Work is work, Sundays are the worst, and I hate my toilet

SO, sorry for the lack of posts, it has been a busy couple of weeks. I am now going to catch completely up to the current situation, let's see if this works.

I started at work on a Monday.

Favorite black slacks, check.

Best plum button up shirt, check.

Best black pumps, check.

Excited, Check.

Nervous, Check.

Public Transportation pass, check.

Being on time for my first day, ....oops

So I was a bit late (10 minutes past 9) but I dont think anyone really noticed. It wasnt only my first day. Over Christmas, the office moved to a new location, so there were people wandering around everywhere, getting situated, unpacking boxes, and looking just as confused as I was for most of the day. My boss is NH and super nice. He walked me around a bit to introduce me to people whose names I did not have a prayer at remembering. Of course it being the first day back from a nearly 3 week long Christmas vacation, there was alot of work for NH to catch up on, so I had some down time to sit at my desk and get things set up for myself. My computer was nowhere near set up. I had no access to the email system (Lotus Notes), no access to the drive that my teams projects are saved on, and no Office products (i.e. no PowerPoint, Excel, or Word) so that if I needed to read over something, I could not open it.

The first team meeting also took place this morning. I was happy to get in and get introduced and caught up on the projects. One problem. All. In. German. Here is an interesting fact. Melanie understands German when her parents speak it, and when most people speak really slowly and deliberately. Apparently Melanie does not understand when people speak German regularly and in a business setting. It was about an hour and a half's worth of meeting, and by the end of it i was seriously considering spending the rest of the day sitting in the bathroom with a German dictionary and a box of tissues. When I got back to my desk, totally dejected and my head spinning, my email was set up. Great! Now I can at least get emails and write emails out if I have time. One problem. Well... two. Never used Lotus Notes. It's all in German. And call me crazy, but i never learned the words for "save contact" or "set up a new meeting" or "accept meeting invitation" in my German classes or in listening to my parents for 26 years. So most of the rest of the day I spent playing "trial and error" on Lotus. I may or may not have sent the entire company an email with gibberish, but i figured out how to make folders and send emails and delete them.

I need to mention too, Germans are causal. Most people were wearing jeans this day. I have to say I looked smashing in my "first day" outfit, but clomping around in my 3.5 inch heels while everyone else was wearing sneakers or boots, I think I stuck out a bit....

My saviour for those days was really Louise. She was ( i say 'was' because she has since departed to study in Spain) the intern for the team and sat in my office. She is from England and blessed me everyday for the last couple of weeks by speaking English to me and encouraging my German.

Since then, things have gone really well. My German is improving and I am getting involved in projects and (hopefully) making a good, positive impression along the way. I know i have a ways to go, but I keep showing up, which is always a good thing.

So i work those 5 days a week and unfortunately, with every weekend comes a Sunday, which for me ....SUCK.

SUCK Sunday #1.

Saturday was a bunch of fun. Went out with Seth and Tootie and met some more of their friends. I ended up hanging out with an awesome couple, Frank and Sabine. We stayed out til about 3am. We went around to some great bars in Nuremberg and I tried absinthe for the first time! Not nearly as mind altering as i thought it would be, that green fairy following us around the rest of the night was super cool. Anyhow, looking forward to a nice long sleep in on a lazy Sunday, i woke up at 8 am. A.W.E.S.O.M.E. I laid in bed for a minute and heard rain outside. Great. I am up after about 4 hours of sleep and it is raining outside, so REALLY no reason to be awake. I thought getting up to go the bathroom might help me go back to sleep, so i got up without putting my glasses on (because then i really would be awake). In walking to the bathroom, I pass the kitchen and hear a distinct *drip, drip, drip*. Hmmm. It is raining outside, but this sounds like it is raining insideee....... I detour to the bathroom, and because of lack of sight (i.e. glasses) i just see that the kitchen floor is glimmering... as in when the sunshines on a lake glimmering. You have GOT to be kidding me. I knew what was wrong, but I ran back to my bedroom and grabbed my glasses and ran back to the kitchen to see the near waterfall falling from my kitchen ceiling. Ok not waterfall... more like steadily dripping leak from the Hoover Damn. Operation complete panic commencing in 3....2.....1. I called the landlady, no answer.. of course... it is 8am on a Sunday. I pull ALL the pots and vessels out of the cabinets and arrange them on the floor trying to catch as much of the water as possible. Naturally it is not coming from one spot but along the entire beam that runs along the ceiling in the kitchen. So water is collecting in the vessels and it aint pretty. It is yellow and grimy and just... unnatural. The landlady calls back and says she will send her husband over in about 2 hours. Awesome. I run downstairs to my neighbor who (thankfully) speaks English and just so happens to work for Gfk as well. She said she would come up when the landlady's man came because he speaks no English and I wanted to make sure there was no confusion. All in all, mess got sorted out, so much snow and rain had soaked through the roof causing the leak.

SUCK Sunday #2. Another fun night out with Frank and Sabine (saturday). Big plans for Sunday include: Sleeping in, not waking up to a leaky ceiling, sleeping in. Sleeping in goal not achieved, oh well, couch is here will sit down for some TV and take a nap, get up turn on heat........... no heat turning on..... hmmmmm.... no heat, oh wait.. the pilot light is out... well.... how do you get it back. its 9am... 6 hour time difference... approximately 3am in the States. I dont think my lack of heat is a grave enough issue to wake the parents at 3am. I have alot of blankets and a radiator in the hall. Kein Problem. I finally got ahold of my neighbor who so graciously came upstairs and helped the stupid American turn the heater back on, Monday night.

Sundays seem to be all wrong. Things go wrong. There isnt anything going on, so it is usually the time when i stop and take stock of Melanie. And of course this is the day I think about my friends and family State-side and how much i miss them. Most of the week i dont need to think about it because I have work and people to meet and things to do and beer to drink. Sundays are the hard days. But hards days are to be expected.

And what is a post without a little bathroom humor? POOP DISCRETION IS ADVISED HERE: If you think girls dont poop/would like to continue to think girls dont poop or just dont want to read about poop, I would consider not reading any more of this post :-) But please visit again!

I hate my toilet. I dont know who designed it but they should really rethink their career paths. I have not seen any toilet anywhere in Germany like this. Most toilets are just like a big bowl filled with water and has a seat. You can do your business, clean yourself, and flush blissfully unaware of what is in the toilet. Not mine. There is a small well with water at the front of the toilet, but the middle of the toilet is, what i can only describe as, a platter. A flat surface that displays the by product of delicious German food being processed by the human body. It is unavoidable. You have to look, hating yourself for the two seconds it takes to flush the toilet and cursing the guy who created this infernal toilet. Let's face it ... it was a man... who else would want to make sure you see your poop before it disappears? Honestly.

The First Weekend

Packing up your whole like and moving across the Atlantic is not nearly as easy as you might think (ha ha). All of these decisions need to be made about what goes and what doesnt, and, invariably, that one thing you decided you would definitely not need, you find that you need it approximately 3 days after you arrive. The other problem is also if you shop at Ikea to furnish your first apartment and then go to another country to furnish your apartment, you end up buying the same things again knowing FULL WELL that the piece is sitting in the U.S. in a closet not being used. Not a big deal, but buying something that I already own is a bit of a pet peeve.

I digress.

So, one thing that was totally out of the question for me to bring was a TV. I was not particularly attached to my TV in the States so not a big deal, but just means I was on the hunt for a TV. When we arrived in Nurnberg, Ute (from the relocation agency) told us about a couple from the States living near by that were selling their TV for a great price. I got in contact with Mr. Chapman and we set up a time for me to come by and pick up the TV and see what other items they had and if I was interested.

We plugged the address into Bebe (for those who dont know, Bebe is my Garmin :-)) and we headed out. The building was beautiful and when we went to ring the bell, Chapman was engraved on a little gold plate along with all the names of the other tenants in the building. When we had initially pulled up to the building, I was silently wondering why Ute didnt show us anything in this neighborhood. Now I knew why. A woman's voice came over the intercom and I explained was there for the TV. She said "great. go all the way to the top", the door buzzed and we walked in. She really meant all the way to the top. We just kept climbing stairs. 110 to be exact (we were told). Tootie met us at the top of the stairs and welcomed us in.

The apartment was striking. Nice hardwood floors, completely open from the dining area, kitchen and sitting area. Just fantastic. So Tootie showed me around and let me know what things they were wanting to sell. In the mean time, Seth came in with some friends that were visiting for the week and were planning to help up get everything downstairs. I ended getting a couple of lamps, their microwave and toaster and the TV, naturally. I was struck at how nice both Tootie and Seth were and I remember thinking "Man, it would be awesome to be friends with them." Tootie and I talked a bit about living in Nurnberg and how it would be and she assured me that it is a great place to be and that I will surely have a great time here. She got my email address and said that she would let me know if they go out during that week so I could meet some of their friends and start building a network of friends.

I dont think I had really thought through the magnitude of establishing one's self in another place. When I moved to New Jersey, I already had a network built in with family (Uncle Dave, the Callandrillo clan) that lived in the area. And naturally I was living with Grandmama. So when Tootie offered to let me tag along with them and Seth agreed that would be a good idea, I was amazed and just totally thankful. My parents were getting ready to leave to go back to the States, so the prospect of having people to hang out with was invigorating and gave me a bit more confidence. Little did I know what i was getting into :)

Seth emailed me to let me know about a skiing trip they were planning for the weekend, I was starting to think about what I was going to do over the weekend on my own, so I said something along the lines of "hell yes". With those plans in place, I went out with them for Thursday night for some drinks with a few of their friends. It was an amazing time, we laughed and talked and drank. We ended up at another spot in the Altstadt that serves Rot Bier. *Hello my new best friend* Delish. THe group was myself, Tootie and Seth, Dave and Drew (who will be further known as the most amazing pastry chef I have ever met - and for the sake of clarity I have to point out that Drew is a woman ;)), and the friends of Seth's that were visiting. The boys all headed back to their respective homes but Drew, Tootie, Iris (the gremlin- story to follow) and I decided to hang out for another drink. Again, having a great time but then we realized how late it was and decided it was about time to head back.

This is the story of the Gremlin.

Tootie, Drew, and me completely failed to notice that Iris had had 4 HUGE glasses of red wine in about 45 minutes (not to mention the drinks we had had during dinner). So we paid the bill (noticing all the wine on the bill) and got up to go and Iris would. not. move. She kept saying "No! I am NOT going with you!" And holding on to the table like we were trying to kidnap her. BANANAS. We had ordered a Taxi and he was waiting outside, but she still wouldnt move from the chair. We tried talking to her, but to no avail, she still wouldnt move. Drew, sensing this would take a while, went out to the taxi driver to let him know we would be just a few minutes. In the mean time Tootie and I tried to reason with her. It looked like we had gotten her to agree for about a minute but as soon as we started getting her coat on, it started all over again. At this point, it has been about 15 minutes of trying to reason with a very drunk German woman which is much like dealing with a temperamental 3 year old. Tootie had the right idea and started talking to her about her boyfriend and how much she wanted to see him, who was with Seth back at their apartment. That was the trick, and she got up and got in the cab with relatively no problem. The guys met us at the corner to collect the Gremlin and Tootie walked me home. So not fun when it happened, but now it is a great story to tell :)

The next day was Friday and I caught a ride with Dave and Drew down for the skiing weekend. The car ride was nice, I got to know the two of them a little better and we had a great time. We arrived at the cabin first so we got to explore a little bit before everyone got there. It was a fantastic place with tons of room. We went out in Garmisch to walk around and grab some lunch. It is a cute little town with a lot of shops and walking areas. We got the lay of the land a bit and then did some shopping for snacks and beer. We got a fantastic beer with a gnome fireman on the bottle.

The rest of the clan arrived around 9. Seth, Tootie, Jane, and Glenn were ready to go having had wine on the train in, so we all headed out to get something to eat, came back and went to bed.

The next morning the guys got up early to go the mountain and all the girls slept in a bit and headed out. We grabbed breakfast and then made our way to the mountain. I had not decided if i was going to ski or snowboard since i had not done either in about 3 years, but i decided on snowboarding since i had done it most recently. We got everything set and then took the gondola up the mountain and then the lift to the top of one of the mountains. The ride up on the gondola had some fantastic views with really huge trees just completely covered in snow. Very beautiful. So everyone headed down the mountain, me going very slowly and spending alot of time on my butt in the snow. Tootie and Drew were pretty patient and waited for me to make my way down the mountain which was great especially for my first time down. The rest of the day I spent making some pretty serious bruises all over my body, but it was fun. After lunch we decided on a couple more runs and then heading back. So we take the lift back up the mountain and on the way up we notice it has gotten foggy. By the time we get to the top of the mountain you can barely see 5 feet in front of you. Sooo freaky. So we all took our time getting down, playing Marco Polo the whole way down to make sure we had everyone. Once we got to the bottom, we had snacks and Jagertee (exactly what you think it is). Snacks involved hot dogs on bread, which naturally lead to copious amounts of wiener jokes.

We headed back to the cabin and everyone showered and Jane cooked chili for dinner. There was margarita mix that needed to be drank, but we had a hard time finding a blender, naturally, so we looked to mother nature hence - the snow margarita. It was about three batches in before we realized that there were all manner of twigs and stones and dirt in the snow, but God made dirt, so dirt wont hurt (as Glenn put it). Tootie moisturized everyone and we watched a movie.

The next morning I knew there was no way i could go back up and snowboard again. But i didnt want to hang out in the cabin by myself so I decided to go up and just sit in a restaurant or bar and read. Well, it was a bit expensive for just sitting and reading (37 Euros), but it was SO worth it. We got on the gondola at the bottom of the hill and started going up. It was almost like a repeat of the day before, it was so foggy, you could barely see the trees below, but THEN the most amazing scenery i think i have ever seen. We broke through the clouds and it was a clear blue sky, brilliant sunshine and the most beautiful mountain scape. The clouds looked like white ponds in between all the snow capped summits and it was just so bright. NATURALLY I left my camera at the cabin, but Glenn took pics. I looked through them and I dont think a photo could really do this scenery justice. It was amazing.

So everyone went skiing and I sat in the cafe and read for a bit, we met for lunch, and i read some more and then we headed down the mountain. There were a lot of us, so not everyone could go in the car when we got to the bottom of the mountain. Jane, Drew, Glenn , and myself said we would take the train down to the mountain that was closer to the cabin. What an ordeal that was! We were about to leave the station and there was a HUGE jolt in the train and then nothing. After about 15 minutes they finally asked the people in the first two cars to move to the last few cars and they separated us from the front cars, backed up, got on another track and we were on our way. We got back to the cabin packed up, Dave and Drew went on and the rest of us piled into a taxi to go to the train station. We spent the trip re-capping the weekend and drinking wine. Since we were an odd number (5) someone had to sit separate on the train, and Glenn was nice enough to let me sit with the group on the last leg of the trip and took a seat behind us. Once we go to the station, I shared a cab with Tootie and Seth and then walked home.

All in all, a good first weekend in Germany :)

Here are the pics : http://www.kodakgallery.com/gallery/creativeapps/slideShow/Main.jsp?token=975931945114%3A1371596980

The Beginning

I had a great Christmas with my family in North Carolina. It was quiet and much more relaxing than the last 2 weeks had been in New Jersey trying to organize the move in the states and then moving overseas. But it all worked out.

So we (myself, my mom and my dad) left on Monday afternoon December 28th and arrived in Frankfurt in the morning of the 29th. The ride over was so sweet because I got bumped into first class and got to actually sleep because the seats went all the way flat for optimal 'zzzzzzz' making while in repose (if this does not make sense, please watch Everything Is Illuminated).

We rented a car (the Brotwagon) and then drove to Brühl where my uncle lives. We always stay in his apartment when we visit Germany. It smelled the same way I remembered it. We took a short nap and then met up with my uncle and his girlfriend Rosie. We walked around town a little bit and then headed back to the apartment. I was flipping through the TV stations and somehow i managed to mess up his cable box. I dont know how i did it, but totally messed it up. Little did i know that this was just the first of a string of things that was going to happen in this apartment. We went to dinner with Uncle Karsten, Rosie, and Rosie's daughter Denise. I was totally exhausted, nearly falling asleep at the table and struggling to keep up with the conversation. I slept really well that night :). In the next few days we made preparations for the move and went through the furniture that belonged to my cousin to see which pieces i would need to take.

In these days as well, my mom used my hairdryer with just the adapter plug on it and shorted out the entire apartment. It was quite the sight seeing sparks and fire jump from the wall. Luckily everything was ok though.

New Years was a blast. Rosie threw a party for her friends and we went along. They had a nice keg of Kolsch, made Planter's Punch, tons of yummy food, and then just before the clock struck 12 we all went outside to join everyone in lighting off fireworks. It was truly amazing... and cold. The next morning we got up to go to Krefeld to visit some family friends and my mom broke the strap that makes the outer shades for the window go up. It was a bit tragic, but we did have a good laugh about it.

The 2nd of January my mom and I got up early, packed the Brot-wagon and drove to Nuremberg. When we arrived, Ute (the relocation agent) was at the apartment already with my new landlady. We spent an hour chatting with the landlady and sorting through the apartment to make sure everything was in order. The landlady is super sweet and very eager to make sure i am happy here. Once that was finished we went to the Cafe Fatal around the corner from my apartment for some coffee and something to eat. The cafe is super kitchy with a lot of different things all around... including half of a disco ball on the ceiling. Good home made food too. Shortly after Papa, Rosie and Karsten showed up with the moving truck and the moving commenced. The heaviest piece was certainly the bed which my cousin made. Naturally the men set out to put the bed together and mom, Rosie, and I went to putting up the curtains and such in the living room and cleaning the dishes and putting them away. The bed went together quickly and we went for dinner back at Fatal. That night i stayed for the first time in my own apartment. It was a little creepy with all the new sounds and I was a little worried about falling asleep because everyone had told me that the first dream you have in your apartment will come true and of course i didnt want to mess that up. I usually remember my dreams, but when I woke up in the morning, i didnt remember anything. So if my dream comes true it will be a surprise! Ha ha. Everyone came over the next day to help set everything else up and we had our first meal sitting on the floor in the living room at the coffee table. let me tell you... it's fun the first time, but we had way too many meals sitting on the floor here, so we were all thankful when i got the kitchen table (thank you Ikea and your ridiculously low-priced furniture).

Karsten and Rosie left on Sunday and the next few days were a blur of Ikea, shopping, and trying my best to prepare for my parents departure.

During this week we met a super nice couple from the States, but that story, i think, deserves its own post. So look soon for the "Meeting the Chapmans" post :)

Here are some pics from this week: http://www.kodakgallery.com/gallery/creativeapps/slideShow/Main.jsp?token=158795935114%3A1268129224