HELLO HELLO YOU BEAUTIFUL PEOPLE
:)
So this is the blog to articulate all the finer points (and possibly less fine points...) of moving to a foreign country.
Step 1: Wonderful husband gets job in desired foreign country. Yay!
Step 2: Realize you have to cut your belongings into 420 pounds and a dog. Sell everything else. Sure!
Step 3: Realize how great both sets of your parents are for not only letting you live with them, but also hanging on to some of your stuff for you. Seriously, the best.
Step 4: Realize you accidentally donated all except a few pairs of shoes. Deep breaths, it's just stuff.
Step 5: Despite all your weighing and re-weighing of stuff, the people take your stuff without question and don't weigh even a single bit of it. Woohoo!!!
Step 6: Manage to not cry when you say good-bye to your family and temporarily good-bye to your amazing puppy
Step 7: Get on a plane. Don't sleep because all the movies offered are way too good.
Step 8: Congratulations! Find a cab and go to a home you've never been to! :D
That's it! Eight easy, simple steps!
Now we're staying in a 3-bedroom living place, apartment type thing (extended hotel thing? However you want to look at it!) until we find out permanent temporary home! :D
Okay, so here's a history of everything that happened yesterday, starting from getting to the new place!!
We went on a walk and successfully did NOT get lost!!! We just walked Oakley a little bit, but poor thing was so tired from the flight he just eventually knocked out on the rug.
We saw a squirrel!!! For those who don't know, squirrels look like foxes here, so I call them foxy foxes. They're bigger than American squirrels, and redder, and have pointier ears - and WAY fluffier tails. They're so cute! We also passed by a bush with tiny little pumpkin-shaped orange berries that were so interesting that I called them pumpkin seeds. I'm pretty sure I said something obnoxious like, "Oh THESE are where pumpkins come from!" So now we call them pumpkin bushes.
I know, Phillip's terrible jokes are rubbing off on me, I'll try to tone it down.
So we needed to go shopping since we had no food in the fridge, or in our tummies. First things first, we found a little schnitzel place!! They. Were. Huge.
Seriously gigantic, we each took one home so we would have them for dinner. Then we went shopping to Rewe, Aldi, and DM. All of which are within walking distance! Same with the Schnitzel place - walking distance. Yay!
For those curious, we ALSO have a DÖNER place near by. Guys. Döner is so. Good.
Also I want to point out that when you're in a foreign country, even the most mundane things are really, really exciting. I took two steps into Rewe and just stared at...like... ready-to-eat food or something. I don't remember what it was. I was just so intrigued. Street signs! Street signs are also very exciting, as I only understand two of them. Literally, two. I can understand kilometers per her signs - very easy, and 'no parking here' because they're blue with a big red mark through them.
The most confusing one is when it says 'not a 30 km/hour zone,' so when you're leaving a neighborhood it says you're no longer in the 30 km/hour zone BUT THEN WHAT SHOULD I DRIVE?!
To be honest I've driven in a big block. Twice. I stalled in the same spot, twice. Embarrassed? Not really, it was actually really funny, we like imagining what people are saying about us as the car shakes when we shift gears or we stall in a turning lane.
Mundane things. VERY EXCITING.
So we walked Oakley, again. We came home and laid down for just a minute. I remember Phillip getting up to go heat up our schnitzel for dinner, and then... I woke up again. At 12:00am.
Phillip ate my schnitzel, for those of you who are curious.
So! I got ready for bed, at 12:00am, and then fell back asleep at 12:30a. Then we slept.. and slept... and slept. Until 8:30, when Phillip luckily set an alarm for!
So Tuesday we met with our relocation agent - we're officially citizens of Erlangen! Which is good, because we're theoretically moving to Herzo in about a month so I think we'll have to change that all again. We also got our rental car, a bank account set up, SIM cards for our phones, and went to the Adidas Neo store. We promptly found about 500 things each that we wanted, unsurprisingly.
More walking the dog, and then we got döner for lunch that day! And dinner. They're always surprised when I say I like it spicy, it's pretty cute.
Wednesday became known as the 'great quest for hangers day,' where no one in Erlangen knew where we should go to find hangers. Spoiler alert: Ikea is fifteen minutes away. My wonderful sister reminded me of that, and away we went! We also found dog shampoo and dog food, and Oakley got quite a nice little bath. By nice little bath, I want it to be noted that he does not like baths and generally just stands there and tries to escape when he can. It's truly a two-person job.
That gets us to today! Nothing major happened today... except we went to Nuremberg! Let me tell you. Driving in the city is a little terrifying, and I wasn't even the one doing it. There's one point where there are about six roads coming together, which means this intersection had about twelve choices we could have taken. 'Go straight' suddenly becomes meaningless and I just rapidly point and pray I'm gesturing wildly towards the correct one.
But we found the Hauptmarkt, which is kind of like a massive craft fair. So, I love every second of it. We went to lush and got my face wash, got flammkuchen and a crepe for lunch, and came back home. Oakley met four new dogs today, and played well with all of them! He's now tiredly laying on the couch next to me. He's only allowed on the couch when good, for those of you who are curious, and only when one of us is on there with him.
We've been watching Legend of Korra. I know that's just a random side note, but I think he's enjoying it. Phillip got to go to the Adidas gym today, and we're very excited to see how it was. I should be able to go once he actually starts working we think, or at least be able to pay for a membership - we'll see how that goes!!
Not much else exciting here. I think we're having döner for dinner, since it took Phillip a solid hour to find the gym in Herzogenaurach. But we're getting better at the buying for the day and cooking right then type of thing, our fridge is pretty bare with just staples. Which is really only milk, cheese, lyoner, and eggs. They don't have egg beaters/egg whites here - for those of you who know much of anything about Phillip, you understand this is devastating.
Sorry this first post was so long! Welcome to the last three days of my life as we get accustomed to the German life! :)
<3Kelley+Phillip
PS Phillip got a toothbrush that looks like it's growing a sea urchin out of it. Very terrifying.
