Well, it seems that I just needed to mention our German classes on here in order to get them started! Brian was able to call the place today and set up our first lesson for next week Thursday! We will have them twice a week for probably 90 minutes at a time. We are very excited to get started learning because it will make life here much easier!
For example, I just spent most of my afternoon translating a paper about our answering machine service through our phone. I've been having trouble getting our phones to work, so I've missed a few calls in the past few days. Whenever I miss a call, we get another call immediately from an 800 number. The only thing that I can understand from the recording is that it is Deutsche Telekom (our phone company) and that there are numbers to push to do different things. Today I figured I'd look through our paperwork and figure out if there was something that had a menu. I discovered that we have an answering service with our phone, so I had to translate the paper to figure out what all the different numbers do. If I knew some German, this would be have been a much quicker task!
I'll keep this updated with how our classes are going and how we are able to use what we learn in our everyday lives. Thanks for the prayers!
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
Tuesday, October 12, 2010
Progress
We have now been in Germany a little over 10 weeks and Brian is just starting to make some progress with some of the things he needs for work. We've learned that everything takes time here and there's pretty much nothing we can do to move it along any faster. The three things that Brian has needed to do his job here are a computer, a desk phone, and a cell phone. After hearing that they would be coming eventually (when? who knows?), he finally received his computer and desk phone last week! He was borrowing a computer and phone up until this point, but it is much nicer to have your own. He can change the settings on the computer to be English instead of German and not feel bad about it. :) He also has a direct line so that people can call him instead of him having to always call them because they never knew what phone number he would be at.
He is still waiting for a cell phone. He waited the time they told him it would take to get one and then inquired about it. When he did that, he discovered that they had lost his order! Now he is waiting again for one to come, but hopefully it will be here in the next few weeks.
The other thing that we are both still waiting on is German classes. It has been a bit of a struggle to get these started and still is. We are now waiting for someone at MTU to set the actual classes up since they have been approved to be paid for. We don't know when we will be starting the classes, but I will definitely update this once we know!
Your prayers for these things would be much appreciated because it would make life here much easier. We don't have a lot of patience left since we've been waiting over 10 weeks now.
He is still waiting for a cell phone. He waited the time they told him it would take to get one and then inquired about it. When he did that, he discovered that they had lost his order! Now he is waiting again for one to come, but hopefully it will be here in the next few weeks.
The other thing that we are both still waiting on is German classes. It has been a bit of a struggle to get these started and still is. We are now waiting for someone at MTU to set the actual classes up since they have been approved to be paid for. We don't know when we will be starting the classes, but I will definitely update this once we know!
Your prayers for these things would be much appreciated because it would make life here much easier. We don't have a lot of patience left since we've been waiting over 10 weeks now.
Monday, October 11, 2010
Lemon Poppyseed Bread
This past week I wanted to bake something since we had eaten all our Oreos from the U.S. I love lemon poppyseed bread and we had all the ingredients, so I thought I would try it out. It ended up turning out pretty good, but not quite lemony enough. I'm going to try again with a different recipe if I can find one that has more lemon in it.
Saturday, October 9, 2010
IKEA
Since Brian and I still needed to find a couch and some other things for our apartment, we took a trip to IKEA last Saturday. We had been looking for a couch to replace an old, ugly one that was here. We had looked at several stores, but many German couches are huge (we didn't want a huge one) and very hard (we want something comfortable to sit on!). We knew that IKEA would have what we were looking for at a good price, so we ventured there.
The closest IKEA is in Ulm, which is about an hour away by train. Since we don't have a car yet, we had to take the train there and back. We tried a new kind of ticket called a Baden-Wurttemburg ticket. Baden-Wurttemburg is the name of the state that we live in and this ticket allowed us to go anywhere within the state at whatever time we wanted within that one day. We only went to Ulm, but it gave us the flexibility to get onto whichever trains we wanted to and was the same price as a ticket straight to Ulm.
Our trip to Ulm was quite interesting. We were on one train the whole time, but we definitely picked the wrong car to sit in! It was a double decker train, so we decided to sit on the top because I like to look out and see things. When we got to the top, we discovered that there was a group of about 8-12 college aged men who were definitely celebrating Oktoberfest! It was right in the middle of Oktoberfest, so this shouldn't have surprised us. They were all dressed in lederhosen, we had to step over their crate of beer in the aisle, and they were all quite drunk and it was only about 9:00 in the morning. We were serenaded with drinking songs for some of the ride and watched all of them get up at least once during the trip to use the bathroom.
Once we made it to Ulm, we knew that IKEA was within walking distance of the train station, but we had to figure out how to get over the train tracks to the other side where IKEA was. We eventually found a bridge that took us over the tracks and it wasn't too bad of a walk there.
This IKEA is basically the same as you would see in the U.S. I have only ever been to the one in Canton, MI and this one was quite similar to that one. It had two floors, was set up with the same winding aisle through the merchandise, and had the same warehouse type place to pick up your items.
We first spent some time looking at all the stuff on the top floor. We wanted to pick out the couch we wanted and then go back once we had gotten some of the other things we wanted before we got the couch. The top floor was pretty much all furniture and kid's stuff, so we didn't get anything up there. At the end of the top floor was the restaurant. We decided to eat here since it would be much easier than trying to leave the store and find something else. We both had meatballs with gravy and french fries which was very good! They had this cool vending machine that you could put an ice cream cone in the bottom of, insert your euro, and then the cone would be lifted and filled with soft serve ice cream, but the line was too long for us to wait to us it. It was very cool though!
After lunch, we went downstairs and found some of the smaller things that we had wanted and picked out a rug that we wanted for under our dining room table to replace the faded and flaking one that was here. They also had an area where you could cut your own fabric. This is where we got the fabric for our kitchen curtains and chairs. Once we got all the little things we wanted, we went back upstairs to figure out how to buy the couch that we wanted. We ended up waiting for a while because the first person we talked to didn't know English and the other person was helping someone else. Eventually we got the right pieces of paper and figured out where we had to go to get the two different pieces for the couch. We then went back downstairs and got the rug that we wanted.
We found the large box for the couch fairly easily and then went to the checkout to pay for our items. After paying for them, we had to go to another desk and show them the other slip of paper for our couch where they would pull the other piece that we needed. The box we had picked up from the warehouse was bigger than me, so I expected the piece that they pulled to be even bigger! I was quite surprised when all they brought out was a smaller package that was just the cover for the couch. We're still not sure why they didn't have that in the other warehouse!
After getting both pieces and fitting our smaller items into the rolling suitcase we had brought along, we decided that the only thing we couldn't take back on the train with us was the large couch box. This would take two people to carry it and there was no way we were bringing it back on the train. We then stood in line for quite a while to have them ship the big box to our apartment. The lady who helped us spoke very good English, so that was very helpful! It would take less than a week for the box to get to us.
Once we finally left IKEA, we carted all our stuff back over the train tracks. At this point, we had a rug that was rolled up taller than Brian, a rolling suitcase full, the couch cover which rode on the top of the rolling suitcase but fell off every little while, and a flower pot in a bag I had brought along. We probably looked quite hilarious walking back over the bridge! When we got back to the train station, we realized that we had just missed a train by a few minutes and had to wait a while until the next one. We found some seats and tried to set our stuff down, but in the process I broke the flower pot that was in the bag. When we finally got onto the train, we were pretty crammed into our seats with our stuff, but had a much quieter ride back than we had had getting there! Once we got back to Friedrichshafen, we then had to walk back to our apartment with all our stuff.
Here's the new rug that we got for under our dining room table. It's nothing fancy, but it's not losing the padding underneath like the last one was!
Yesterday, the large box of our couch was finally delivered, so we got to put it together! The couch was actually in less pieces than I thought it would be in and wasn't very hard to assemble at all. My favorite part of it was the funny pictures that they had for the proper ways to put it together. There's no writing with them so that they can be used by people from any language.
Brian's first task was to get the couch out of the box which is quite large!
He then had to attach the armrest to each side of the couch with three different screws.
Then he had to put the feet on.
And then for some reason, he had to get back underneath the couch to tighten something up.
We then put the cover over the large part of the couch and then had to cover each of the cushions. This normally wouldn't be a very hard thing to do, but the cushions that you sit on had slightly sticky stuff on the front edge which made it hard to just slide the covers on. I had quite the time getting these on!
We finally got all the pieces together and Brian had to try out the couch.
Here's a picture of the final product without anyone sitting on it.
I decided that I had to try out the box before I tried out the couch because I've always liked large boxes (ask me about my favorite picture of myself as a kid).
Then I finally tried out the couch and it is quite nice!
If we didn't have an extra bed, I would definitely give up my spot in bed to sleep on this couch!
The closest IKEA is in Ulm, which is about an hour away by train. Since we don't have a car yet, we had to take the train there and back. We tried a new kind of ticket called a Baden-Wurttemburg ticket. Baden-Wurttemburg is the name of the state that we live in and this ticket allowed us to go anywhere within the state at whatever time we wanted within that one day. We only went to Ulm, but it gave us the flexibility to get onto whichever trains we wanted to and was the same price as a ticket straight to Ulm.
Our trip to Ulm was quite interesting. We were on one train the whole time, but we definitely picked the wrong car to sit in! It was a double decker train, so we decided to sit on the top because I like to look out and see things. When we got to the top, we discovered that there was a group of about 8-12 college aged men who were definitely celebrating Oktoberfest! It was right in the middle of Oktoberfest, so this shouldn't have surprised us. They were all dressed in lederhosen, we had to step over their crate of beer in the aisle, and they were all quite drunk and it was only about 9:00 in the morning. We were serenaded with drinking songs for some of the ride and watched all of them get up at least once during the trip to use the bathroom.
Once we made it to Ulm, we knew that IKEA was within walking distance of the train station, but we had to figure out how to get over the train tracks to the other side where IKEA was. We eventually found a bridge that took us over the tracks and it wasn't too bad of a walk there.
This IKEA is basically the same as you would see in the U.S. I have only ever been to the one in Canton, MI and this one was quite similar to that one. It had two floors, was set up with the same winding aisle through the merchandise, and had the same warehouse type place to pick up your items.
We first spent some time looking at all the stuff on the top floor. We wanted to pick out the couch we wanted and then go back once we had gotten some of the other things we wanted before we got the couch. The top floor was pretty much all furniture and kid's stuff, so we didn't get anything up there. At the end of the top floor was the restaurant. We decided to eat here since it would be much easier than trying to leave the store and find something else. We both had meatballs with gravy and french fries which was very good! They had this cool vending machine that you could put an ice cream cone in the bottom of, insert your euro, and then the cone would be lifted and filled with soft serve ice cream, but the line was too long for us to wait to us it. It was very cool though!
After lunch, we went downstairs and found some of the smaller things that we had wanted and picked out a rug that we wanted for under our dining room table to replace the faded and flaking one that was here. They also had an area where you could cut your own fabric. This is where we got the fabric for our kitchen curtains and chairs. Once we got all the little things we wanted, we went back upstairs to figure out how to buy the couch that we wanted. We ended up waiting for a while because the first person we talked to didn't know English and the other person was helping someone else. Eventually we got the right pieces of paper and figured out where we had to go to get the two different pieces for the couch. We then went back downstairs and got the rug that we wanted.
We found the large box for the couch fairly easily and then went to the checkout to pay for our items. After paying for them, we had to go to another desk and show them the other slip of paper for our couch where they would pull the other piece that we needed. The box we had picked up from the warehouse was bigger than me, so I expected the piece that they pulled to be even bigger! I was quite surprised when all they brought out was a smaller package that was just the cover for the couch. We're still not sure why they didn't have that in the other warehouse!
After getting both pieces and fitting our smaller items into the rolling suitcase we had brought along, we decided that the only thing we couldn't take back on the train with us was the large couch box. This would take two people to carry it and there was no way we were bringing it back on the train. We then stood in line for quite a while to have them ship the big box to our apartment. The lady who helped us spoke very good English, so that was very helpful! It would take less than a week for the box to get to us.
Once we finally left IKEA, we carted all our stuff back over the train tracks. At this point, we had a rug that was rolled up taller than Brian, a rolling suitcase full, the couch cover which rode on the top of the rolling suitcase but fell off every little while, and a flower pot in a bag I had brought along. We probably looked quite hilarious walking back over the bridge! When we got back to the train station, we realized that we had just missed a train by a few minutes and had to wait a while until the next one. We found some seats and tried to set our stuff down, but in the process I broke the flower pot that was in the bag. When we finally got onto the train, we were pretty crammed into our seats with our stuff, but had a much quieter ride back than we had had getting there! Once we got back to Friedrichshafen, we then had to walk back to our apartment with all our stuff.
Yesterday, the large box of our couch was finally delivered, so we got to put it together! The couch was actually in less pieces than I thought it would be in and wasn't very hard to assemble at all. My favorite part of it was the funny pictures that they had for the proper ways to put it together. There's no writing with them so that they can be used by people from any language.
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