DaF City

Something always happens. My flight was supposed to leave at 12:30PM, so of course that meant I left my house around 7AM to leave enough time. Because yes, something always happens. After waiting on the side of the road for an inexplicable half hour while being rained on, a bus took me to Tirana. I got in the city bus and was on it for a mere five minutes before I realized my wallet was missing. I ran back to the main bus station but I hadn’t left my wallet behind. Like many Albanians would later do, the driver asked me where I was and then scolded me for using the city busses, which are “full of thieves.” This would have been helpful information years ago. In a panic, I texted my parents to cancel my cards; called Peace Corps and then called my friend Amanda who paid for my taxi and lent me some money. And there I was again, completely losing it in a public place again like I’ve done so many times here as I uncontrollably sobbed during my taxi ride to the center.

Then came to delayed flights, a Kosovar shooting Americans in the Frankfurt Airport shortly before I arrived, and a spontaneous trip around the city trying to find an internet café to get new credit card numbers to pay for my room. I asked some local teenagers where I might find an internet café since I’m used to them being all over in Albania, and they told me: “Just keep going straight down the main road until you run into the red light district.” Good advice.

Frankfurt doesn’t feel like any other German city, especially from an architectural perspective. Seat of the European Central Bank and the German Federal Bank, Frankfurt is the main financial and transportation center of Germany. Walking around the streets and interacting with people, two things became clear: German is a minority language in Frankfurt and also, no one is really from Frankfurt. It’s a city of transplants it seems. “DaF” is the abbreviation for “Deutsch als Fremdsprache,” or “German as a Foreign Language,” and that is certainly the case here as I watched two Russians order vodka and coffee from an Indian while the three of them spoke German. Or when my friend and I had a conversation about German asylum policy in a hybrid of English and German with our sushi chef from Burma. “We have salmon, tuna and tintenfisch,” he told us as we looked on the menu outside. And yet this combination of the two languages made perfect sense.

Of course there were adjustments to make as well. The infrastructure, all the people and the pace of the city were overwhelming. I found myself asking a lot of people if I bought the right train tickets or if I was traveling in the right direction. This was complicated by the fact that my spoke German is embarrassingly rusty although I have access to a perfect language partner on a daily basis. I also found myself wondering if Frankfurt is that multicultural or if I have just been in an ethnically homogenous country (98% of people in Albania are Albanians) for too long. I was also spoiled by being able to sleep without socks on in winter and not having to fear getting flattened when crossing the street.

Overall, it was nice to get the chance to see a new city and interview. I found out yesterday that although I was one of the final four applicants, I didn’t get the job. It was difficult for me but after a day of wallowing I am ready to start focusing on finding something new as my time in Albania drifts toward the one month mark. I really don’t know where this path will lead me, but in the last couple months I’ve been given a new reason to stay in Europe and I want to do my best to make sure I can stay here.