weinnachtsmarkt!

we are in our new apartment, which is fantastic, except we still don't have any furniture.

this week we went to a weinnachtsmarkt with katja, from whom we rented our first apartment.
they have open markets in germany at christmas time where people gather to eat wurst and cooked rotkohl (red cabbage) or just plain cooked kohl (cabbage) and to drink gluehwein, which is a le delicious sort of mulled wine type thing. christmas markets have lots of stands where people sell decorations and seasonal foods and also handmade crafts and that sort of thing. overall, it is really neat.

everything is really decorated for christmas here, which is neat- there are stars and lights and excellent sledding things built all around town, and lots of parties and xmas wishes.
i am definately sad about missing my awesome family at christmas, but it will be interesting to see how german christmas works!

xoxo all!

Not a Pirate! (well, almost)

we moved into our apartment yesterday.

it is cold.

we have gas heat, but we are sort of lacking furniture and, well, um, mostly everything. we weren't really thinking that having awesome high celings would make heating the room go so slowly via radiator. alas. we did not get a mattress or blankets ahead of time, and it is hard to bargain shop on sundays when most of the stores are closed, so we made a really big pile of clothes and phil built a crazy radiator fort, but it was still really cold until about nine this morning, when the room was finally warm. today we are going blanket shopping. we will check into mattresses, too, although i think we might need a friend with a car (i think they won't let us on the u-bahn. or it might not fit?)

after all of what i've read online and heard from various sources, i was getting really worried about the visa process. i had an apointment this morning, and finally got a letter from the health insurance on saturday (i had to call their office and beg them to send me something that said they were working on it!). i was super nervous that i was going to be late- i had to stop to take pictures in a photo booth (you cannot smile) and it seemed like it was taking forever, so i ran up the four flights of stairs to the room where my appointment was- and then they told me to wait in the hall! the lady at the desk was very stern and did not smile. i was really expecting to have to come back a few times- most internet postings say that people have had to try quite a few times before achieving success. i explained to her what i wanted to do, that i had some job opportunities, that we had an apartment, the cost of the rent, the health insurance, and all of that- and then she said "ok, we'll make it for a year at first, and then you can come back." and i almost fell out of my chair. she gave me a card (kind of like a hotel room key) and i went downstairs to this weird machine where i put in the card and paid what i owed (every visa is different) and got a reciept. and then i went back upstairs and waited in a room for a little while until they called me back, and she gave me my passport with a cool visa sticker in it! I HAVE A VISA!!!! i wanted to do my fish dance out of excitement but i thought i should wait til i was home. (i did not want them to take it back because i am crazy)

next step: a job
more later!!! xoxo

apartmenthouse

sorry for not writing lots and lots about specific things we did in london on my last blog; phil wrote an excellent description of our adventures (much better than mine, alas) which he will be posting shortly and everyone should check it out. i think i got sort of tired after i posted all those pictures on picasa (it took me awhile). anyway, his blog is here.

news: new apartment, yay!

several weeks ago we responded to a craigslist posting about an apartment in tegel, which resulted in an excellent expresso-tasting evening and a new friend. this thursday, it finally led us to an apartment! we went to visit the apartment quite a while ago and really liked it- much bigger than most of the other apartments we'd been looking at and much cheaper. it's in Alt-Tegel, on the U-station Borsigwerke, which is sort of far from the middle of the city. still, it's right on the U-bahn- only a two or three minute walk to the actual train. where we are now, we have to walk about ten minutes, and then take the M, which is a tram, or a streetcar. although we're closer to the city center, it takes us at least 45 minutes to get anywhere with public transit that's not on the M2 line or at alexanderplatz.

originally, (due to an italian-german-english-error) we thought we could take vincenzo's lease over, but then we found out that we'd have to formally apply for the apartment through the hauschef, or landlord. at this point, we were just about to leave for london, and we got sort of discouraged. we were worried that going through a formal landlord with an office (and not just privately renting someone's apartment) might mean that we would need to show proof of employment or visas. however, we got lucky. we got a letter saying that we could attend the apartment viewing on monday evening. we had just gotten back from london, but the letter had gone to regina and fred, so i got the information from them via email (they opened it for me). we went to tegel and looked at vincenzo's and another guy's apartments with the hauschef and a 19 year old kid and his dad, who were looking for the kid's first apartment. i was optimistic, as herr herting seemed to like us (and vincenzo), and he stayed after to show me all the details, such as the garden (the house has a little garden behind it with a sidewalk and bike racks) and the cellar. he also told us that we could move in as soon as we were approved (vincenzo and his girlfriend, jenny, have already moved to prenzlauer berg).

on tuesday, i submitted the application and all kinds of papers to herr herting at his office- i wanted to do it quickly, in case someone else was interested. his office called me back that afternoon, and we went in on thursday to sign the papers, pay the caution, and get the keys!
so: we officially have an apartment.

things to note: 1. apartments in germany don't have numbers. instead, when mailing something to an apartment, you have to be sure to put the last name of the person that you are mailing something to, and the postman will take all of the mail for that street address and match names to the postboxes. if you are visiting, the person will probably tell you what floor they live on, and all the doors have permanent signs that have the last names of the residents.
2. some apartments actually have kitchens! ok, i already knew this, but: it's really nice to have an apartment with a kitchen. buying a kitchen can be expensive, and we're poor.

the apartment has gas heat, and a gas stove/oven. i'm very excited about cooking with gas. i've really missed cooking over the last few months, as we've been staying with people since the end of july, and except for that one meal i made for my parents, phil's birthday dinner, and a few other things here and there, like baking, i've really not been able to experiment very much. we've been cooking a lot at katja's, but we didn't want to buy a lot of staples or use hers, so my experiments have been limited to basic ingredients.

we decided to stay in katja's apartment til she returns (tommorrow), because she has furniture and pots and pans, things which we do not have. we'll probably get a mattress at some point, and we're waiting til after christmas for the rest. regina has been setting aside stuff for us that she no longer needs (or thinks maybe we could use) in solingen, and i think it's silly to buy things for the next week and a half. at that point, we'll be able to get some more of our stuff (they won't be able to drive it here for a while due to having each broken a left arm! crazy!). then we can start attacking secondhand stores. i'm excited about starting over without as much stuff. i'm hoping that we can pick up a lot of wooden furniture off the street, from people who are throwing it out (this is not good for upholstry. one never knows. . .) or that we can get things from craigslist/newspapers.

the apartment is really nice- two very large rooms (one for us, one for you when you come and visit), one long hallway, a sort of small bathroom with a standup shower- which is excellent, because we looked at an apartment which had a shower in the kitchen (i guess there wasn't any room to put it in in the bathroom?)- and a pretty large kitchen, with a decentsized fridge and lots of cabinets. the kitchen has space for a washing machine, but we'll probably go to the laundromat (which is a few U-bahn stations off, apparently) for now. the bedroom is a weird peachy orangy color and it's not exactly painted really, um, well, i suppose it needs a second coat of something. i want to paint it a second coat of REAL orange. i love orange. still, it's very nice. carpet, windows (which is a plus after the cave in boone).

well, that is all for now. i will post apartment pictures soon!!!! xoxoxo

London!

report: london is buena! fantastic! all good!
we traveled via airplane: departing very very early from schönefeld airport in east berlin on monday morning. i was so cold on the way there that i had to shuffle my feet and skip, sort of like a penguin. phil laughed at me, but my feet were less frozen, so i did not mind.
we arrived in stansted and took a national express 'coach' to london- approximately two hours of driving (on the wrong side of the road, alas). & to see all the pride and prejudice houses in the countryside: quaint!
our hostel, the globetrotter inn, was really fantastic. i wasn't really sure about hostels previously- we had stayed in a few before, but only for a night or so, and always in our own room, so i didn't know what to expect. we shared our room with four other people- everyone had a very awesome fortbunkbed with Secret Curtains. mine was like a treehouse fort. it was the best. one of the guys in our room left after the second or third night to go back to brazil, while one of the guys was living in the hostel (from austrailia). the other two girls were in their gap year, from finland, backpacking for awhile before starting their university studies. the hostel experience was le bien; everyone was super friendly, and aside from having absolutely freezing girlbathrooms (showers were almost difficult- the water was warm, but i thought i was going to die of frostbite during the gettingin-gettingout part), i am all for this hostel.
being around people who spoke english was also nice, for a change. my german is good, and i can understand almost everything that is going on in berlin, but it is nice to let one's brain relax for awhile. phil was super excited about being able to read the signs.
the london underground is very strange. their subway systems (and streets, mostly) are very clean, unlike berlin, where people seem to think it's ok to throw their trash on the tracks. however, after a few months of german efficiency, i think i was sort of spoiled. the socalled tube is crazy! first, we were on our way to the show, and the train skipped our station (for a good reason, which we found out later, but still) and didn't tell us! we thought it was us, so we got out and went back the other way, and we still missed it, at which point we realised it wasn't us, but rather the train. then, the next night, phil swears it said "service delays on the line due to a person under the train," which is also crazy. finally, we're on the train going in one direction and it suddenly stops and announces that it's switching directions. everyone got off. so weird.
the show was really fantastic, although i'm not as crazy about the band as phil. they played all four of their albums over four nights, in order. waiting in line was dreadful, especially since we decided not to wear our winter coats, because carrying them around at a show is never fun. after the first night, we found out that there is a coat check at the astoria, but the line is so ridiculous that we decided to keep to our original plan. although i stopped to get hot tea at a corner store before waiting in line for the rest of the week. all the kids in the audience were super geeky about the band, which makes sense, i guess, because it's not really the sort of thing you'd go see if you were just vaguely interested. the second night (when the train skipped our station) someone got electrocuted while working on the road (apparently, he/she drilled through a main power line, ick) and knocked out the astoria's fire alarm system (as well as the underground signals for the tottenham court road station). alas, the show was rescheduled to friday. it wasn't terrible for us, because we had already planned on staying til saturday, but a lot of kids in line had also come from far away (germany, spain, northern england) and had train/bus/plane tickets to leave on friday. there was a group of german girls in line behind us who had come over just for that night and the night before (their favorite two albums). c'est la vie. phil and i hung out behind the astoria and he ended up meeting the band as they came out after the show was canceled, which was neat. i did not let him follow them to dinner (creepy).
london has so many fabulous buildings. i knew it had a lot of history, but i was unprepared for so many elaborate structures. we saw so many things! we have pictures of it all on our picasa page.
we saw the tower of london, the tower bridge, kensington palace, hyde park, portobello road, the marble arch, some other palaces, buckingham palace, big ben, the parliament building, the science museum (SPACESHIPS!!!), the natural history museum (DINOSAURS!!!) and many other interesting londoney sights.
british english is very funny! there were a couple of times when i had no idea what people were saying to me, and a few times when older people couldn't understand phil. this guy at the show tried to teach me some british words, but i have now completely forgotten them. it was very loud (at the show), which made it difficult to think.
london is so, so, so expensive!! we didn't expect it to be that much more expensive than other places, but it is very unmanagable for poor kids like us. we ended up eating a lot of asian food. . . one night phil made us spaghetti in the hostel (excellent), but cooking in the hostel was sort of impractical if we wanted to see anything in london and be on time to the line for the show.
altogether, i really enjoyed the experience! i have now actually been to england (not just to the airport), which is buena. . . i really liked the city. it's very interesting, and diverse, although i think i'd have to make a lot of money to live there without starving. both phil and i got sick when we got back, probably from eating too little and not wearing enough and being super exhausted from the show. however, it was definately worth it.
xoxo! mand