living in berlin

well, everything so far is going fantastic. we have had a few Adventures in Berlin.

progress:
1. we went to the Auslanderbehörde at first to try and see about our visas, but were told that we needed an "anmeldung" from the B\ürgeramt, which is basically a piece of paper that says that you live at whatever address in germany in order to make an appointment (they have to put your information into the computer at the Bürgeramt so that the Auslanderbehörde people can access it). so we went to the Bürgeramt in Prenzlauer Berg, which is not that far from our apartment. i was really surprised at how easy it is to register yourself- you don't even need anything to prove that you live at the address! we just told them where we lived and the name of the girl who is on the lease, and they found it in the computer and added us. crazy! then we went to get health insurance, which is mandatory here. it seems to shock the germans when i try to explain to them that we don't have health insurance because it's prohibitively expensive for normal people in the united states. they are immediately confused, as if it is unimaginable that an entire nation of people are allowed to live undisturbed without proof of health insurance. i think it's a good sign, personally. so:
2. we went across town to the health insurance office of Hanse-Merkur- it was recommended by a guy in another blog, but it was a complete failure. the lady was mostly mean and she did not believe that we had recently arrived in the country. i showed her my passport and she was still skeptical. weird lady.
3. we went to an internet cafe and did some quick research, and ended up going to the offices of a super nice lady at DKV, which is the best (and, possibly, only) option for foreigners. we are hoping to hear back from them sometime next week.
4. i went to the Auslanderbehörde again yesterday to try to make an appointment again, now that i have my Anmeldung. i kind of like it there. all the other foreign people stand in a long line and talk in about a thousand different languages and they all have plastic folders (which confused me at first, but then i realised how much the germans really love paper and paperwork). i have an appointment in a few weeks to go back and (hopefully) get my visa processed. o hope hope hope.

phil started language school on mondae, which is cool. this way he can talk to people without me, which is important.
we are in the process of looking for a permanent apartment, as well, which is kind of interesting- we went and saw a bunch of apartments. most of the ones in cool neighborhoods are really small and expensive. we finally found this italian guy on craiglist who wants to move closer to his new job and needs someone to take over his lease. we went to check it out- it's a really nice place, two big rooms, and although it's kind of far from the middle of town, it's about ten feet from an U-bahn station, which is awesome. the italian guy is super nice, and got very excited about italian culture. he made us mocha? expresso? (his english and german were not that good) and gave us some olive oil to taste. he really likes jimi hendrix and once got to see roger waters, although he did not get to see rage against the machine in rome (the conversation was a little tricky due to language barriers). i sent a letter off yesterday about the apartment, so we'll see what happens.
sarah is coming through town tommorrow morning, which is le awesome.
it snowed all week here. it is cold and there is a lot of precipitation. falling rain, falling snow, etc. and it is sort of wet. phil swears that it is mostly "not that cold" but i am always frozen. i got some really buena-buena rainboots from allie before i left (to replace the ones she already gave me that are In Evidence) which are superuseful in all of this wetness.

i suppose that is all for now. adios, xoxoxo!

kite grocery shopping at plus!

it took us forever to buy groceries today! we made a list, and then wandered around for about forever looking at all the things. . . these weird security guys dressed all in black were walking around in circles staring at us like we were crazy as we tried to figure out what was in the salad dressing (weird stuff) or read all the soup lables to see if there was meat in ("this one has smoked salted pig," i said)

grocery stores here are different than in the us- they are overall much, much smaller, and have only one or two different brands to choose from (maybe a few more for some items, like cookies). not all grocery stores have everything you might be looking for. for example, we could only find one brand of canned vegetables, and they only had one kind of beans (kidney). also, they don't always put all of one kind of item together. the dairy case was separated by brand, not by food type, so all the yogurt was all scattered around the back of the store, and the flour was in three different places, which makes price comparison tricky. also, (sorry, space chicken) they did not have peanut butter at Plus. today, anyway. maybe tomorrow?

all in all, i think we did pretty well, and i got to have chocolate ice cream, about which i was so so happy. . . still, it is difficult, after being used to all of those giant harris-teeters with six kinds of every imaginable thing. . .

flights, weddings, berlin, apartments.

hello everybody!

we're back in germany, after a very excellent excursion to the united states of america.

allie & joe's wedding was fantastic: allie was so pretty and the dancing was super. they are absolutely good together (!) & the whole thing went very well and i was le excited to be able to be part of the experience.

thanks to my lovely, young & beautiful parents, we hung out in raleigh for about two weeks. when we got home we had dinner with our awesome neighbors. a few days later we went to kaye's school to give a talk about living in germany to her german 2 class, which was tres bien (i felt kind of cool, as in, yes, i do live overseas). it was very nice to see my family. xoxo to mom & dad & nike & space chicken & liloface. while we were in raleigh, we hung out with stephanie, allie, and family, and went to see allie's kids' show with dana at wake forest high school, which rocked. we went to a girl scout reunion dinner the night before i left, which was neat: i hadn't seen most of everyone in practically forever.

there were some people i didn't get to see while we were in raleigh and that was kind of sad, but we really didn't have tons of time, alas, alas. it was really good to see my family, and i hope that everyone plans to come overseas and visit if this works out and we get to stay here for a long time. . .

on the day we ended up flying out, dana met us at the airport (so wonderful) and took us all speedily through security- it's really nice to have someone at the gate with you: i almost forgot about it in this post-9-11 airport state. we got to fly first class again(!) which rocked, although this time we declined all alcohol (it was hard! they keep pressuring you! "just one glass of champagne," they say sneakily. or: "what wine will you be drinking with dinner?")
it was definately harder leaving this time as it feels altogether more permanent.

we got back to duesseldorf at around seven thirty in the morning local time. we waited for our many, many suitcases and then caught the S-bahn (train) to solingen, where fred came to pick us up at the station. it was a lot easier (on the train, with all the luggage) than we suspected it would be, mostly because the S-bahn doesn't have steps up- it's more like a long-distance metro or aboveground subway or something. i cannot think of what this is called in english. alas.

once we were back in solingen, phil (very unsleepily) went to work on some renovations in an apartment for a friend of fred & regina, and i (very sleepily! ick, jetlag) started to look for a temporary apartment in berlin.

i didn't expect to move to berlin so quickly, but i didn't find that many apartments available that weren't tourist apartments, weekly rentals, super expensive, or only available from march to april of next year. when i finally found someone that wanted to rent for the next month, it was friday afternoon, and the girl who wanted to rent was leaving on saturday, and said that if we could be there before lunchtime, we could have the apartment for 450 euro. which isn't super cheap (but also isn't super expensive), and it has heat, internet, nice furniture, etc. and is clean, which is very, very nice. (some of the apartments i was looking at online were not at all clean. not even kind of clean).

we left saturday morning via train and got to berlin around 11 am. the apartment is near the prenzlauer allee S-bahn station, not really all that far from alexanderplatz, in is mostlikely east berlin. everything worked out excellently with the apartment- we went there, gave her the money, she gave us the keys, and then we left so she could finish packing for her trip. when we got back at five (after exploring the neighborhood), we almost couldn't figure out the key to the door ("o no," i thought)! we got in downstairs but the apartment door seemed completley stuck. we called katja, who was at the airport, and she laughed and said that we have to pull the knob as we turn the key, which worked (thankfully; i was imagining sleeping on the stairwell). . .

plans for the future/next steps: 1. apply for visas (i'm following this guy's advice, because it's the most complete info i've found so far, except that i have to apply without a residence permit- we don't have a real address- which shouldn't be a problem) and visiting the office tommorrow while phil applies for his student visa (a lot more straightforward than my weird english freelance visa) and as soon as i have that, i can start working part time for all these companies that have said they would hire me to teach some classes once i have the right paperwork. 2. get an actual apartment: we need a visa to do this, but i've already started looking online and in the papers

xoxo, more later!

so many things!

well, to begin with, i'm in the usa. temporarily, of course, for lovely allie's wedding. we flew first class (again!!!!) thanks to dana, which rocked. they have really nice blankets. and cookies. and sleep!
since i last posted, we went to berlin once again, where i had two job interviews, to frankfurt, and to braunschweig.
berlin was nice: this time we got to see a little bit more of the history: we walked really quickly past the berlin wall. we stayed in an even less expensive hotel (we're getting good at this!). my job interviews went ok. the first one was for a call center operator, which seemed boring, and they were not too happy that i couldn't start november first, so i think that was pretty much a no. the second one was for a really awesome kid's language school, and i loved it. the lady is super nice. she said that she cannot write me a visa letter but that she will definately give me work, and so i am going to apply for a special freelance english visa when i get back to germany- i finally got information about how to apply. i'd been trying to call their offices for weeks to figure out if this mysterious freelance visa (that i read about on the internet all the time) actually existed. it turns out that their offices have been on strike for weeks. alas. anyway, it's a special visa for english teachers and artists and it's apparently very easy to get if you are an american with experience teaching. we'll see what happens.
frankfurt was pretty cool: we saw crystal castles, along with two other groups (one of them was not good. i think they were called shitdisco: the second was called metronomy and i really liked them. they had lights stuck to their shirts and one of them danced like a robot.) phil was all starryeyed over alice glass, and i met some nice kids from frankfurt.
braunschweig was awesome! we went to the international world championship breakdancing competition. practically all the kids in the audience breakdanced like crazy and everyone was so super excited. before the stage show, there were circles of kids breakdancing all over the place. there were these really cute 3 and 4 year old kids that would breakdance in the circles, too. it was excellent. the us team performed very poorly. however, practically everyone else was all stylish. after the show was over, we went back to the train station to wait (braunschweig is kind of a smaller town, and there's not too much going on normally at 1 in the morning, and the next train to solingen left at 6:40 am). there were breakdance kids everywhere! at the train station, a dj had set up tables and this guy was playing the drums and there were breakdance circles and it was really wild. there was an 'official' afterparty at some bar that we didn't go to: however, i cannot imagine that it was very interesting compared to the train station. at about four in the morning we took a small nap (all these very smart kids had brought sleeping bags and were sleeping all over the place) and then we went back to solingen. we got home at around noon.
well. that's all i can add for the moment, as i'm sort of hungry and i want to eat breakfast.
xoxo to everyone!

birthdae!!!

hello everyone! thanks so much for all the birthdae wishes. it was really lovely. i got to have turkish falafel for lunch and then i got: one very good ice cream sundae (chocolate, of course) and a book (my two very favorite things; books and chocolate ice cream) and i got cards from all over the planet and telephone transmissions and phil made me dinner (which was very good and included broccoli, which i love) and it was altogether the best perfect sort of birthdae.
i am feeling sort of aged, but i suppose that happens and i will attempt to get used to it. it is slow going. alas, 25!
tommorrow we are going to berlin for more job interviews, in which i will know more grammar!! and hopefully be more sucessful. and employed. !?!?!?
xoxo & love

berlin!

while we were in zurich, i got several phone calls about jobs that i had applied to, so we decided to take a detour on our way back to solingen and stay overnight in berlin, so i could go to some interviews. we stayed in a really clean and fairly cheap hotel/hostel called A&O, which had free breakfast. it was fairly quiet and the room was nice, although the elevator didn't work past the 6th floor. it wasn't too far from downtown (we managed to walk to the middle of the city that night in about 40 minutes).

altogether, i had three interviews. the first was in a real estate financing office as a bilingual secretary/project manager, and although the people in the office were super nice, it was a little over my head. i thought i did pretty well until they asked me to translate some real estate documents which i didn't even really understand in english. alas. it seemed like it would have been really well-paying but sort of boring, so i wasn't too disappointed when i got an email yesterday saying that they picked someone else. the second interview was with a tutoring school, and it was pretty cool. i liked the school and the lady who runs it, and she offered me a freelance contract. the only problem is that they don't issue contracts for visas, but it would be great as a part time side job. the last interview was with a language school- it was supposed to be for a receptionist position but she got excited that i had so much teaching experience. i didn't do super well on the grammar questions, mostly because i don't really know the names of grammar tenses: that's not something we focus on when teaching public school ESL. still, she wants me to come back for a second interview (after i study grammar tense terminology) next week. that school does help with visa paperwork, which is cool.
i have two more interviews next week as well- one with a kindersprachschule, a language school for kids, and one as an english-speaking callcenter agent. the call center thing isn't super exciting, but i really want to stay, and i am pretty suer that that job will give me a letter to complete my visa paperwork, so i guess we'll go back to berlin again- i'm hoping that after this, maybe i'll have a job. . .that night we went to a really neat thai/viet restaurant and sat in these excellent chairs. it was really fun, even though the waitress spoke practically no german and just a tiny bit of english. she got excited when i tried out my two sentences of vietnamese! i told her that i want to visit vietnam someday and she thought that was really cool. i hear that it's such a beautiful country.

that night we took a night train back to solingen- the earlier evening trains had long layovers and we thought this one would be nicer, because it was a much shorter trip, even though it left at 12:23 pm. the unfortunate part is that we didn't know that you need reservations for night trains, so we had to pay on the train (we didn't find this out until we were about to board! it was crazy). there were two polish or maybe russian or maybe italian businesslooking guys who lost their tickets, so we all looked together for the onboard ticketman. the train employee selling tickets was nice, and he found us a sleeper car by ourselves. i've never slept on the train before- it was excellent. and cozy. we got back at about seven in the morning, took the bus home, let ourselves in, and went to sleep. anna, fred & regine are on vacation in sardenia for fall break, and won't be back until the 11th, so we're watching the house for them.

xoxo!!!

aha! schlossburg, zurich

many things have happened since i last wrote something here.

to begin with, i've posted all of our pictures in this web gallery collection, so that you can have a more um whole & rounded view of our complete experience. i'll keep posting a few pictures here on this page, but it takes forever and i can only do a few on each post.

the last thing i wrote about was going to Köln, i think. the next weekend julie & johannes came to visit, which was very neat: they went on the norway trip several years ago and i really like them. johannes brought his very large dog over, which was awesome: i wanted a very large dog, but phil says i don't walk fast enough. apparently this is important if you want to have a very large dog. anna came home for the weekend again, which was very cool. she doesn't live very far away, so she comes back often, and regine is helping her with her master's thesis, which she has finally finished & turned in to be printed (!!!).



saturday we went to schlossburg, which is the local castle. (local castle!). there were lots of people dressed up like it was the middle ages doing some kinds of demonstrations, which was neat. the castle has a museum and it is also used for events (dinners, luncheons, charity stuff, business stuff). because it has practically always been in use, it has a lot of renovations and modern adaptations, but it has a really interesting collection of old stuff from all around solingen. the awesomest part is that it has a skilift (seilbahn!) that you can take up to the top (it is on a hill). this is also the scary part.




that tuesday we left for zurich. we decided to get eurorail passes after we started looking online at train tickets (because passes are actually cheaper if you plan to do a lot of traveling & you don't want to book tickets weeks in advance), and therefore had to wait til the fedex man delivered them. the city is beautiful! phil was super excited about sarah's school, which is all hightech and has lots of cuttingedge research. sarah and rene have a very cute apartment. they're only a few tram stops from downtown zurich, and it was super easy to get around the city.

zurich is very clean. we mostly took only the trams, which are like streetcars, i suppose (i'm not sure what the english word for it is, but they run on tracks in the road and they are connected via a ladder-looking thing to electric cables suspended above the streets).

the first day we were there, these girls stopped me on the street and talked to me in some weird language, so i asked them if they spoke german, which seemed to puzzle them. they were actually speaking swiss german, which i cannot understand at all. (i thought it was czech; i told rene and sarah this and they laughed so incredibly hard: apparently the swiss really dislike when you ask them to speak german, because they think they are speaking german). anyway, they turned out to be from a local free daily publication and they wanted to take my picture to put in their style section! it was really funny; they asked me all these weird questions about what stores i got my clothes in (thrift stores? katie's closet? i don't really remember?) and how much they cost. i'm not really sure when i will be in the paper. unforunately, that means rene has to read blick, which is not exactly top-notch literature. i'll keep everyone posted, if i ever show up.

we went to some really interesting museums in zurich, including the swiss national museum and the kunsthalle, which has a lot of very fantastic and international art. we got a 72 hour pass for all transportation & museums, so we took this really beautiful (although cold) boat tour on lake zurich, which was stunning. this nice but crazy old guy kept talking to us in the swiss dialect (switzerdeutsch?!) i think he was trying to tell us what to take pictures of. or what we were looking at. it was hard to tell.



altogether, it was buena! i have a lot more to write but i think i'll put that in a different post, for convience. xoxo!