September 3rd, and time to come back to good old Marburg! During the extended holidays, I was – on the one hand – quite happy to stay away from marburg for a longer time; but on the other hand, I especially missed my former group, the educators and my group mates. Long story short: after six years in my old group near the Blista campus, it was time to change groups for my future traineeship.
With a loaded up car, my parents drove me to my new group and after having a talk with my new group mates – some of them were already familiar to me – and our contact person, we picked the room of our choice and unpacked everything.
When I familiarized myself with the most important places in my group, my parents and I went to a nice restaurant in the upper-city of Marburg which is actually just approximately 8 minutes away from my group; so although I am not close by the Blista anymore – as I used to before – it is still pretty central and the nearer surroundings are quiet and peaceful.
On our way to the upper-city and back again to the group, I already tried to memorize the way in order to get around on my own as soon as possible, without having to wait for a free o&m teacher which can take ages sometimes.
During the course of the first week – although I got lost sometimes – I found my way from the group to the upper-city faster than I thought; the only problem, however, was the way back.
For the first few days before I (already) got in touch with a free cane teacher quite early, I – in worst case – asked for the way or consulted a combination of Google Maps and Blindsquare. Furthermore, I (of course) started to attend the weekly English meetings again, and sent a text into our WhatsApp group and we arranged a meeting point or somebody just picked me up at my group.
The cane lessons went well and soon I was able to find my way easily without getting lost, and we also found some shops nearby – including a Rewe supermarket – to get everything I need from a place close by.
Our contact person comes twice a week to check on us and offers help when it comes to paper work, getting groceries, arranging appointments at the doctor or elsewhere, and lots more.
For the rest of the week, we are 5 blind and 2 partially sighted people completely on our own; and I was positively surprised how well we are able to arrange ourselves and try to sort out problems if there are any.
It always depends on the type of people and usually, four people in one group are already more than enough; but I must admit that it is nice to stay there with the rest of my group mates.
The way to my personal independence 