It’s been a memorable year.

This past year has been one in which I feel that I have finally arrived. The feeling that I ought to be in some other place, that I’m missing out on some other reality has gone. This is the first time I’m living by myself, to myself and for myself. When I carry water and fire up my wood stoves, I feel that this way of living is a great luxury.

Living so close to nature is a dream. The only other time I felt this good was when my then-little family lived in a caravan: the great outdoors at my doorstep.

I got an email,

out of the blue, from a Catholic NGO I didn’t know, offering me a position in a music school for Roma kids in Hosman, a village 20 km north of Sibiu. The Roma had moved into this formerly German village and it has a certain reputation of being run down and in bad shape.

It was a difficult decision but I took the offer to work for the music school. It was a dream job, really. But shortly after I arrived, it became apparent that the music school wasn't going to come together as they had hoped and they decided that my post was an unnecessary expense.

Others were just as baffled as I was. The school building was about to be finished, the classes were running, the kids were learning to play instruments, there were volunteers helping… no indication whatsoever that this wasn't a sound work.

At the time I could have returned to Germany

with my last penny and start all over again. But it wasn't exactly a good time to find students. I decided to spend the summer in Romania. Little by little small online jobs came in that kept me afloat. I was living my dream. Small scale, but my dream it was.

There were plans to set up my own teaching venture and I even got the OK to use the local school building. The conditions, however, of renovating a schoolroom and the toilets were beyond my means.

I worked on planting some flowers in my garden and a friend even gave me quite a few of her seedlings which grew up to lovely plants despite the fact that I had started gardening late. I was fixing up my little house for winter, sealing the windows and floors, getting wood chopped.

At first I did my laundry by hand, then I got a cheap Chinese tub washer, because I felt myself going impatient. My intentions of holding out in my chosen country life-style didn't always realize.

Patience, patience,

it took patience when the rain water flooded my basement; careful study of the property made me realize that the water from the road flooded into my drainage system. It’s going to take some thinking and getting a lot of opinions from people.

Good advice is dear.

The pumpkins turned out well.

The locals use them to feed pigs… My pumpkin pie didn't always draw praise. HA.

One morning I woke up and was struck with the fact that I still have to pay my taxes in Germany. Thinking the process through — how to go about it — was like fighting a major depression. I had not prepared for staying this long.

For sure I was going to end up back in Germany with my dreams shattered. I figured I had about one week before I would have to tackle the question of whether I could make it here or not.

Finally

a lovely friend finally got me connected to a job with the Lutheran church which turned out to be much better than running a music school. Things started snapping into place, just one week before my deadline. I told my son to use my room, for I wasn't going to come back.

Then I thrust myself into my new job.

I never looked at the pay. Instead I figured that I would draw the income I needed by excelling in every area. I set up a blog, created a newsletter, did PR with visitors and with the locals, started team working with colleagues.

Within a month or so a language school offered me an evening job. When I stepped into their customer company, it felt like I had got back to where I left off. In the daytime I was doing projects for the church and in the evenings I taught languages.

Somehow I managed to keep up with the home making as well. My daughter helped me to get my taxes done.

I ran a theater workshop for kids.

There were so many factors unknown to me, that the stress was quite hard to handle. I couldn't even tell whether my way of doing things made sense to the interns that were working with me.

Sometimes they looked on with dropping jaws.

In the end the kids put on a cute little play with costumes, soundtrack, props and proper stage techniques. The parents were floored.