Monday in Germany

Today I bring you the blog from our HOUSE! No more hotel!!! What a joy!

It finally feels like we actually live here now. No more vacation!

I made my own breakfast today, for the first time in 3 weeks...and it was amazing.

Last week we went to the laundromat. Boy oh boy, what an experience! Seriously. We put all of our clothes in what we though was a washer, even poured in the soap. Only to realize 10 minutes later it was a dryer. After we finally figured out how to somewhat make sense of the machines we were stylin'!

Our clothes being washed... how exciting! The washing machine was HUGE. It was a bit expensive though. 8 euro to wash, .70 euro cents to dry. We had to dry 3 times before the clothes were no longer wet. We mixed, darks and whites (my mother would be so disappointed, sorry ma) all went together. So we did manage to wash 3 weeks worth of clothes for about 10 bucks! And we will be making a few more trips there. Our washing machine at our new place will be out of commission for 4-6 weeks! Aye aye aye. But at least we have a kitchen.

Friday we went to apply for my visa. And... drumroll please. All went well! They were fine with all my documents and they gave me a one year visa! They are waiting to process it just until we are able to get a letter from the bank. So there is one small piece still missing but nothing that involves a decision! The decision is already made. :) 

The front of our building! We are on the second floor. The building has a paging system? Is that what they're called? I am not sure, as I have never had one. But there is a button with our name and if it is pushed, we can ask who it is and buzz them in :) so that is kind of fun!

Our new landlords are so very sweet! They got us champagne, and painted us a picture that has USA to EU on it, it is very cute! 

Friday night we stayed in. We needed to rest up for our big day on Saturday! ;) Not really a big day, but a trip to Ikea - so that requires rest. 

I am bad and took NO photos at Ikea. Maybe I am not actually bad, I don't know what there is to see! If you have been to one Ikea, you have been to them all! The process was the same. And even though everything was in German, we could still figure out how to get around. There were arrows - a universal symbol :)! There was not a whole lot of differences. Many of the things I have seen in the US were there. The only difference I saw was more of some things and less of others. In the US, Ikea's selection of kitchen tables is awful. Well here, it is lavish! There were tons, and a lot nicer than the ones in the states. But everything else, pretty much the same!

Since we will only be here a year, we didn't need much. We set out to Ikea to buy some pillows, an ironing board, a drying rack, a few things that were missing from the kitchen, and any other random inexpensive thing that we felt we might benefit from (like an ottoman tray). 

After that we headed to Real. I would consider this like a Walmart or a Target. It was huge and it had everything from produce to TV's. We needed some staples - food for Sunday's dinner only, hand soap, toilet paper. Things like that.

A cart ramp at the Real! This thing was neat! An escalator for you and your cart! The cart wheels had little magnets on the bottom and off it went! (See that Haribo! I wasn't joking when I said we eat too much of it!)

Saturday night we were invited to a BBQ and Beer Tasting at our friend Vanessa's house. She lives in the town right next to Braunschweig. Her brother picked us up and drove us over there. Her family was incredibly sweet and generous for welcoming us over with a wonderful meal! Her dad had over 20 German beers for us to try! We had a great night, and headed home in a cab at 2 in the morning. Let that be an indication of how we spent Sunday. We didn't do a whole lot. It was relaxing and wonderful. It was almost 90 degrees here. And no, we don't have air conditioning. Our apartment stays surprisingly very very cool!

We did cook our first meal though. I was making baked potatoes. I never knew how difficult it would be to read the oven signs.

 

Even with the help of this site I still am not sure I know what they mean. But any who, I have never had a brand new oven, so I was not entirely aware of what was going to happen after I turned the oven on. I let the oven warm up like normal, and then I open it to put my potatoes in and the BIGGEST gust of smoke comes pouring out. And the smell. The smell was awful. I googled, and apparently the first time you turn the oven on this happens, and it's normal. #thankyougoogle

Blake opened all the windows and we went on with our dinner! I am hoping tonight the oven isn't so bad! 

Come back Wednesday to read about my first solo trip to the market! I am off to get the house in order and find spots for our things. :)

Friday and the House

House Number 3!!!!

An overwhelming number of you guessed that :)

I think my writing was biased towards the home that we picked!

We get the keys next Wednesday, and we can't wait!!! It really just seemed the most like home, while each house had little bits of greatness, when we walked in there we both just knew! Plus, it really will be nice to have the extra space to accommodate our guests! :)

If you are wondering what we eat everyday, because I know that I would wonder what you all eat everyday if you lived in a hotel, let me tell you.

OUT... we eat out everyday for every meal and we are really really sick of it! What's a girl got to do to get a grilled cheese or some chicken!!! That is another reason we are very, VERY excited to move. So we can cook!

But, the upside of eating out is that we get to try a variety of places and things. My new favorite food here is Flammkuchen - it is bread dough rolled out incredibly thin with crème fraîche cheese and traditional toppings of onions and bacon. It is glory.

Here is my half eaten flammkuchen. If you google translate that it says tarte, so when I ordered it I truly had know idea what I was in store for!

I will post some random pictures from our days, and show you the very cool place we had dinner at last night!

That is the main office at the Volkshochschule - where I registered (attempted to anyways) for German class! 

*** Update on that, the school is full until October, but I need to be in a class in August in order to get a Visa. We chose this school as it is the cheapest. There is a very large increase in refugees here who are taking the spots in the classes. She put me on the waiting list for the class in July and the class in the middle of August, but said it wasn't likely I would get a spot. We paid for the October class and left. After some searching I found another class at Berlitz, which is another language center - but much more commercial (there are even some in the USA) so the cost is much greater. They offer a class starting in August that is more of a German life class, you learn some of the language, but you also learn how to function in society (how to order off a menu, how to write an email, how to fill out forms - all in German), as well as German History and Culture. In order to enroll in this course you have to take a proficiency exam so they can place you in the correct module, I told her I know nothing so I think were good and she said I still have to take the exam. I go to Berlitz next Thursday at 8am to do just that. After I take the oral and written German test and they see that I was IN FACT not making it up that I can't speak or write in German they will let me register for the course. This course is not too expensive and is going to be the perfect alternative that we need! Next Friday, at 8:30 am I go back to the Braunschweig City Hall with all of my papers and hope they give me a Visa!***

We went to I-Vent Braunschweig last night with our friend Vanessa! This restaurant sits at the very top of a 17 story building! You take an elevator up to the top, and you are seated amongst the glass restaurant. You can see for miles, it was really lovely! What was so different about it was that restaurants like this in the US you see buildings, here it was just so green! I loved the change. 

The restaurant was a Spanish tapas place, so the title of the food was in Spanish and the description in German. I was really screwed! Thankfully Vanessa and Blake came to my rescue. In the US tapas are usually pretty small, so I ordered 3. Well these were huge, I probably could've gotten away with 2. 

Was all pretty tasty! I was not a fan of the top left, I clearly missed the description. 

That's all for today folks!!! We are off to Prague for the holiday weekend here in Germany! I won't be blogging until Tuesday next week - but then I will tell you all about our time in Prague!

Enjoy your weekends, and thank you for reading! <3

Visa's and Other Important Information

Hello!

This post is going to be informative - and without pictures. It will go in detail on how I went PLAN on going about getting a Visa. We're still in the process of mine, so I will update you all on how that works out for me sometime soon!

Blake was assigned a Relocation Manager (RM) through his company. She really has been incredible throughout the whole process and has been our main contact for any and all questions. Monday afternoon she met us in the hotel lobby before we set out to the German Authorities.

During our brief hotel meeting she gave us TONS of information to have/read about Braunschweig (important things like where the hospital is, how to call the police in an emergency, tax information, garbage and recycling and so on) as well as our plan for Monday and Tuesday. She also gave us a little gift, which I know I was WAY more excited about than Blake hehe!

***WHY I loved the little gift*** If you want a shopping cart at the store here you have to pay for it, sort of. You have to put in a euro coin, and then your cart releases, when you put the cart back nicely and clip it to the cart in front of it, it gives you your coin back. Well the RM gave us little cart coins for our key chains! SO you don't have to have a euro coin! I love them! 

 

I am not going to go into much detail about Blake's process because his was very easy and required little to no effort from us. Between his company and the RM, everything was handled, he just had to show up, show documents, sign papers, and voila.

For me on the other hand, it wasn't/isn't so simple!

The RM made 3 appointments for Monday. Two were at the Braunschweig City Hall, and one was at a Bank in town.

The first appointment was to register with the City Hall to get a piece of paper that basically says you live here. Since we don't have an apartment yet, our hotel provided us with a letter, and the RM worked her magic. She was only required to register Blake, but she was able to get me registered too! All I had to do was show my passport. There was no fee for this. We each walked away with a paper that said we were registered and a folder containing information about the city! The RM told us that we would need that paper for our Visa, to open a bank account, to get a cell phone plan and to get Internet. Basically to do anything we needed this paper. The RM is going to change our address with the City Hall when we move in to our place next week (we both signed a piece of paper authorizing her to work on our behalf), she said she would be able to email them and change our address.

At the City Hall, the main floor is where you do things like the above, the RM also said you go there for driving, parking permits, etc. and if you don't have an appointment you can take a number and have a seat - much like the DMV in the States. Since we had an appointment, we walked to the information counter to tell them we had arrived and she told us what # desk would be assisting us.

The second appointment was to apply for Blake's Visa. For this portion we go upstairs and there is a big open room with a lot of tables and chairs. Along the walls of the room are numbered doors. Each room corresponds to a certain section of letters. The first letter of your last name determines which room you enter. We sat at a table and Blake filled out the application he would be using in just a few moments. The RM had one for me too so I could be ahead of the game. She assisted me on filling it out and got me the email address of the person who works with the W's so I could schedule an appointment for my Visa. There is a TV screen where the last name and the room number are displayed. When your name appears on the screen you know it is your turn to go knock on the corresponding door. Blake's popped up, we knocked, went in, RM chatted, they took his fingerprints, measured him in CM and that was all!

The RM asked the woman doing his Visa to confirm what I would need for the Visa I am applying for to ensure that we would be all set, she also gave a forewarning that I would be returning. The RM explained that because of her asking, it should help when I return to apply.

What is NEEDED:
I am applying for a Language Course Visa, which allows me to live in Germany for 12-15 months AS LONG AS I am enrolled and attending language classes. So tomorrow (Thursday) I will go to the Volkschochschule to enroll. This is an adult school, much like a community college in the USA. Classes will begin July 4.

In addition to my school registration, I have to provide a very specific letter explaining my health insurance coverage.
I have pretty decent health insurance that works while I am in Germany. BUT it doesn't include evacuation coverage (coverage that says if I need to go back to USA or to another country for proper care, it will be covered or if I die here that my insurance will cover my remains being returned to the USA - morbid I know - sorry). So I thought crap... NOW WHAT! Well google, that is what. Google is groovy. Apparently I am not the only person in the world who needs such thing.
I purchased additional health insurance coverage to begin in July and to end next April from here. It was fairly reasonably priced, it was incredibly easy to get, and they provide a very specific CLEAR letter that included EVERYTHING that Germany requires the letter to say. How convenient.

Lastly, they need proof that I can afford to live here and that I have enough money to buy a return ticket. 

The RM tells us that I should have NO problems when I return for my appointment. Well there is ONE SMALL PROBLEM, I don't speak German! Thankfully, our friend Vanessa has agreed to accompany me to my appointment and help translate what is being asked of me! So truly there shouldn't be any issues. As a United States Citizen you get 90 days in Germany for just having the passport SO we do have time, but still it is something that we will feel much better about when it is taken care of.

THIRD and Final Appointment:
Like I said before, our RM is awesome! We had time before the final appointment, so we went to a little cafe and had some beer! Then we walked on over to the German Bank.

There was a lot of German being spoke, a lot of papers to sign, a lot of things that I really weren't sure about. And then the next thing you know we have an account. I truly don't think it was that easy and I am still not sure how it works, how we access the online banking, where our debit cards are, how we change our address and so on, BUT we have an account and a CRAP ton of papers in German to explain the above. The cards are being mailed to the hotel this weekend, a long with the online banking part. But the rest I still don't know about and am not sure I ever will. So fine. 

That completes the end of our Monday.