See? No German in the Title.

There was a lot of talk leading up to this move about what a great adventure it was going to be. “Oh, it’ll be such a neat adventure!” “Well, if nothing else, it will be an adventure.” I wasn’t totally sure how to take those comments. It seemed almost like a cross between a condolence and preemptive hedging of expectations about the difficulties of moving overseas. In all of the planning for the move, I was prepared for the challenges of living in a place where I don’t really speak the language and some of the cultural differences that may provide some funny anecdotes. I was not prepared for the fact that our biggest challenge thus far is rooted in the incompetence/lack of accountability of Americans back in California!  Sorry, had to get that out. We are blessed to live in a gorgeous apartment which (much to my chagrin) still looks almost exactly as it is pictured here:

This room now has a TV, patio furniture, and a lot of toys.

I am all for roughing it, and I could live in a tent for months as long as there was a tiny shack with running water nearby. However, as it turns out, babies like toys, real furniture, and a room that gets dark before 1030pm and stays dark after 430am. The light situation is fantastic for running…not so much for baby sleeping.

 I should start by saying that I was well prepared to have no furniture for a period of months as that shipment wasn’t guaranteed to be here before July 8^th. “Guarantee” is a funny word.  There is another shipment called “Unaccompanied Baggage” which, when packed on April 18, was supposed to be (read: guaranteed to be) here in about a month. It contains things that one might need sooner than later (i.e.: pots/pans, plates, silverware, towels, some foodstuffs, a stroller, a Bumbo chair to serve as a high chair (see picture below for what we are actually using), and some clothes). That shipment is still sitting in Salinas, CA as of the evening of May 28, 2012. As it turns out, there was a miscommunication about the total weight of the shipment between the packing company and the shipping contractor…all English-speaking, FYI. We may never see that one which is a bummer since it has a lot of peanut butter. The aforementioned big furniture shipment is already on a boat here, which is nice.

High chair/collapsible plastic box.

Core work after breakfast.

The other big challenge thus far has been money. You know how in America, one can walk into a bank and set up an account or walk through a mall/airport/spring break bar and get a credit card almost instantly? Apparently, in Germany, they don’t want you to spend money. First one has to register as a resident and get a piece of paper saying that you, in fact, live in Germany. To do this, you need an appointment which, fortunately, Neil knew about and scheduled 3 weeks ahead of time or we would still be withdrawing cash at a crappy exchange rate from our American bank. Once one gets that piece of paper, one can go to the bank and get an account. Once one has that account, one waits a few days for a PIN and then another day or two for an ATM card. Then comes another PIN to set up your online account, and then one can set up payments to people like a landlord, the place where one bought a couch (Yipee!), and amazon.com/.de. Unfortunately, sometimes amazon.com/.de thinks it’s fishy when one orders things from amazon.com and amazon.de on the same day and cancels one of those orders and the re-orders one of those orders, and amazon.de cancels the order without letting one know and puts a hold on one’s account because they think it might be fraud. Crazy amazon.com/.de. We didn't want that patio furniture/toaster/television anyway.

The good news is that the bank craziness seems to be behind us (knock on wood), and we are now free to buy Euros and transfer them into our account and just get screwed on the exchange rate in one lump transaction . Eventually, we will have real furniture and peanut butter and a well-apportioned guest room which will be available for visitors any time we are here! In the meantime, we will continue to enjoy our newly-purchased patio furniture and any free internet we can find.

Luxurious patio furniture.

Drinks at a restaurant near a T-mobile hot spot.