I'm finding myself in a situation where I'm feeling pretty stupid on just about all fronts.
I've been promised things at work which just haven't materialised, and I'm beginning to feel a little undervalued there, which is really rather annoying after a stretch of a few months where it felt like I was valued.
I'm still finding it difficult to make friends up here (and it's getting harder to keep up with old friends from elsewhere).
Also I'm feeling a bit anxious about going to Darmstadt. I've been warned by a number of people about how intense it all is, my German isn't great and I have a horrible feeling my shyness is about to erupt in all its stultifying glory rendering me inarticulate blushing and cowering for much of the two weeks.
I realise that most of this is probably symptomatic of other things but it doesn't stop me feeling like this.

My German was absolutely crêpe when I first went to Darmstadt but the old trick of speaking slow, clear and simple English and concentrating like mad on the reply worked just fine. Doesn't hurt to fling into your English from time to time a little self-deprecation along the lines of tut mir Leid, dass ich Englisch sprechen muss, mein Deutsch ist wirklich Scheiße. You're unlikely to meet many monolingual Germans there.

You can also make use of the opportunity to have them teach you some nice phrases and show you some amusing corners of the language - if my experience is any guide you'll find lots of people who love doing that sort of thing and it can be great conversational material for meeting people especially if/when you're sick of talking about music. (You also have a great excuse when you don't speak someone's language all that well to look them very closely in the face and hang on their every word. Believe me when I say that this works for shy people too and can have delightful consequences. )

It also doesn't have to be intense - for me the people I met there who have had a lasting influence on my life since weren't necessarily the intense ones. At least, not the ones who were intense for its own sake. Most of those I've forgotten although some occcasionally resurface in the memory providing a titter of amusement.

My advice is probably a little less useful than some others here could offer though, since the only time I was there in my own right was 1994, the last of Friedrich Hommel's years at the helm. He had built the thing up into something pretty international but the current incumbent Germanified it somewhat. He's leaving soon. I can't find words to express my remorse. (It didn't help for me that I had been the happy recipient of a Kranichsteiner Musikpreis, which traditionally meant a return invite to play a concert; this invitation was not forthcoming and I still haven't been back to Darmstadt in my own right - I've been back there but the first return was in 2004 as part of an ensemble. A little rantlet of my own there.)

(Normally I live just down the road and would have loved to pop up for a beer at the Bräustübl hear the Hauptbahnhof. Alas I'll be in Australia at the time... )

Gah.  Decided it would be a good idea to follow youtube's advice on correct running form/posture today.  Grrr.  Makes my belly stick out a bit and my bottom jiggle slightly when I run.

The things one does for one's knees, eh?

That's all sounding very promising, Martle. Congratulations!

Martle, that's excellent. Massive pat on the green back for you! Hang in there, boyo

In the right place now, MJ: perhaps martle was momentarily wary of venturing out into the big boards....