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

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!