New Realities III

First to reassure everyone, the terrorist plots in Germany that you may have recently read about have not affected us in any way. We are still very welcomed here and sense that we are very safe.

We are now in our new apartment and so grateful to finally be home. We continue to discover those little things in everyday life that let us know that we aren't in Washington anymore. Living here has also affected some of our behavioral patterns in interesting ways. Take for example our latest trip to the store. Marktkauf is a large department store just on our side of the French/German border. Being the German town closest to both Switzerland and France, we get a lot of cross-boarder traffic because many things are less expensive here than there. We took the bus (2.20€ one-way per person = ~$5.00) because Marktkauf is about a about 1.5 miles from home, we had put in a full day at school and we wanted to get to the store before closing. We wandered around the store for about 90 minutes - we still go into sensory overload in the really big department stores - everything is in a different language... Since we have just moved in, we are trying to fill in some necessary items: clothes drying rack (a.k.a. our dryer), trash can, wall clock (don't want to be late for school!), organizing racks for our cupboards, etc. Anyway, we picked up a few items and walked over to catch the bus only to discover that we had missed it by just 2 or 3 minutes and the next one doesn't come for 20-25 minutes - oh bother. So, rather than go back inside or just sit and wait, we decided that it would be quickest to walk home the mile and a half. Here I was, carrying a 2 ft. x 4 ft. drying rack, wrapped in plastic, under my arm (luckily there wasn't much wind because that rack made a great sail...). We mused that back in the states, we would never have walked 1.5 miles just because it was quicker than waiting for something - we would just go into the nearest Starbucks, drink a latte and hang out. My, how things have changed...
Here is a picture of our apartment and the building in which we live (Take note Neiferts for when you come to visit!). We live just above the Optik shop on the 1st floor (2nd floor US). You can see that our apartment gets great light from the wall of windows on our west side. We have a set of french doors leading out to our balcony which is just in the shadow of the building picture. Our apartment is small, just 52 sq. m. or about 550 sq. ft. (about 1/4 of the size of our last home) so we are working hard to optimize our storage space. It is quite the challange. The good news is that our couches can also be used for extra beds if we have company (there is also a convenient hotel nearby...)

Another new reality is that one must be careful of the cheese one buys. Delynn and I have a bit of an inside joke - our favorite travel show, Rick Steves, had an episode in Paris where he went to a cheese shop (fromagerie) with a female Parisian friend. At one point, the woman takes some cheese in her hands, takes a deep whif and exclaims: "It smells like the feet of angels!" - this never fails to give us a chuckle. Anyway, we bought some cheese the other day that promised to be "kräftig" which roughly translates to "full-bodied" or "bold". Well, full-bodied doesn't begin to describe our experience. I started making lunch for school (we make it the evening before to save our precious morning time) and opened up the cheese package. It filled our small apartment with its "full-bodied boldness" which I considered strong but Delynn considered toxic. When I quipped that it just smelled "like the feet of angels", Delynn soberly countered that it smelled more like "the dirty diapers of angels..." She even threatened to not each lunch with me the next day. I finished making my sandwich, wrapped it securely in cling-wrap and stuck it in the fridge. I also double wrapped the remaining cheese and stuck it in a zip-lock bag for safe-keeping. The next morning, the fridge reeked! Oy! Even I was getting offended. We ended up throwing out the cheese (luckily it was garbage day), vowing never again to fall for "bold" flavored cheese.

Finally, I have some other pictures of the staff (taking their German placement test), a wonderful family from our school, the Hinshaw's, and Rachael with Shauna on her birthday. The RIA family is really wonderful.