Moving in

For those of you who don't know, Nate and I moved into our new apartment on Friday. It was really quite the day. We showed up on time, 8:30am with our many bags (all toted on the U-bahn, which was quite a chore). The landlord's daughter took us around the apartment and then informed us that a painter was going to be painting today. Thanks for giving us warning!!!

So, we not only had movers bringing in our things, but we also had a renegade painter spewing white paint all over our belongings. I was getting quite irritated as he got paint all over the kitchen table I got from my grandparents as a wedding gift. I was hurridly wiping off paint and muttering, so Nate tried to explain to the painter that this was a "special table". I don't think he got the picture.

He was a sloppy painter, and apparently not a very good one. Several hours later the landlord's daughter came back and said it wasn't good enough. So, guess who is coming back on Saturday for try number 3?! Oh yay!!! Nate and I had other plans, but I guess they won't be happening.

Despite the commotion, we did get moved in and spent most of the day unpacking and sorting. It was a lovely night. We discovered that the dishwasher had not yet been put in, and that all the light fixtures had been removed!! Luck for us I have a hefty supply of tea lights (thank you for those wedding gifts, coming in handy again!) and so we had enough light to find our way to the bed and crash.

On Saturday we got up and started unpacking more boxes. After that got boring we did a lot of fun things like: get a cell phone, get a bank account, sign up for a phone and internet, and obtain our first round of groceries. Let me tell you, grocery shopping is an entirely different story when you don't have a car. And when your fridge is just three little shelves with a freezer the size of a shoebox.

That evening Tom Koch and Kevin Koch rolled into Stuttgart for a visit. After a bit of trouble parking (their car barely fit into our parking spot) we headed off for the Calwer Ecke Brau, a German restaurant that Nate and I really like. There were no traditional tables available, so we sat at high tables with bar stools and ordered our beers and food. Nate got his usual Hefeweisen, Kevin the brewers special, and me my usual Pils. Tom also got a Pils, but as he's not a fan of beer, tried all the others to see if anything would hit his fancy. I believe the Hefeweisen won out. Oh yeah, the food was good too!

After dinner we walked to the main train station, and went up into the big tower to get a view of the city. We then walked into the park towards the area where the old men play chess, cards, and the like. Lo and behold there was an empty outdoor chess board, so Tom and Nate duked it out. I'll spare you the details, but Nate was winning by quite a bit when this old German man came over and started out barking out orders to Nate on how best to finish Tom off. From what we could understand he kept saying.... "kaput!!!(means broken)". Finally he got up and moved one of Nate's pieces for him, and Nate put Tom in checkmate a few moves later.

We strolled by the gelatto stand and walked home enjoying the delicious icecream.

The next morning we walked over to our local bakery and picked up some pasteries and pretzels for breakfast. We ate and then Tom and Kevin headed off for the rest of their European vacation.

We headed to church, and afterwards met this nice guy who spoke some English. He chatted with us for a while at the coffee bar. It was nice to make a friend-- especially one that helped us to understand the recycling process here. More on that later. We ate Italian for lunch and then had another one of those unpacking days. I will put up pictures of the apartment once we get the internet.

FYI: I am using the internet in an internet cafe with a German keyboard. So, I won't be replying to most emails until June 11th when our internet turns on at home. Rest assured, I'm not ignoring you... I just can't reply to it all in my allotted time here!!!