Hello everyone! Sorry for the delay in getting the blog updated, with some initial trouble with our internet network and focusing on getting settled in, I’m just now getting around to writing my first post. At this point we’ve been here two weeks and we’ve been having pretty good luck so far… I was pretty positive our luggage wasn’t going to arrive with us on the trip over (we had two layovers and the turnaround at Dulles was pretty quick). Somehow all of our bags made it safely and after the airport police in Frankfurt examined Morgan’s server hard drives (which he hand carried on the plane) to make sure they weren’t a bomb or stolen, we were free to head to our gate. We were able to move into our temporary apartment the day we arrived, it is a nice, compact (50 square meters), furnished apartment. We have about a 20 minute walk to city center from here, which really hasn’t been too bad and makes parking much easier.
Last week we were able to get registered with the government, so now Morgan has his visa (he got his right away since he is considered an EU citizen due to his Dutch passport) and I have applied for mine. Since we are married, I automatically get one as well which is HUGE because I’ve heard it is pretty close to impossible for most American wives to get a visa to allow them to work here if their husband is also an American here on a contract. Now I just have to learn German….
Last week we were also able to spend the day with our relocation agent (hired by ZF to help us get settled in) she showed us 4 apartments and helped us set up a bank account at Deutsche Bank. The last apartment we looked at we LOVED, but we were a little dismayed to hear there were several people who had already applied for the apartment before us and there were more people scheduled to come look at it after us. We filled out an application (they wanted to know things like nationality, marital status, age, if you play a musical instrument, etc – a bunch of things you can’t ask about in the US) after talking with the current tenants and they said they would talk with the landlords in a few days and they would let us know if we go the apartment. Monday we were so happy to hear that they had picked us (more of our good luck!). Since there was a couple still living in the apartment, I didn’t take pictures inside when we visited, but we’ll put some up once we get the keys – the first weekend of February. It is on the third floor of a house (most houses in the city are set up with an apartment on each floor, you have to go out towards the suburbs to get single family homes) that was built around 1930. There is a nice size kitchen that was just redone 6 months ago (it has a gas stovetop- Morgan is so excited!) and is big enough to have our dining table in it. Off the kitchen is a small pantry type room that has a door to our balcony (we really, really wanted some outdoor space). Other than the kitchen and one bathroom there are 4 rooms, one we’ll set up as a den, one will be our bedroom that has a pretty big room off of it that the current renters have set up as a HUGE walk in closet so we’ll keep it set up that way (especially b/c our California king bed will take up most of the bedroom, I think one of our dressers will end up in the closet), and the last room will be the guest bedroom/office. We also get to have a closet in the stairwell and a room in the basement for storage (which will get Morgan’s mountain bike out of the apartment – yay! 🙂 ). The backyard of the house is also a shared space, which is nice because with a lot of the houses the person on the first floor gets it exclusively – aka they don’t have to let you use it. Yesterday our landlords (two sisters inherited the house from their parents) and our relocation agent came to our current apartment so we could look over the lease and get their banking information to set up our deposit account. Once the lawyer at the relocation company gives the lease the ok, we’ll sign it and set up the deposit account, then the apartment will officially be ours! I can’t wait to get moved in and get the apartment set up.
One other piece of good luck – all 7 boxes that were airfreighted arrived and in one piece. I was a little worried we’d never see them again since the boxes were MIA for about a week. Now we just need to have the container delivered and keep our fingers crossed our furniture isn’t damaged!
Next up we’ll be looking for a car. The company only covers a rental car for 6 weeks, so by early February we need to know what car we are getting. Since I can’t drive a manual, our options are a little limited over here so we’re on the hunt. Our rental car is a Skoda Superb(veryyyy long station wagon), we’ll be looking for something a little shorter considering how often you have to parallel park here.
In addition to taking care of these housekeeping type things, we’ve been going out to eat and out for drinks with some of Morgan’s colleagues from work, including Philip who we’ve known for a few years since he did an internship in the US (and who came back to the state just for our wedding!). Some of my favorite places for a drink so far have been Bottled (was cozy and had a good atmosphere) and Grüner Jäger (Green Hunter) – here it is popular to order a special that translated is “a threesome” – you get a shot, a beer, and a beef steak and grilled pepper sandwich for like 7€.. a really good deal! Last night we went to Bad Essen (about 30 minutes away) to eat dinner with one of Morgan’s colleagues (who is an America) and his fiancée (who is German). We headed to Bad Essen a little early to walk around while it was still daylight (it gets dark around 17:00 here (yeah, welcome to my life. Darn that military time! ) It is a cute little town and we got to walk around the farmers market while it snowed. Overall yesterday was a really nice day.
Sorry for the long post, just wanted to catch everyone up on the past couple of weeks. From now on I’ll do my best to post more regularly!
I’m going to add some pictures from out time here so far, but back date them to the date they occurred so it doesn’t get too confusing.
Tschüs!