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Mittwoch, 15. Juli 2015
Good News and Bad News
durhamfamily, 15:03h
Hi all,
We got our Visas today! It will feel so great not to have to carry around our huge passports all the time (which I was supposed to do, but never did).
Our second to last piece of furniture is coming tomorrow and the last one comes next week. It will feel really good to have all of our furniture put together. And to have a place to put our clothes and television.
Our German is coming along very well. I can read most billboards and road signs and hold simple conversations with random people--people on the telephone, when ordering food, etc. It's easier to understand someone speaking rather than for me piece words together. And as long as the cashiers at Aldi and Kaufland say only one word at a time, I can respond in a half-way intelligent manner. And of course, Kyle's German is coming along much quicker than mine. He's pretty smart.
Now... for the bad news. Yesterday, our dear friend Nadja* drove me to Möbel Rieger to check on our kitchen and act as The Hammer/Interpreter. We were informed that not only had Rieger not placed our order in May when they were supposed to, they had to charge us €400 extra in order to make modifications to our countertops. After talking the price down to "only" €122 more than the original cost, we asked how much longer it's going to take for our kitchen to be installed. TWELVE WEEKS. I almost started crying right there. To soften the blow, the manager arranged for us to have a temporary kitchen set up in our apartment. His over-animated reaction to the temp. kitchen being available as early as this Thursday made me want to hit him in the face. Near the end of the conversation, he offered to give me a 15% discount off of anything in the store that wasn't already on sale. I wanted to laugh at him and pull out my best Amy Poehler impression (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KmEoKXgBvSI&t=0m53s).
The temp. kitchen has no oven and we're going to have an extra refrigerator for a while (which is the funniest thing of all to me), but it's much, much better than nothing. Other than casseroles, pizzas, and brownies, we don't use the oven very much. And we should get out new kitchen before Thanksgiving. We hope.
More happy news to come from us soon!
Much love,
Liz
*Nadja is my hero and we'd be totally screwed without her and her husband
We got our Visas today! It will feel so great not to have to carry around our huge passports all the time (which I was supposed to do, but never did).
Our second to last piece of furniture is coming tomorrow and the last one comes next week. It will feel really good to have all of our furniture put together. And to have a place to put our clothes and television.
Our German is coming along very well. I can read most billboards and road signs and hold simple conversations with random people--people on the telephone, when ordering food, etc. It's easier to understand someone speaking rather than for me piece words together. And as long as the cashiers at Aldi and Kaufland say only one word at a time, I can respond in a half-way intelligent manner. And of course, Kyle's German is coming along much quicker than mine. He's pretty smart.
Now... for the bad news. Yesterday, our dear friend Nadja* drove me to Möbel Rieger to check on our kitchen and act as The Hammer/Interpreter. We were informed that not only had Rieger not placed our order in May when they were supposed to, they had to charge us €400 extra in order to make modifications to our countertops. After talking the price down to "only" €122 more than the original cost, we asked how much longer it's going to take for our kitchen to be installed. TWELVE WEEKS. I almost started crying right there. To soften the blow, the manager arranged for us to have a temporary kitchen set up in our apartment. His over-animated reaction to the temp. kitchen being available as early as this Thursday made me want to hit him in the face. Near the end of the conversation, he offered to give me a 15% discount off of anything in the store that wasn't already on sale. I wanted to laugh at him and pull out my best Amy Poehler impression (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KmEoKXgBvSI&t=0m53s).
The temp. kitchen has no oven and we're going to have an extra refrigerator for a while (which is the funniest thing of all to me), but it's much, much better than nothing. Other than casseroles, pizzas, and brownies, we don't use the oven very much. And we should get out new kitchen before Thanksgiving. We hope.
More happy news to come from us soon!
Much love,
Liz
*Nadja is my hero and we'd be totally screwed without her and her husband
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