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