Interesting Saturday

Finally some good perspectives, or at least a most enjoyable day with the girls!

After a first week of getting up before the sun I took some horizontal time and got up just after 9, after the usual internet news reading and some Saturday morning relaxation I got all pimped-up for the interview and there we went. Two wrapped caesar salads (from McDonalds) and 40 kms later we arrived in the Stuttgart southern suburbs.

Ice Skating - Stuttgart

Although I am starting to be able to make simple conversation it is still a big issue to have an interview exclusively in German, anyway I would say it went pretty good and we are in a good position to get the apartment. The Germans are an interesting people, besides the winter tires thing I mentioned in the last post, when they are renting an apartment they interview the interested persons and even ask for documents that can guarantee their financial capabilities for paying the rent. It was pretty much like a job interview, only I had to bring the whole family into it.

In fact, only the possibility of having this apartment issue solved put me in a lighter mood and I could finally enjoy the -2°C temperature outside.

On a money spending rampage I bought a portable DVD Player/TV Receiver for the car and the long awaited iPhone, adding the food and entertainment costs, and ending up with the parking fee, I figure I will have to work an extra month this year…

The visit to Stuttgart finished with a couple of hours of ice skating with my daughter that made me the most happy man in the whole world! The sound of her happiness made me again realize what is the purpose of all this, the uncertainties, the sacrifices, the long waits and all the not so good stuff we’ve been through lately. While driving back “home” to Heilbronn I looked back and could again see her smile while watching the cartoons in her new DVD player and felt this was the best day we had in the last couple of months.

Back in the pleasant climate of the room we currently live in, we dreamt of happy endings and peaceful times while testing the new gadgets, and quickly a week of 800 kms of driving, stressful house hunting and other issues came upon us and… a lot of “Z”s were made… zZzZzzZZzz.

Ignorance Is (supposed to be) Bliss

After my interview last Monday I felt the pressure coming in again. Even before knowing I had to start this next Monday I already felt that I had to be quick to handle this issue with the apartment, so I spent yesterday’s afternoon and today looking for a new place to live and finally have some peace… hopefully.

As usual, all good comes to me… after some considerable amount of pain and trouble. So I am now taking the pain because nobody from the real estate agencies speak any English… adding it to the fact that I don’t know anything about the cities and the areas it makes my apartment issue look like a big treasure hunt. The upside being that there are no bad areas in the small cities and just some less good areas in the bigger ones (at least around here). The downside, besides the language clash and my lack of social knowledge of this people, is that the agencies charge large amounts of money to make the rental contracts and I have no kidneys left to sell… (one was for the car, the other I am saving for the coming christmas time).

Anyway, as always a solution will be found and this will all be part of a family reunion chat along with some drinks.

For the time being I will continue to spread around my awful German and hope my ignorance will bring me some happiness in the shape of a nice apartment!