Culture shock has set in. It has been pretty stressful dealing with everything. Some has to do with the isolation from not being around friends and family, some with the frustrations with language, and some with just how long it takes to get things done here. The German washers and dryers take much longer to get the laundry done, so that has stressed me out. I have even shrunk some clothes. The other day some clothes were in the dryer for 3 hours and they still were not dry. Frustratedly, I took them out and laid them in the sauna in our hotel room to dry.
The last few weeks we have had several surprises. Last weekend we went to visit a swimming pool - we didn't swim, but wanted to see how much it costs and what the facility was like - and accidentally walked into the sauna....it was a traditional European sauna, very uncomfortable! Our rental car got locked in a parking garage in Heidelberg and we struggled trying to get help to get it out. Our hotel keys were in the car as well so even if we wanted to take a cab to our hotel we would not be able to get in our room. There have been several times we've ordered food in which the salesperson did not understand us and brought us something else.
Through trial and error we are learning the German way.
Friday, August 29, 2008
Monday, August 18, 2008
House Hunting in Germany
We have lived in Germany for 2 weeks now. We began house hunting last week. Many of the homes are different from those in Texas. There are no closets, most homes are 3-4 stories, and have small kitchens. We have looked at around 9 places so far. I have attached a link with 4 of the places we kind of liked. Since our household goods will not arrive for another 6 weeks we are going to continue to look until we find the perfect place for us. But we thought we would go ahead and share some pictures of a few German homes.
Link to pictures of some of the homes we looked at:
http://picasaweb.google.com/collin.marisa/HouseHuntInGermany
Houses we liked:
House #1:
Is new and has four bedrooms, but is an apartment and therefore we would share a laundry room in the basement with our neighbor (I'm not a big fan of that) but it is close to Collin's job. We liked that it was new, I did not like the thought of going down two flights of stairs to a shared laundry room to wash clothes.
House #2:
Small downtown apartment off the Hauptstr (main street with all the restaurants and shops). It had a castle view and was updated and really nice. The only problem was the size, we would have a difficult time getting our Texas furniture in it. It also had only 1 bedroom and a loft, but the 2.5 bathrooms were nice. It was tempting, but we decided we would like something bigger. Many of the stairways in the apartments downtown are original from the early 1700s. That's older than our country!
House #3:
A duplex that is about a 20 minute drive from Collin's job that is older but in a nice community. It's 4 bedrooms - 2 of the bedrooms have private balconies, one bedroom has a private deck that leads to the backyard, and the kitchen is a good size. It's a little older and is a further drive from downtown Heidelberg. It also only has 1.5 bathrooms. However, the full bathroom has two sinks (this is rare in the homes we've seen).
House #4:
This was a large 3-story single family home with 5 bedrooms, 2 kitchens, a private yard with a pond, 3 bathrooms, and 2 living rooms. It's close to Collin's job, but it's a little too big we think and we would have to buy the kitchen(s) which can be pretty expensive. If we chose it however, our guests who come to visit could have their own floor.
Since we have been here, we have toured the castle in Schwetzingen, took a paddle boat down the Neckar River, made some friends - went to a birthday party, and took a field trip with a class I took, and tried the public transportation. We signed up to take a river cruise September 6th to see the Illumination of the Heidelberg castle. We are planning to take a trip over Labor Day weekend but have not decided where to go yet. Collin was able to take the driver's test last week - and passed. I was not able to take the test last week and could not get in until August 27th. Once our vehicle arrives Collin can drive it, I will not be able to until I take the driving test. I can however, drive our rental car. Thankfully we bought a GPS so I'm able to navigate pretty well. We rented a wimpy smart car and it is a little weak on the scary autobahn so we're looking forward to getting our Subaru. I do think the driver's here are more polite and thankfully there is not a lot of traffic.
Link to pictures of the Schwetzingen castle and gardens:
http://picasaweb.google.com/collin.marisa/SchwetzingenCastle
Have a great week!
Link to pictures of some of the homes we looked at:
http://picasaweb.google.com/collin.marisa/HouseHuntInGermany
Houses we liked:
House #1:
Is new and has four bedrooms, but is an apartment and therefore we would share a laundry room in the basement with our neighbor (I'm not a big fan of that) but it is close to Collin's job. We liked that it was new, I did not like the thought of going down two flights of stairs to a shared laundry room to wash clothes.
House #2:
Small downtown apartment off the Hauptstr (main street with all the restaurants and shops). It had a castle view and was updated and really nice. The only problem was the size, we would have a difficult time getting our Texas furniture in it. It also had only 1 bedroom and a loft, but the 2.5 bathrooms were nice. It was tempting, but we decided we would like something bigger. Many of the stairways in the apartments downtown are original from the early 1700s. That's older than our country!
House #3:
A duplex that is about a 20 minute drive from Collin's job that is older but in a nice community. It's 4 bedrooms - 2 of the bedrooms have private balconies, one bedroom has a private deck that leads to the backyard, and the kitchen is a good size. It's a little older and is a further drive from downtown Heidelberg. It also only has 1.5 bathrooms. However, the full bathroom has two sinks (this is rare in the homes we've seen).
House #4:
This was a large 3-story single family home with 5 bedrooms, 2 kitchens, a private yard with a pond, 3 bathrooms, and 2 living rooms. It's close to Collin's job, but it's a little too big we think and we would have to buy the kitchen(s) which can be pretty expensive. If we chose it however, our guests who come to visit could have their own floor.
Since we have been here, we have toured the castle in Schwetzingen, took a paddle boat down the Neckar River, made some friends - went to a birthday party, and took a field trip with a class I took, and tried the public transportation. We signed up to take a river cruise September 6th to see the Illumination of the Heidelberg castle. We are planning to take a trip over Labor Day weekend but have not decided where to go yet. Collin was able to take the driver's test last week - and passed. I was not able to take the test last week and could not get in until August 27th. Once our vehicle arrives Collin can drive it, I will not be able to until I take the driving test. I can however, drive our rental car. Thankfully we bought a GPS so I'm able to navigate pretty well. We rented a wimpy smart car and it is a little weak on the scary autobahn so we're looking forward to getting our Subaru. I do think the driver's here are more polite and thankfully there is not a lot of traffic.
Link to pictures of the Schwetzingen castle and gardens:
http://picasaweb.google.com/collin.marisa/SchwetzingenCastle
Have a great week!
Thursday, August 7, 2008
We made it to Germany!
We have finally started a new chapter of our life in Germany. Collin and I flew into Frankfurt Monday morning. The flight was long but good. The first day was hard for me, I kept thinking why did we move here? Hardly anyone we met spoke English and it was very lonely. I was also really tired. We checked into our hotel apartment, which is really nice but also very unique. They showed us about 10 different rooms to choose from. A lot of them had private saunas. We are staying in a city called Shwetzingen, which is where Collin is working. They have very good breakfast and it's large but also in a rather small town. We have a separate living area and bedroom. You can see pictures from the link below as well as a few pictures from one of our visits to Heidelberg.
http://picasaweb.google.com/collin.marisa/FirstFewDaysInGermany
We rented a smart car yesterday and today is my first day to venture out on my own that includes driving it - I hope my experience on the autobahn goes well. We finally are done with most of the in processing and I have an ID card so I can get on base without Collin or one of his co-workers.
I'm about to drive to Heidelberg and try and find the place to get laundry done. We bought a GPS yesterday, so hopefully that will help. I really don't know how to use it, but I hope it's pretty easy. I don't have an address to where I'm going to today, just a hand drawn map with no street names...that could be trouble. We do not have cell phones yet either, so this will be interesting, back to the 80s and 90s before cell phones were popular. Strange as it may sound, this will be my first time driving without a cell phone, but at least I have the GPS and my hotel is in there in case I get really lost and have to give up and go back to the hotel. But since I have all day, I may just end up on a long journey until I find it.
The food is very good here. Water is a luxury, but worth every penny. The building do not have A/C and it's a little hot. Yesterday when we were doing in processing I spoke with a few other Americans who have spent most of their lives living overseas, but at least they spoke English and that was nice. We are still looking for a place to live and could not get an appointment with the housing office until next Monday.
Let us know how things are going in Texas. We miss you all.
http://picasaweb.google.com/collin.marisa/FirstFewDaysInGermany
We rented a smart car yesterday and today is my first day to venture out on my own that includes driving it - I hope my experience on the autobahn goes well. We finally are done with most of the in processing and I have an ID card so I can get on base without Collin or one of his co-workers.
I'm about to drive to Heidelberg and try and find the place to get laundry done. We bought a GPS yesterday, so hopefully that will help. I really don't know how to use it, but I hope it's pretty easy. I don't have an address to where I'm going to today, just a hand drawn map with no street names...that could be trouble. We do not have cell phones yet either, so this will be interesting, back to the 80s and 90s before cell phones were popular. Strange as it may sound, this will be my first time driving without a cell phone, but at least I have the GPS and my hotel is in there in case I get really lost and have to give up and go back to the hotel. But since I have all day, I may just end up on a long journey until I find it.
The food is very good here. Water is a luxury, but worth every penny. The building do not have A/C and it's a little hot. Yesterday when we were doing in processing I spoke with a few other Americans who have spent most of their lives living overseas, but at least they spoke English and that was nice. We are still looking for a place to live and could not get an appointment with the housing office until next Monday.
Let us know how things are going in Texas. We miss you all.
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