Summer is ending!

The first week we were living in our new apartment, I took a trip to the grocery store three days in a row carrying bags of groceries for about 6 blocks. But we have food, sort of. It seems like a never ending errand. The small containers go empty fast and one can carry oh so much stuff in one trip. With a bag of potatoes, a bag of onions (since buying one onion is not seen in this particular store), two boxes of milk (yes boxes), a bottle of wine to celebrate our new place (that cost the average amount of $3) and a bunch of other oddments, it gets heavy! The first trip was the mother loads of three heavy bags in hand and a back pack on the back. A couple days ago, we now find a grocery store across the street!! And this store has everything you can think of besides food. A fan, a garbage bucket, things I looked everywhere in Garching for. This is my new favorite store!

I cleaned and am still cleaning two weeks later, another never ending chore. We went to Ikea for a computer desk and some other things we needed. It was a long trip. With a train ride and a long walk, we got there. We chose the cheaper table not because it was cheaper but that it weighed so much less and we could carry it home! The long walk back was tough. We both were feeling it the next day.

The day after that strenuous trip to Ikea, we went to Nuremburg. It is another larger city about a 2 hour train ride north of Munich. It was nice to go somewhere. This place is beautiful. The buildings look older, mainly because they probably lasted through the war, whereas Munich is all rebuilt. There were a lot less people when we showed up, but somehow doubled in size when we were leaving. It was nice to walk around even though a lot of the stores were closed due to it was Sunday. At least the tourist stores were open and the couple museums we walked through. We went to an artist's home and a toy museum, which I liked, but Chris found it okay. Check out our photos on our photos' page.

I bought a bike! It is a little small for me but figured it would work for the short trip to work and back on those days that is not too cold. I rode it for 5 miles home. Thought it would be nice to ride it back home and see how it is to ride through the streets. Only to find that it is soooo sluggish that I want to return it. Everyone was passing me and I was pushing so hard. I was sweating so much by the time I got home. I passed my work on the way. It took 15 minutes but I walked part of it because I couldn't handle the bike any longer. So much for that, right! However, Chris, my hero, took a look at it and found that the brake was on the whole time. He is getting tools from work to fix it. So hopefully it will be much better and I don't regret buying it so much.

We had a house warming party Thursday night. 5 of Chris' work friends came. It was great. We had wine and Chris' Thai dinner. I even made homemade chocolate chip cookies. They turned out good, different but good. They were soft cookies, which you do not find in Germany. The cookies here are always hard and crunchy. They even asked how I made it so soft. Figured out that it is probably how much butter I used. We even used the fine china and the nice wine glasses she has. It is the only stuff we have to use, and it is there to be used, so why not? It was nice to have a group to socialize with.

I am starting work on Monday. I went in Friday to work with Melanie (the German teacher) to get set up some for our first day. The kindergarten place is unfortunately not ready. We are going to have to make due for a week or two. There is no furniture except some chairs and four book shelves. The bathrooms are about done at least. The walls are completely white but I think will stay that way. The furiture is coming on Wednesday next week and the kitchen is getting put in on the 8th or so. There are a few books and a few toys to play with. I am curious to see it on Monday! I am getting excited though. Melanie and I work well together. We have similar work ethics and understanding of kids. A nice change from my old job where I had to tell people to do their jobs!

I can't believe summer is ending!

Finally, a place to call home

So we have finally found an apartment! In the end, we decided to go for an already furnished apartment. The owner, Anna, is a very nice lady. She has a wonderful 1 bedroom apartment that we shall be living in for the next few years (on a sad note, Anna is leaving to move in with her mother who is getting to need full time care). But she has very good taste, very much the same style as Laura and I (well, except for maybe the ducks, apparently our landlord really likes ducks!). The kitchen is fully equipped and Anna has left a rather nice china set and silverware (I'm attempted to buy cheap'o ikea dinnerware, I think the china is pretty expensive). When she was showing the place she said, "and her is a nice china set which you can use when you have parties" which was a refreshing change from other landlords who were more like, "you're not going to have parties, are you?".

The apartment is located in the south of Munich in a suburb called Sendling. Its on the same U-bahn line that goes to the research lab (though the commute is a good hour door-to-door). Its quite close though to Laura's work, probably a 10 minute bike ride or 2 stops on the U-bahn. We moved all are boxes friday and saturday and are already for the most part unpacked.

And now that we actually have a decent place to live, everyone is officially invited to come and visit! The sofa in the living room is a pull-out sleeper. For booking arrangements, please contact lauraestes@hotmail.com ;).