and nod because they don't know English too well the old people don't know english at all and even the young ones have a hard time with it even though it's all supposed to be english medium, mind you, so I have to patiently explain to them slowly and with a translator's help and they finally figure it out and they say politely they need someone who can talk to people. It's SOO FRUSTRATING!

And oh oh this is insane hear this, literally everything even tiny stores even coffeeshops starbucks whatever absolutely totally shuts down on Sundays all the groceries and stuff so you either need to get it on Saturday or just wait for Monday you're going to literally die of hunger there's no place to go buy anything sooo...you can't even laze around and just eat out on Sundays uggh and the frustrating part is they're not even that religious here they just don't like sundays or something and I tell them yeahh why don't the shops open on Sundays since people are free they can go shop and they're likee yeahhh because we care about employee welfare and I'm like yeahhh have you heard of shifts and overtime pay and they're like all confused this is supposed to be like the best country in the world or whatever right now you know and it's just so different and mindboggling in small ways honestly this is such a bigger culture shock than going from Nepal to the U.S, it's frustrating, yeah fine the trains run on time or whatever but they don't have to be such tightasses you know it's really frustrating sometime the bureaucracy is so much bad than Nepal and the worst part is they pretend to be all like rulefollowers but still my college friends tell me it's still important that you know people so they can get you the jobs so connections are just important here and they won't acknowledge that so it's misleading Ughhhh I don't know what to do.

Love their breads though, they're great, so many options, I thought always that the french were the ones who were into bread but it's actually Germans and it's weird ebcause I always thought they were big on beer and meat whatever but I guess beer is grains and breads are grains, so that's great. They're fluffy and tasty and they have so much...character...haha, they smell so good, I know you like your fragrant bread and the bakery you've got so every time I go to the bakery I miss you but you're doing your own stuff and I miss you man, I really miss you fuck, let's figure something out I want to spend more time with you and I know this is important or whatever but I don't know ugh, I just want...Come see me in the winter yeah, or I'll come, because I gotta be with you booo i miss you, no no I'm not sobbing haha it's just been three months no I know it'll be fine, we're doing great, I'll go now yeahhh. Let's talk again soon. Like in fifteen minutes. I'll call you. Nooo talk to me on the bus, I'll call you, I'll speak only if you're shy about talking on the bus haha you're too shy everyone's always talking you're going to be fine Booo okay okay I'll call byee, pick up okay?!?