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Samstag, 23. Mai 2015
Unsere dritte Woche
durhamfamily, 11:46h
Greetings Friends!
Our third week in Germany brought with it some challenges. However, with our wonderful support system and unfathomable good fortune, we live to fight another day.
First and foremost, spending money has been a trainwreck. Absolutely no one in Germany wants our credit card. There's nothing wrong with it, mind you. They just don't want it. When we discovered that the appliance store accepts cards online (not in person), we thought we hit the jackpot... it was 4 days and several hundred attempts before we got it to work.
BUT IT WORKED! That's the moral of that story. With moderate intelligence and mule-like stubbornness, there isn't much that can stop you.
In our desperation (after the second day of trying to purchase appliances), we reached out to my employer for sympathy. We had a "settling in allowance" scheduled for May 31st, and we wondered if it could be paid out sooner. No joke, they got the money into our bank account the very next day.
We got the keys to our apartment on Monday! We had already purchased furniture (scheduled to be delivered June 12th), so now it was time to order the KITCHEN. This was the one giant purchase that we had concerned most. Where to start? What if we can't communicate well enough?
Of course we didn't need to worry! Nadja Seeger in her infinite generosity spent all of Monday (with just Elizabeth) and several hours Friday walking us through the process. I can definitively say that it would have been impossible without her help. They even had an "expedite" option, which we gladly took. Estimated completion date: July 18th.
Our last big hurdle turned out to not be a hurdle at all. When we explained to my company that the apartment would be completely empty until June 12th, they responded "Well, then we'll need to reserve your temporary apartment until June 15th". And that was that.
INTERCULTURAL TRAINING
This week was also the week that we had our first Intercultural Training! The training is a day-long workshop for new Bosch expatriates to teach them the ways of the Germans.
Here are just a few of the things we learned:
*Eat with both hands above the table. You're not a cowboy.
*And keep a utensil in both hands.
*It is unacceptable to make noise on Sunday (mowing the lawn, vacuuming the carpet, recycling glass bottles).
*Feel free to walk down the street drinking a bottle of wine.
*Expect dinners to last 2+ hours after finishing a meal. It could be considered rude to leave earlier.
*Don't expect anything to be open on Sundays. Learn to plan ahead.
*Absolutely no sniffles.
That's all I have for today. Until next time!
Our third week in Germany brought with it some challenges. However, with our wonderful support system and unfathomable good fortune, we live to fight another day.
First and foremost, spending money has been a trainwreck. Absolutely no one in Germany wants our credit card. There's nothing wrong with it, mind you. They just don't want it. When we discovered that the appliance store accepts cards online (not in person), we thought we hit the jackpot... it was 4 days and several hundred attempts before we got it to work.
BUT IT WORKED! That's the moral of that story. With moderate intelligence and mule-like stubbornness, there isn't much that can stop you.
In our desperation (after the second day of trying to purchase appliances), we reached out to my employer for sympathy. We had a "settling in allowance" scheduled for May 31st, and we wondered if it could be paid out sooner. No joke, they got the money into our bank account the very next day.
We got the keys to our apartment on Monday! We had already purchased furniture (scheduled to be delivered June 12th), so now it was time to order the KITCHEN. This was the one giant purchase that we had concerned most. Where to start? What if we can't communicate well enough?
Of course we didn't need to worry! Nadja Seeger in her infinite generosity spent all of Monday (with just Elizabeth) and several hours Friday walking us through the process. I can definitively say that it would have been impossible without her help. They even had an "expedite" option, which we gladly took. Estimated completion date: July 18th.
Our last big hurdle turned out to not be a hurdle at all. When we explained to my company that the apartment would be completely empty until June 12th, they responded "Well, then we'll need to reserve your temporary apartment until June 15th". And that was that.
INTERCULTURAL TRAINING
This week was also the week that we had our first Intercultural Training! The training is a day-long workshop for new Bosch expatriates to teach them the ways of the Germans.
Here are just a few of the things we learned:
*Eat with both hands above the table. You're not a cowboy.
*And keep a utensil in both hands.
*It is unacceptable to make noise on Sunday (mowing the lawn, vacuuming the carpet, recycling glass bottles).
*Feel free to walk down the street drinking a bottle of wine.
*Expect dinners to last 2+ hours after finishing a meal. It could be considered rude to leave earlier.
*Don't expect anything to be open on Sundays. Learn to plan ahead.
*Absolutely no sniffles.
That's all I have for today. Until next time!
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