Mein Armes Auto - My Poor Car

To continue the adventure...

We drove to Heilbronn to get a part for the Porsche on Friday night. It's about a half-an-hour away. Sad thing was, when we got there and looked at the distributor cap, it looked the same as the one we had only cleaner. So we were 98% sure it wouldn't fix the car. We went to Ikea. Put it on the car. No luck.

So we shopped for a few other things we needed, and we filled up the van we had driven so we didn't have to come back to Ikea more than once. On the up side, we have furniture now! On the down side, we called a tow truck. But it gets worse from there.

The car was in the parking garage, and tow trucks don't fit in parking garages. So with me steering, and making car noises, and Albert pushing we rolled through the garage. Thank God their exit is a big curly cue thing that I could just coast down. We got down to the outdoor parking lot and a nice German guy thought he could help us. I tried to explain that we knew what was wrong, but he didn't speak a lick of English and I don't speak car in German. He checked it out, asked if we had called for a tow, and we said thanks very much.

The tow truck got the car and followed us home. But our street is tiny. So they stopped at the beginning and took the car off. Another plus, it was cheap! Even cheaper than getting a locksmith to let us into our apartment. But then we had to push the car down our road. Which is ok, except it dips down and then has a slight incline for like 100 feet before our garage. Our neighbors have a driveway that is up, ours is down. Gotta keep looking at the positive here. We finally got it up to the garage and in, it's a tad crooked but that's ok.

Then, our poor muscles had to deal with a little more because we needed to unload the furniture. But we have furniture now! And I can unpack our suitcases!

We were sorely wishing for a hot tub that night. But the car is home and everything is settled. And I have furniture!

Adventures in Deutschland

I'm going to have to write a book about our disastrous adventures here in Germany. Last night, we went shopping at Ikea. We had a lot of stuff and piled it all into our Porsche. Then, Albert turned the key, the car started, and died. We ended up closing Ikea, so there was no one around, and even if there was they couldn't help. The rotor cap is broken, the engine wasn't getting any spark.

Luckily, there was a cart man nearby and I asked him in German if we could leave our broken car there overnight. He said it should be fine, but I needed to go speak with security. Another stroke of luck, a security guard happened to be walking by. He didn't speak English either so I asked again in German if it was ok to leave the car, we would come back in the morning. He said it was fine. I thought I had stretched my German enough for one night, but it doesn't stop there.

Thanks to my friend for checking on the internet where the nearest train was, we walked to the S-Bahn and were two minutes late for the train. We had to wait a half-an-hour for the next one on a very cold night. The only trains that go directly to our apartment are U-Bahns, so we took the S-Bahn to a main train station, Bahnhof. But, our luck had ended there. The U-Bahns and buses were on strike yesterday. No U-Bahns to ride home and it was way too far to walk. There's a hotel nearby with a taxi line, we caught a taxi.

I have really been wanting to practice my German, so I had a conversation with the driver. I asked him if he had made a lot of money that day because of the strike. He said he had only had time all day for one cigarette. But then he said, "Geld ist nicht alles im Leben." "Money isn't everything in life." I agreed.

We finally reached the apartment two hours after leaving Ikea. It was quite the adventure. And I'm so excited that I was able to carry on a small conversation.

Albert is working on finding parts and going back to the car today. Hopefully it's just the spark and not something else, and hopefully we don't have to have it towed.

Update

Just a quick update. Albert and I are settling in well. We're low on furniture, but we have the basics and are comfortable. Nana is sending magazines, Mom McCracken is sending snacks, and Mom Cribley is sending movies...so I think we're all set!

I am starting the last part of my A-level German courses on Monday. I don't have a test until half-way through the B level, and it's only required if I want to work here. But I think I'll take it. Whether or not I work here it will be nice to have a certificate that says I speak German. Let me tell you, it is a very difficult language.

We're hoping to go snowboarding in the Alps sometime soon here. I'll make sure and take pictures. Can't wait to compare them to Colorado mountains!!!

Paint

I'm really having trouble deciding what color to paint my accent wall in our new living room. The couch we want is a dark grey, so I'm thinking of going with a red or blue. Sadly, I didn't take these beautiful rose pictures. But now I'm considering buying roses just to take pictures! Ok, back on track. Here are close to the color choices.


And here is the wall. Don't pay attention to the curtains, the previous tenant left those here, and I can keep them or move them to a different room. There is a lot of light in this room. The floors are a light wood (linoleum). And the wall I'm talking about is on the far right next to the windows. It goes up into the gallery area. Our couch would go against that wall. I'm really taking into consideration the feel of each color.

Blue is a cool color and will make the room feel bigger, even though it already is. It will also have a calming effect. When you see blue, what do you think of? I think of clouds.

Red is a warm color and will make the room feel closer. It makes your blood pressure go up. What do you think of when you see red? Besides red being my favorite color, I think of hot. (I know you can't really think of hot but that's where my mind goes.)

Please let me know what you think! I'm really torn between the two because I've done red a lot, but I like it so much.

Great Weekend

Remind me next weekend that acting my age is very tiring.

On Friday night we went to an Irish bar with some friends. When that was ready to close down at two am we went to a dance club. We only spent about a half hour there and then headed home. I'm not that into drinking, and neither is Albert. We don't particularly enjoy getting smashed. He had a few, and I was the designated driver. It was all just fun. And man was it fun.

Then on Saturday night we met up with some other friends at a Mexican restaurant, yes in Germany. The food was very good. And we talked so long that it was 12:15 by the time we looked at our watches.

So I only got about five hours of sleep on Friday night, and luckily we got to sleep in this Sunday so I got some more sleep. But we changed the oil in the Porsche and put some new floor mats in. We felt productive, and when we came home I went to bed to read. Well, that lasted about ten minutes, and I was out. So now I've been sleeping for the past four hours, and I think I could sleep for ten more.

Time to eat dinner and go back to bed. Gotta get up and start the week tomorrow!

I finished!

I got to 50,000 words tonight on my very first novel. I think ever since I was about eight years old I've wanted to write a book, and this is the first time I've been so close. Now I get to spend the next few weeks looking back through it and deleting, adding, and editing. Don't know where I'll go from there. I will definitely give it some time off so I can have a fresh mind next time I look at it, but we'll just have to wait and see what my next steps are. I want to scream from some place very high (quote of Luigi from the Cars movie).

Lay it out there...

Here comes one of my very rare 'lay it all out there' blog posts. I don't like airing out the dirty laundry, and I suppose this isn't really any big secret or anything, but I usually also don't blog or talk about my feelings a lot.

But I have to say...

I'm exhausted.

- I have Deutschkurs (German course) every day from 8-12. Which is getting increasingly more overwhelming. I'm trying to switch schools for one that is a little bit closer. That's taking a lot of time that I don't have.

- I've been trying to finish this NaNoWriMo novel, and it's getting really hard. If I don't finish it, by the 30th, I will be so mad at myself. It may get to the point where I won't want to touch this book again because I'll blame the book. And I'll be in a slight depression for the next three months. I have to write just over 15,000 words by Monday, ugh.

- Albert is sick, so now I have to worry about him and worry about catching his cold. I really need to go to the store, especially so I can get some soup for dinner tonight.

- The laundry is really lacking. I have piles of clean clothes and piles of dirty clothes all over our bedroom. Those of you who have seen my apartment before know I usually do that anyways, but since we've been in Germany I have kept up on putting the clothes away, until now. It's frustrating to look at it.

- I'm really trying to keep up on making new things for the shop and researching the Deutsche Post system. I finally figured out how many stamps it takes to send to the U.S., but I still don't know how to buy those stamps and put the letters in a postbox instead of taking my letters to the post. And I have a new calendar that I will be listing today.

- The Porsche is registered, but its oil is really bad so we have to change it this weekend. Plus it needs gas now, and that's dang expensive here.

There's more to the list, but it makes me tired to think about it all. So I'll leave you with this little glimpse into my days right now.

On a happy note, I found the brand new Harry Potter DVD for only 9 Euros (that's like 13 Dollars)!!! Yay for movies.

Random note...

Ahhhh!

Today turned into a little bit of a hectic mess. I went to register for German classes, expecting to start on November 30th. But the teacher asked me what I knew and asked if I wanted to start tomorrow since I'm at the level of the current class. I've only missed the first chapter, and I already know everything in it. So, I spent the afternoon hunting for the book. I didn't find it at the first two stores, ugh. So Albert and I went to Konigstrasse to the big buchhaus and found it. Now I have to spend tonight going through the first chapter.

Ironically, after being bored for my first few weeks here, I have again loaded my schedule beyond anything relaxing. I will have German classes from 8 in the morning to noon everyday. I'm still working on my novel for NaNoWriMo. I'm still working for a publisher. And I'm planning on opening my etsy shop this weekend. How do I manage to do that? The dinners might lack a little something these coming weeks, and Albert will just have to forgive me.

Our apartment!

We actually hit a lucky streak and found the best apartment on the first try. It's 100 square meters (about 1,000 square feet). Probably too big for us, it has three bedrooms, but very affordable for its size. I'm in love with it. It has a loft, a balcony, and for Albert's pleasure a garage. He can walk or bike to work because it's only about a kilometer away.

We don't have any furniture yet, not even a mattress, and the essentials are definitely lacking. We didn't ship anything over with us except silverware, a tea pot, and some pictures. But hey, I get to spend my time perusing IKEA!!!


Let's see, in the first picture...Kuche=Kitchen, Eltern and Kind=Bedroom, Balkon=Balcony, WC and Bad=Water Closet and Bathroom, Essen=Dining, Wohnen=Living.

The second picture is the loft and has a gallery and bedroom. The stairs up to the loft are those cool spirally kind.

We're on the top floor (the third) and are the only door up there, so it's like a private entrance. There are only four apartments in the building. It's on a very quiet street and very close to a train station.

I'll post more pictures when we get in there. We move in January 1st.

Reading in Germany

I know you'll all look at that title and say, "You're doing what in Germany!" But the fact is. I'm not a tourist here, I live here now. Plus Albert is at work all day. So I'm doing what I would be doing in Colorado. I'm cooking, cleaning, taking photos, and reading. But so far it's been an odd experience. I didn't think it would be any different than doing it in the states. But with this book it's been shocking. I've read a lot of World War II books in my time. Ranging topics from an American pilot crashing in France, to a holocaust survivor, to a woman who was a Nazi guard. This one, well let's just say it hit me hard.


It's about a little girl in Nazi Germany who is illiterate. The narrator, Death. That alone is one for the record books, and he really makes you kind of pity Death. Death has a horrible job, and that's all it is. But Death is fascinated by humans and their stories. This is the first Holocaust story I've read that doesn't feel like a Holocaust story. We go through the years of the war with this girl, but we see her struggles. Her foster father teaches her to read. She makes friends. They hide a Jew in their basement for a while. They sit through air raids with her reading aloud to calm everyone. She steals books.

It's depicted from the German side. Of course it never condones what Hitler did, in fact her foster family goes against him. But it's not overtly Holocaust. It really focuses on Leisel and her daily life. It is written really well, and truly sucks you in.

The weirdest thing for me...reading a Holocaust book in Germany. I've never been to this country before. And I never thought this would effect me. But as I read through this book I started to think, "That happened here. I'm on that ground." It was very unsettling.

And yet, I went for a walk this afternoon through the farm fields. The countryside is absolutely gorgeous (pictures coming soon). I grew up in a country that hadn't seen war in a very long time. I grew up in a state that has never seen war, maybe a few skirmishes but nothing to the scale of World War II. This is a whole new experience for me, and even though it scares me a little bit, I'm going to embrace it.

First Day in Germany

We flew in yesterday morning. The flight was good. I don't think anyone enjoys flights, but it was ok. We had an extra seat so that helped. Amazingly I didn't need to take a motion-sickness pill or a sleeping pill. Albert barely slept, but he slept hard last night.

We moved directly into our interim apartment. It is very nice. Wide open and very modern. We have a deck and backyard; and wood floors; and cute little radiators in every room.

For some reason I had to get sick. My throat is killing me.

I walked through our little town today and found the market. Everything is in German, and I had a little bit of culture shock. Their trash system is crazy. They have a bin for paper; a bin for organic material; a bin for metals, plastics, and synthetic material; and a bin for other trash. And if you get it wrong, you get fined. Sounds fun, right? I'm a little frustrated, but attempting to be open-minded about it all.

We went to Stuttgart proper last night and found the big street that is their mall. It's kind of like the 16th street mall in Denver. Konigstrasse is the name of the street, King Street.

The cheapest food is Italian. We're very close to the border and a lot of people here speak Italian and German.

Can't wait to see what the next few days, and especially the weekend, bring.

Finally

We leave on Tuesday for Germany. Finally. It seems like it has been forever even though it has only been a few months since the interview. I'm definitely not looking forward to the flight, thank God for sleeping pills. We head to Atlanta and then straight to Stuttgart. It's nine hours over the Atlantic. Ugh. Right now we are just preparing everything including cell phones, our bird, and extra baggage. It looks like Delta only allows one bag, even overseas. How am I supposed to fit my entire life into one bag? We each have two...that'll be quite an overcharge. Oh well. Soon we'll be in Germany getting settled into our new life. I can not wait.

Exploring our new city. Finding an apartment. Buying a car. Fixing up the apartment. And really getting into the new job. It's going to be such an adventure and I thank God every day that He gave us the opportunity. Even just these few weeks in D.C. have brought my husband and I closer. I am so excited!

Updates

Last night Albert and I went to the drag races. He has a 69 coupe Mustang that we have overhauled and put a fancy 427 engine in. Right now it can run 12 second 1/4 miles. That's pretty fast, especially considering with the last engine it only ran 14.5 seconds. I've raced it a few times before, but not since this big engine and fast setup. He let me drive last night. I ran a 13.29 and wish the track had stayed open later so I could have run it faster! He's entering a race on Saturday and then the poor car is getting shoved into a little garage to gather dust for 18 months (and we are headed to D.C.!).

Deutschland

Hallo. Ich hei(s)e Amie. Ich komme aus Colorado. Ich wohne jetzt Stuttgart.

Hello. I am called Amie. I come from Colorado. I now live in Stuttgart.

Things are kind of up in the air. Life is still crazy, and I don't know when it's calming down. Bank accounts, car insurance, traveling with our bird...ahhhh! We should be flying out to Washington D.C. next weekend, but that's not for sure.

I'm looking forward to riding bikes in the German countryside. Hopefully we will have the chance to go to Paris for our second anniversary. I'm very good at picking up languages, but I've never been able to become fluent. German beer (bier) is supposed to be really good. Horses in Germany probably look the same but they have the premier dressage horses. I just can't wait.

Sad thing is, we had a going away party last night and it made me realize how much I really like the people we know. That sounds kinda rude considering, but it just made me nostalgic. I hope we can get to know some people in Germany quickly so we won't feel so alone. And most of our family and friends are planning trips so I'll be busy hosting.

It's going to be great.

What she learns

The Squeaker has learned to point. Now whatever she wants is just a point away. I think she got my camera wet in this picture too. Oh how I love her.

Job

Here's a fun possibility. We might me moving to the country that has this flag for Albert's job. Woo hoo!

Cheyenne

Albert is headed to Cheyenne this Thursday to interview at Echo Star. We shall see. Perhaps soon I will be getting bills with a Cheyenne address attached. Yay!

Time

So many ideas, so little time. Albert says I'm a workaholic, which is probably true. But when I have a job that I make money at, and then I have a job I love, and then I have a job a make money at, and another job I love, what can I say? Some day my life will slow down...but hey, I'm 22. Why should I slow down now?

Yes, I'd love to sit in the mornings with coffee and a book, but who has time for that? And I'd love to spend my days doing what I love, and then having the time to cook dinner for my husband. That will come. It takes patience and the right circumstance. I can wait for that day.

A slide show of my beautiful niece Samantha. The music is by Jim Brickman.