We don't really have much to report since our last post. We have basically been trying to wade through the piles of stuff that the movers unpacked and left where ever they could find space throughout our house. Stephanie has successfully cleared out the majority of the things in the kitchen and we can now see our counterspace. Our dining room table is next.
We did want to say that we are disappointed in the number of comments left on our posts. Feel free to leave comments, we would love to hear from all of you!
A few random thougths about Germany thus far:
It has been a big adjustment to go from a culture driven by credit cards to a culture where no one takes credit cards.
If you are going to visit, don't think about coming until late Spring. The weather right now is miserable.
Hand signals are universal - all of them!
America should really consider removing the speed limit on interstates
Germans are much more environmentally conscious than Americans. They consider the environmental impact of everything they buy, even a coffee maker.
Gas is expensive. We currently pay approximately $5.00 a gallon.
Germans love their cars. I am pretty sure that just about everyone owns a Porsche
There are 5 major food groups in Germany - Bread, Meat, Cheese, Coffee, and Beer!
Germans are much more kid friendly - they love to stop and play with Nathan
Germans are much more concerned with the functionality of an item than its form.
When you buy/rent a home in Germany, be prepared to purchase lighting fixtures for every room in the house, don't be suprised if there is nothing in the kitchen (including counters and cabnets), and there is no such thing as air conditioning (we are still waiting to see how this plays out this summer).
Germans have not yet discovered ice... if you order a drink expect to get it warm.
That is all for now. Hope everyone is doing well. LEAVE A COMMENT!
bye
Thursday, March 26, 2009
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
Our stuff has arrived!
Sorry, no new pictures for this post! I (Sean) just thought that I would share with everyone our interesting experience yesterday when our sea shipment finally arrived. The day we have been waiting for since we arrived in Germany had finally come. When we arrived at our house at 7:45 in the morning Monday morning, the container with our things was already in front of our house (and our neighbors' houses on either side of us!). One thing we have definitely learned about the German culture is that everyone, even the cable guy, is punctual!
The movers just started pulling boxes and furniture all wrapped in brown paper off of the truck and piling it in our house. Before they had even arrived Stephanie and I had wondered how they were going to get our office desk in the house as the top of it is too long and wide for our doors. The answer would become a common theme that day - it was shoved through a window!
The movers continued to unload the truck and the look on their faces when they took our King and Queen size beds off the truck was priceless. Immediately I was thinking "uh oh!" Their eyes were the size of golf balls. Before I continue, let me backtrack about 2 months to our trip over here to look for a house. In all of the hotels that we stayed at, we couldn't understand why all of the mattresses were composed of two twin size mattresses. Well, yesterday we found out. Simply put, American beds are not made for European houses. Before they attempted to get the mattresses in the house, they first tried to get the sofas in the house. Since we had an extra sofa and loveseat, we asked the movers to take the sofa up to our bedroom (on the 3rd floor of our 3 story house). They knew right away that they were going to have to find another way to get it onto the 2nd floor as it would not fit through the stairwell from the main floor. Of course how did they get it to the 2nd floor? Hurl it through the window on the 2nd floor of course! I wish I had taken pictures - or Stephanie anyway, I was helping.
Once we had a system down, we thought we would use it to get the mattresses upstairs. Getting them onto the 2nd floor, was not too difficult. However, once on the 2nd floor, the movers began trying to get a square peg to fit into a round hole. The analogy is almost literal too. Our stairwell is a spiral stairwell. So after about 5 minutes of pushing and shoving the movers were starting to give up until I kept hollering at them to bend the bed and squish it any way they could to get it up the stairway. In the end, our bed made it and I must say that last night was the best night's sleep I have had in quite some time.
Tschüß from Germany!
The movers just started pulling boxes and furniture all wrapped in brown paper off of the truck and piling it in our house. Before they had even arrived Stephanie and I had wondered how they were going to get our office desk in the house as the top of it is too long and wide for our doors. The answer would become a common theme that day - it was shoved through a window!
The movers continued to unload the truck and the look on their faces when they took our King and Queen size beds off the truck was priceless. Immediately I was thinking "uh oh!" Their eyes were the size of golf balls. Before I continue, let me backtrack about 2 months to our trip over here to look for a house. In all of the hotels that we stayed at, we couldn't understand why all of the mattresses were composed of two twin size mattresses. Well, yesterday we found out. Simply put, American beds are not made for European houses. Before they attempted to get the mattresses in the house, they first tried to get the sofas in the house. Since we had an extra sofa and loveseat, we asked the movers to take the sofa up to our bedroom (on the 3rd floor of our 3 story house). They knew right away that they were going to have to find another way to get it onto the 2nd floor as it would not fit through the stairwell from the main floor. Of course how did they get it to the 2nd floor? Hurl it through the window on the 2nd floor of course! I wish I had taken pictures - or Stephanie anyway, I was helping.
Once we had a system down, we thought we would use it to get the mattresses upstairs. Getting them onto the 2nd floor, was not too difficult. However, once on the 2nd floor, the movers began trying to get a square peg to fit into a round hole. The analogy is almost literal too. Our stairwell is a spiral stairwell. So after about 5 minutes of pushing and shoving the movers were starting to give up until I kept hollering at them to bend the bed and squish it any way they could to get it up the stairway. In the end, our bed made it and I must say that last night was the best night's sleep I have had in quite some time.
Tschüß from Germany!
Sunday, March 22, 2009
Sommertagszug, a tradition that will never exist in America!
Today Nathan, Stephanie, and I went to the town center for a festival like we have never seen before. Each year, right around the beginning of spring most towns in our area have a festival to end, or rather KILL winter! I say kill because all of the town children from the area "kindergartens" (daycares) parade through the town carrying skewers with gigantic pretzels and eggs on them headed to the town square to set a 20 foot tall snowman on fire. I have tried to learn more about the tradition of the Sommertagszug, but everything I have found on the internet is in German and suffice it to say, my German is not any better than when we left the US. The part that I found particularly interesting about this event is that people were crowded around, no more than 20 feet from where the snowman is set ablaze. It was very much a unique experience. You can find all of the pictures from our trip on my photobucket account here:http://s53.photobucket.com/albums/g46/snerb722/Sommertagszug%202009/
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
Our first full week
Our first full week as German citizens was full of meetings and planning. I know it had to have been hard for Sean because he started working four days after we arrived. I will make him write about his new job some time this week.
We have a relocation agent that has been helping us with all the logistics of moving to Germany. His name is Matthias and he is awesome! He speaks very good English and has a great sense of humor. He is also very knowledgable which is good too. Oh and the best part...he is a fan of Grey's Anatomy! Needless to say he and I hit it off. Can you see it? Me and Matthias sitting in the front seat talking about plots and characters and Sean shaking his head in the backseat?? Oh yea!
The most important meeting we had was to set up our bank accounts. Unlike the US, no one here takes credit cards! They only take EZ cards which are just like our check cards. Credit here is very limited. You can get a credit card, but your entire balance is taken out of your checking account at the end of the month. Don't have enough money to cover it? Too bad! And Germans only get paid once a month. So Sean will not get paid until the END of March! There must be quite a bit of budgeting over here! Just like pretty much everything so far, we have learned the hard way about no credit cards. On our first Saturday here we went to buy our washing machine and dryer. We had everything ordered, set up our delivery, and got ready to pay. Can you imagine our faces when they said, nope sory, no credit! Grrrr.
Matthias also went with me to set up a new cell phone. I am so glad he did because he found this amazing deal for me. I guess not all iPhones are alike. The German SIM card is not compatible with my US phone so I had to buy a new phone. Matthias was looking though some ads and turns out they were offering a special for a 3G iPhone for 1.00!! I got a new phone with my same plan for only 1.00! Pretty good!!!! Of course with such a great deal, they had no phones available so I had to go the next day (by myself!!) to pick it up. Nate and I did great taking the train all by ourselves and picking it up. I can't begin to describe how awesome it was to have interent again. I felt so lost without it. Isn't that sad??
On Thursday we finally got the keys to our house. It was an amazing feeling knowing we could finally begin to settle in. We were starting to go a little stir crazy in our hotel room. Of course there is nothing in our house but it is OUR house. The air shipment came in on Friday so it wasn't long until there were boxes everywhere. Our air shipment wasn't very big but it had all of our kitchen stuff, Nate's bed, and our clothes. Getting our clothes was great because Sean forgot to pack a pair of jeans in the suitcases so he didn't have any jeans. We had to buy jeans at WalMart before we left the US and the front belt loop broke. He walked around a few days with a broken belt loop.
The first week was really a blur and even now sitting here writing about it, I can't believe how fast it went. We learned so much in just 5 days. But there always has to be that learning curve I guess.
Thanks for the comments and I will post more tomorrow. Love you all!
We have a relocation agent that has been helping us with all the logistics of moving to Germany. His name is Matthias and he is awesome! He speaks very good English and has a great sense of humor. He is also very knowledgable which is good too. Oh and the best part...he is a fan of Grey's Anatomy! Needless to say he and I hit it off. Can you see it? Me and Matthias sitting in the front seat talking about plots and characters and Sean shaking his head in the backseat?? Oh yea!
The most important meeting we had was to set up our bank accounts. Unlike the US, no one here takes credit cards! They only take EZ cards which are just like our check cards. Credit here is very limited. You can get a credit card, but your entire balance is taken out of your checking account at the end of the month. Don't have enough money to cover it? Too bad! And Germans only get paid once a month. So Sean will not get paid until the END of March! There must be quite a bit of budgeting over here! Just like pretty much everything so far, we have learned the hard way about no credit cards. On our first Saturday here we went to buy our washing machine and dryer. We had everything ordered, set up our delivery, and got ready to pay. Can you imagine our faces when they said, nope sory, no credit! Grrrr.
Matthias also went with me to set up a new cell phone. I am so glad he did because he found this amazing deal for me. I guess not all iPhones are alike. The German SIM card is not compatible with my US phone so I had to buy a new phone. Matthias was looking though some ads and turns out they were offering a special for a 3G iPhone for 1.00!! I got a new phone with my same plan for only 1.00! Pretty good!!!! Of course with such a great deal, they had no phones available so I had to go the next day (by myself!!) to pick it up. Nate and I did great taking the train all by ourselves and picking it up. I can't begin to describe how awesome it was to have interent again. I felt so lost without it. Isn't that sad??
On Thursday we finally got the keys to our house. It was an amazing feeling knowing we could finally begin to settle in. We were starting to go a little stir crazy in our hotel room. Of course there is nothing in our house but it is OUR house. The air shipment came in on Friday so it wasn't long until there were boxes everywhere. Our air shipment wasn't very big but it had all of our kitchen stuff, Nate's bed, and our clothes. Getting our clothes was great because Sean forgot to pack a pair of jeans in the suitcases so he didn't have any jeans. We had to buy jeans at WalMart before we left the US and the front belt loop broke. He walked around a few days with a broken belt loop.
The first week was really a blur and even now sitting here writing about it, I can't believe how fast it went. We learned so much in just 5 days. But there always has to be that learning curve I guess.
Thanks for the comments and I will post more tomorrow. Love you all!
Monday, March 9, 2009
These are pictures from our new house. The one is the front of our house. We just live in the one side, on the right, 23/1. The other picture is the view from Nathan's room. This is bascially our front yard. All you wine lovers out there, you better come visit! There are wineries everywhere! Then of course there is the picture of Nathan. This is his idea of helping us unpack. It is hard to get mad at such a cutie pie.
Our first trip to the city center of Weinhiem
I am going to post little stories throughout the week and try to get us up to date on our current events. If I wrote it all out, it would be the never-ending blog entry! Before I start this blog, please excuse my typo at the end of my last blog (Finally! An Update!) I incorreclty used there instead of their. That is one of my biggest pets peeves so I am sorry if I sound silly for apologizing. :)
On our first Sunday, we decided to figure out the train schedule and ride to the city center of Weinhiem. We technically don't live in Weinhiem, but in a suburb of Weinheim. The train stop is about a 10 minute walk from our house. I will tell you this much, I am going to be a skinny minny when we move back! All this walking! And we live on what I would call a mountain but around here it is just a little hill. Sean and I think that it isn't too bad, it is just that we are so out of shape!
I had learned how to buy tickets the night before from one of Sean's coworkers, Madenna. She moved to Germany in October so she knows her way around pretty well. In just the week that we have been here, Madenna, her husband Drew, and their daughter Jennie, have become very good friends! In Germany they follow the honor system so there is no one on the train to make sure you have purchased a ticket. There is a machine that is located near the train doors where you must validate your ticket. There are undercover train "police" that get on the train at random stops and times to catch those who do not buy and validate their train ticket. Sean learned that the hard way when we came to Germany to find our house. He didn't not buy a ticket on purpose, he just didn't know how! The "police" just told him how to do it and didn't give him a fine. I think the fine is somewhere around 200 Euros which is about $250.00 I think after the exchange rate. That is steep compared to the 1.80 it costs to buy a ticket! Nathan loved the train! He just stared out the windows and tried to talk to everyone getting on and off the train. He has taken everything in stride and has adjusted so well. He is just a happy baby.
Once we got to our stop it was another 10-15 min walk to the city center. Again not bad if you are in shape and not pushing 20 pounds of dead weight! :) The city center of Weinhiem is beautiful. There is a very large park that has a couple of playgrounds, a pond, and some bird cages. Nathan loved the birds and tried to put his fingers in the cages. We don't know German very well but we think the sign said that these birds do bite so we put an end to that! He likes playing at the playground. He really enjoys going down the slides. He is walking pretty much on his own now so he just walked around the playground as if he knew what he was doing.
There are also many cafes that have outdoor seating. On the day we went the sun had just come out and it was getting pretty warm so we sat outside and had a cup of coffee and people watched. Just like home, the second warm weather hits, EVERYBODY goes outside. Nathan ate a cookie and flirted with all the women.
It was a very relaxing and fun day. It also made us think, you know what, we can do this. We can make this our home. We felt like we belonged riding the train, sitting to have coffee, walking and playing on the playground. It helped us transition into realizing we are here to stay for a while and not just here on vacation. Now that I look back on it, it was a great day!
On our first Sunday, we decided to figure out the train schedule and ride to the city center of Weinhiem. We technically don't live in Weinhiem, but in a suburb of Weinheim. The train stop is about a 10 minute walk from our house. I will tell you this much, I am going to be a skinny minny when we move back! All this walking! And we live on what I would call a mountain but around here it is just a little hill. Sean and I think that it isn't too bad, it is just that we are so out of shape!
I had learned how to buy tickets the night before from one of Sean's coworkers, Madenna. She moved to Germany in October so she knows her way around pretty well. In just the week that we have been here, Madenna, her husband Drew, and their daughter Jennie, have become very good friends! In Germany they follow the honor system so there is no one on the train to make sure you have purchased a ticket. There is a machine that is located near the train doors where you must validate your ticket. There are undercover train "police" that get on the train at random stops and times to catch those who do not buy and validate their train ticket. Sean learned that the hard way when we came to Germany to find our house. He didn't not buy a ticket on purpose, he just didn't know how! The "police" just told him how to do it and didn't give him a fine. I think the fine is somewhere around 200 Euros which is about $250.00 I think after the exchange rate. That is steep compared to the 1.80 it costs to buy a ticket! Nathan loved the train! He just stared out the windows and tried to talk to everyone getting on and off the train. He has taken everything in stride and has adjusted so well. He is just a happy baby.
Once we got to our stop it was another 10-15 min walk to the city center. Again not bad if you are in shape and not pushing 20 pounds of dead weight! :) The city center of Weinhiem is beautiful. There is a very large park that has a couple of playgrounds, a pond, and some bird cages. Nathan loved the birds and tried to put his fingers in the cages. We don't know German very well but we think the sign said that these birds do bite so we put an end to that! He likes playing at the playground. He really enjoys going down the slides. He is walking pretty much on his own now so he just walked around the playground as if he knew what he was doing.
There are also many cafes that have outdoor seating. On the day we went the sun had just come out and it was getting pretty warm so we sat outside and had a cup of coffee and people watched. Just like home, the second warm weather hits, EVERYBODY goes outside. Nathan ate a cookie and flirted with all the women.
It was a very relaxing and fun day. It also made us think, you know what, we can do this. We can make this our home. We felt like we belonged riding the train, sitting to have coffee, walking and playing on the playground. It helped us transition into realizing we are here to stay for a while and not just here on vacation. Now that I look back on it, it was a great day!
Sunday, March 8, 2009
Finally! An update!
We now have internet access so we are able to give you all an update from Germany!
We arrived in Germany Thursday, Feb. 26th. Nathan did great on the plane ride. He slept for the first 5 hours of the trip which was great because we got some sleep too! When he woke up he did really well playing with his toys and flirting with the flight attendants. They loved him! He didn't cry as much as we thought he would which was great. He is such a trooper! Stephanie actually did really well on the flight too. No freak outs. The flight went very smoothly.
When we arrived we tried to find our ride to the hotel. When we finally found him he looked at our 7 pieces of luggage, car seat, and stroller and started to laugh. Apperently no one told the shuttle service we were MOVING to Germany. He had to call another car and even then we barely got everything to fit. Sean sat with a stroller in his lap in the backseat!
We arrived at our hotel which turned out to not really be a hotel. Well not a hotel we are used to. There was no lobby, no main building to find someone to let us in, just buildings and a resturant. Someone eventually came outside, not speaking any English of course, and let us in. Our "hotel room" is one big room with a sink, table and chairs, and a bed. Oh and yes it is connected to the back of the resturant so our room constantly smells like fried meat and potatoes. We were told that our hotel room was like a furnished apartment. Which it is but without: a stove, internet, washer and dryer, and everything else that would make it "furnished." It does however have a microwave, which is interesting because they have no microwavable foods here. Hmmm.
The lady who cleans our room is very very nice and tries to speak English but her English is just about as good as our German. We have decided we are going to teach each other. She has 5 children, 4 girls and 1 boy, who adore Nathan. They come knock on the door just to look and smile at him. It is fun but awkward because we can't really have a conversation. Nathan loves it though. That little man loves any kind of attention.
We settled in and came to the realization that we would have to put Nathan to sleep in a pack-n-play next to our bed. Nathan has not slept in our room since he was 3 months so we knew this was going to be difficult. When he sees us, he thinks it is time to play. So we had that to deal with ALONG with the jet lag and time difference. We are 6 hours ahead of Indy time. Nathan slept for about 2 hours, woke up and wanted to play for another 2 hours, slept for 2 hours, woke up ready to play, and then finally slept for about 5 hours. It was an interesting night but we were expecting it so it wasn't too bad. Everyone knows that once you have kids, no matter how old they are, you don't get much sleep anyway. He did not sleep throught the night until Sunday night which was great for Sean because he started work the next day.
Life for Nathan and Stephanie is very different while Sean is at work. They typically go the market everyday to buy bread or baby food. Bascially they do it just to get out. They have gone to the playground in our neighborhood a couple of times but the weather hasn't been great and it is too big for Nate. Nathan and Stephanie did go on there first adventure together last Wed. They rode the train to the city center to pick up Stephanie's cell phone. It was interesting to say the least but they accomplished their mission.
Well this is a super long post and Nate is waking up from his nap so I will write more in shorter posts throughout the week. We love you all very much and can't wait until you visit us in Germany!!
We arrived in Germany Thursday, Feb. 26th. Nathan did great on the plane ride. He slept for the first 5 hours of the trip which was great because we got some sleep too! When he woke up he did really well playing with his toys and flirting with the flight attendants. They loved him! He didn't cry as much as we thought he would which was great. He is such a trooper! Stephanie actually did really well on the flight too. No freak outs. The flight went very smoothly.
When we arrived we tried to find our ride to the hotel. When we finally found him he looked at our 7 pieces of luggage, car seat, and stroller and started to laugh. Apperently no one told the shuttle service we were MOVING to Germany. He had to call another car and even then we barely got everything to fit. Sean sat with a stroller in his lap in the backseat!
We arrived at our hotel which turned out to not really be a hotel. Well not a hotel we are used to. There was no lobby, no main building to find someone to let us in, just buildings and a resturant. Someone eventually came outside, not speaking any English of course, and let us in. Our "hotel room" is one big room with a sink, table and chairs, and a bed. Oh and yes it is connected to the back of the resturant so our room constantly smells like fried meat and potatoes. We were told that our hotel room was like a furnished apartment. Which it is but without: a stove, internet, washer and dryer, and everything else that would make it "furnished." It does however have a microwave, which is interesting because they have no microwavable foods here. Hmmm.
The lady who cleans our room is very very nice and tries to speak English but her English is just about as good as our German. We have decided we are going to teach each other. She has 5 children, 4 girls and 1 boy, who adore Nathan. They come knock on the door just to look and smile at him. It is fun but awkward because we can't really have a conversation. Nathan loves it though. That little man loves any kind of attention.
We settled in and came to the realization that we would have to put Nathan to sleep in a pack-n-play next to our bed. Nathan has not slept in our room since he was 3 months so we knew this was going to be difficult. When he sees us, he thinks it is time to play. So we had that to deal with ALONG with the jet lag and time difference. We are 6 hours ahead of Indy time. Nathan slept for about 2 hours, woke up and wanted to play for another 2 hours, slept for 2 hours, woke up ready to play, and then finally slept for about 5 hours. It was an interesting night but we were expecting it so it wasn't too bad. Everyone knows that once you have kids, no matter how old they are, you don't get much sleep anyway. He did not sleep throught the night until Sunday night which was great for Sean because he started work the next day.
Life for Nathan and Stephanie is very different while Sean is at work. They typically go the market everyday to buy bread or baby food. Bascially they do it just to get out. They have gone to the playground in our neighborhood a couple of times but the weather hasn't been great and it is too big for Nate. Nathan and Stephanie did go on there first adventure together last Wed. They rode the train to the city center to pick up Stephanie's cell phone. It was interesting to say the least but they accomplished their mission.
Well this is a super long post and Nate is waking up from his nap so I will write more in shorter posts throughout the week. We love you all very much and can't wait until you visit us in Germany!!
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