Deutschland

Hallo zusammen!

Today ends my 4-day holiday. Quality time with Elizabeth has been excellent, but holy hell it has been hot outside. The majority of the holiday was spent laying motionless and dripping with sweat. Air conditioning is by no means a necessity in life, but that's one American luxury I will miss every so often.


DONNERSTAG
On our first day of holiday, Elizabeth came to me and said, "I want to hike up to Bargauer Horn again" (Bargauer Horn is a 5-mile hike that goes up - and back down - over 1000 ft in elevation). I was stunned! Never had I expected her to suggest that gruesome hike. I'm typically the only person making ludicrous suggestions disguised as "fun".

Long story short, we made it to the top of the hill in record time. It's very rewarding how much easier these things become the more often you do them.

That was pretty much the entire day. It's not like there was anything else to do... every store is closed on holidays (and on Sundays). It's more extreme than Thanksgiving in America.


FREITAG
Our first piece of furniture arrived today! It is a 2-piece futon-ish couch for our guest room. We immediately assembled it, and then we tried sleeping on it that night. As far as futons go, it is very comfortable.

Our apartment is beginning to look more and more like a home. And in exactly one week the rest of our furniture will arrive! It will most likely require a week or more of work to assemble everything, so if anyone would like to come visit next week, we'd welcome the extra hands. If only our kitchen could come at the same time... and not a month or two later! It will be interesting washing all of our dirty dishes in the bathtub (but at least we have a bathtub).

It was incredibly hot in the apartment. We experimented with strategically opening different windows, but nothing seemed to help. I even opened the attic windows (which Elizabeth captured in a photo and posted on Facebook), which is easier said than done. We might need to purchase a ladder. All in all, I think we simply need to become more comfortable with feeling hot and sticky. It's not like it's the end of the world.


SAMSTAG
Our landlord came to visit us today in the new apartment. He helped us take steps towards setting up our internet connection. Fingers crossed that we will have internet by next weekend when we move in (not likely!). We will keep everyone up-to-date on that progression. At worst, we might be unreachable the week of the 15th.

The landlord, Jürgen, is a good guy. He always makes time for us. Thank the stars he speaks English. Apparently he's also a police officer?! Pretty cool.

To finish off our exciting day, we got some ugly pictures taken in a photo booth (no smiling allowed). We need them for things like Visas and drivers licenses. It appears that Germans bring their own pictures everywhere, as opposed to America where services take your picture for you. Maybe it's because it minimizes the cost of the service?


SONNTAG
That brings us to today. Apart from some more running and biking, it has been largely uneventful. Elizabeth and are I catching up on TV series like Coach and Suits while enjoying some Laugenbrötchen mit Butter. We have less than a week left in this temporary apartment. It's extraordinarily small, but I think we are going to miss it.


This is just a little taste of our experiences here in Germany. Please write us any time to let us know what's happening back home in all of your lives! We miss you!

Bis später


Here are some pictures of the 2nd temporary apartment. I would post more... but these pretty much cover everything. Look for pictures of our final apartment in a week or two!

Bedroom


Living Room

More news!

Elizabeth agreed to hike up to the Bargauer Horn with me today. This is no regular hike. It is a painful 4 km hike up a 1000 foot incline (and then, of course, another 4 km hike back down).

Over the past 2 weeks, I have been exploring this area on my own. I was so excited when she agreed to go with me. We brought some snacks and her phone and made an afternoon out of it. She's my Wonder Woman.

The sky was cloudy today, but the view from Bargauer Horn was still delightful. I hope she'll agree to do it again with me some time!

One month down, 31 to go.

There were complications extending our stay in our original apartment. As it turns out, that apartment was already booked by someone else. So Elizabeth and I were moved to a NEW temporary apartment this week! It's in the same building, just one floor up. *BONUS* we spent 1 night in Hotel Fortuna, drinking blueberry wine.

It pleases me to report that this apartment is remarkably smaller than the first one. There still isn't an oven. We don't have a microwave. There's no balcony. The beds are separate. The arms of the couch are VELCROed on. And the entire space is basically one "big" room. This is the college experience all over again! At least we aren't sharing our bathroom with anyone.

Living in this new space is actually a lot of fun. It is a nice change of pace, and it'll make our permanent apartment feel like a palace! No lie, our permanent place is huge. Come stay with us any time!


This week we had our 4th German lesson. I swear I know less German now than when I arrived. The class is very loosely structured, consisting primarily of the teacher telling us stories, slowly, in half German/half English. I recently realized that my expectations might be a little too high. I've never learned a new language before. We will have 1 year of lessons. That's only a drop in the bucket compared to the decade+ of English lessons the Germans have taken.

It's a shame because I really enjoyed the idea of becoming fluent in another language. When you are in Europe, you gain new perspective on our American laziness. Many Americans will say, "I'm not able to learn another language." Practically everyone in Europe knows and uses multiple languages. It can make you feel slightly mentally challenged.


Elizabeth took a trip to Munich to meet with Marie and Sarah earlier this week. It was awfully rainy, but she had a blast! I'll let Elizabeth tell the story, though.

I spent that time jogging and biking around Schwäbisch Gmünd. I also picked up our MediaMarkt appliances! They arrived at the post office, so I had to go get them. The nice ladies at the post office didn't speak any English, but that wasn't a problem. They let me borrow their hand cart so I could roll the 3 boxes the half mile to our apartment. I can't imagine the US Post Office lending me anything. There's such a trusting atmosphere around here!


Well, it's lunch time now. Have a wonderful Sunday, and I'll talk to you next week!

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!