Roomate #1

I will try to describe my living situation by sharing my thoughts on the two girls I live with. I havn’t met the one girl because she’s been at home all week, so I’ll begin with Jelena.
Jelena is a German girl from Bavaria (the southern part of Germany). She speaks fluent German, English, Russian, and a bit of Italian and French. I speak English and a bit of German. ☺ So already you can tell she is kind of an intense person. She wanted to learn Russian, so she decided to pick up a book and teach herself. I need to spend a year in Germany in order to learn the language well lol.
Jelena plays violin…..and man can she play! Both her mother and her father are professional violinist, so I imagine she is under a lot of family pressure. She studied violin with her father for 10 years, in Russia for half a year and has been here in Köln for 2 years. Her parents are divorced and I can tell it’s a touchy subject, she says she doesn’t really like going to either home.
This girl practices no less then 4 hours a day! Usually 5. ( I know this because she practices in her room for those many hours and I live right beside her…..yes she is talented, but no I do not want to hear that talent all day ☺)
Her personality fits into the stereotypical german…..serious, blunt, organized, somewhat cool or cold-ish, black and white.
“This is how we do things in this flat…..Katrina, when you’re speaking this is how you say the words.” (etc.)….but she also has a fun side to her ( as long as she’s practiced her 5 hours)
Slowly I’m trying to wear her down, and get her to loosen up a bit. Tonight we had our first beer together, (something that I don’t think she does very often….its always tea, tea, tea) and we talked about life. I love these talks. I love learning more personal facts about people, seeing what makes them tick, what experiences they’ve had and what they’ve learnt. I also love sharing where I’ve come from. I find when you talk about these things, you often learn facts that you would never guess and you gain a better perspective and respect for the other person.
Anyway, I learnt that Jelena has been in love a couple times, is in the beginning of a relationship with a Korean pianist who goes to our school but is traveling for a competition right now, has mood swings where she doesn’t want to talk to ANYBODY for a whole day, and gets tipsy off of one cooler that is 2.5% ☺
The more time I spend with this girl, the more I warm up to her and the more I think we’ll get along alright. I think sometimes she thinks I’m a little too warm (for example when I knock on her door before I go to bed to say good night) (I do this partly because I think its polite and partly because I think she thinks I’m a bit of a crazy from Canada and it makes me laugh inside, haha)
Its been nice to live here just with her and get to know her before my next roommate arrives….Magda, another German girl. Tomorrow I will be able to introduce her to you as well. Gut schlafen! Good night!