Wednesday, March 15, 2006

Rumours, Anxiety and Planning


Careful Planning and Anxiety: Even with such an idea of quitting our jobs, everything and almost anything must have an idea and a plan. Though, Attila talked a good game about the endless possibilties of finding work in Spain, we were all certain one fact, we were not citizens of the European Union. With that in mind, we knew very well that any job obtained was going to illegal and the pay would not help us to buy a villa even in Andalucia. I played the possible scenarios in my head day after day, hour after hour, I even would bring the discussion up beyond several times. I guess that I had to make sure that we were not going to leave our job in Germany for uncertain possibility of finding work in Spain. We finally agreed that concluded that this move was risky and we will homeless for weeks or months until we actually find work. The kind of work we were hoping to find (being realistic here) were bar jobs, house cleaning, gardening, waiting tables, dishwasher, bus-boys, basically shit work. But, we all had to take care a few loose ends. . . .

Nate & Teresa

Let's leave!: At this point, we could have left the following morning, Nate already had enough funds to take off, Attila had already planned on leaving for Spain, he just came to Germany to hang out for only two weeks (it turned out to be over a month) and I was no where near close of having the funds for such a risky venture. It seemed that every night at work, Nate and I would talked, analyze, over-analyze, plan out, replan, direct, redirect what the hell we were planning to do. In the end, we concluded that we had to leave and from that point, there was no turning back.

Secrets, lies and no video-tapes: It never cease to amaze me on how some people couldn't keep their mouths shut. I will refrain from using names, but one guy we thought we could trust, did everything to ruin our chances of leaving quietly, without having the entire work staff knowing that we were going to quit our jobs and leave for Spain. And I thought that the rumours of 'who's sleeping with who, or who might be lesbian, or what the hell who is doing what' had so much importance with my fellow AFRC co-workers. Well, thanks to a so-called good friend of ours! The entire gossip network got something even better to talk about, us!! "Hey, I hear that you guys are leaving for Spain, 'I heard that you are quitting your job' 'So, what is this I hear about you two leaving Germany for some job down in Spain?' 'Hey, is it true?..............." Thank, friend for not keeping this to yourself!


sleeping beauty!
Since timing and financies were the issues, we had to wait until the last week of March before taking off. Attila was planning to visit us for a short while, take off for Spain, and meet up with us later. I was hoping to continue working until the end of my contract in the month of June and then take off for Spain. Nate couldn't bare the idea of working graveyard security any longer, or live in the Abrams and not being able to travel. It was set in stone, our greatest of escape was date for March 29, 2005. The following morning, Nate and I turned in our letter of resignation. Turning in that letter was the greatest feeling ever, I could have smoked a joint. But leaving this place would also mean leaving good friends behind. One friend in particular, Tom! We will see him again.


We took everything in our room down, posters, pictures, flyers, everything. We had a dorm style garage sale, our bed sheets, clothes, tv, dvd player, everything! We sent several boxes back to the states just enough to carry the basics for our journey. All of winter gear either were given away, thrown away or sold. Spain was not going to be a place for such clothing. Finally, we established a simple way of looking at our lives at this moment: sell it, ship it or throw it away. Bascially, we tried our damnest to minimize our lives to these basic necessities:

  • Jeans
  • T-Shirts
  • shoes and sandals
  • backpack & daypack
  • camera
  • socks
  • underwear
  • sleeping bag
  • toilteries
  • and unplanned destination
We finished our out-processing, calmed down the rumours, had a few beers, mapped out all of Spain, balanced check books, closed accounts, updated bank accounts, called family and friends, argued, nearly got into fights, controlling attitudes, keeping friendship alive and left Garmisch, Germany on March 29, 2005 at 8am for Munich Central Station and from there, Spain and the unknown! The Greatest of the Great Escape, complete!

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