Another Saturday come and gone....

We've gone two whole days without rain! It was a nice day today, although it looked like rain as the afternoon progressed, so I wouldn't be surprised if we're still in for some tonight. Today I did a little shopping - little being the key word, because my ATM card is broken (well, I guess broken isn't really the right word, but the magnet strip stopped working), so I actually have to go into the bank during working hours to obtain money, which means that my spending ability is very limited at the moment, as I'm not interested in carrying around massive amounts of cash and because it's hard to get to the bank during the week.

I bought this cute little....hmm, don't have a name for it exactly, but I bought it to hold my jewelry (I layed the hairbrush in front of it for size context :)
Isn't it cute? Even in Michigan, I had my jewelry in a ziploc bag (whereby you can tell I don't own anything valuable), which meant that I pretty much didn't wear more than two pairs of earrings. This way, they'll all be accessible.


I now have a dishwasher. And since I don't want to run it when it's not very full, I never seem to have enough clean dishes. So, I decided that I would buy another set and I found a set of these on sale for only 15 Euro.....4 plates, 4 bowls, 4 dessert plates, 4 mugs and I think it's adorable!
For the same reason, I needed more silverware, so I also went to Ikea today to purchase more of the same silverware that I have. I also bought Jemma this cute little butterfly toy, in hopes that I can switch her from the baby socks to an actual cat toy. We'll see how successful that is.


And here I'd just like to add that in traveling around to various locations today, I did NOT once get lost!! That's a super-huge achievement!


Then, just for fun, because I had my camera in the kitchen to photograph the dishes when I took my dinner out of the oven, I took a picture of that too:
It looks like pizza, but it's actually Pflammkuechen. It's delicious, it's enough for at least two meals and when you come to visit you can try it too!


My saga with T-Com continues. I mentioned that I haven't been able to properly set up the Internet, because I haven't received my password from them yet, which I attributed to my difficulties with the mail when I first moved into my apartment. So I wrote them an email asking them to resend me my Internet access data. They wrote back that I have phone service, but that I'm not signed up for internet service with them. I wrote back that I had just paid a bill for a DSL installation fee and my first monthly charge for DSL and asked them to please explain what I am paying for if I'm not signed up for internet. We'll see what the response is....


{It's now raining, just as I predicted it would....I really do have a promising future in weather, don't I??}


My cousin finally got his website up and running. He, like my brother, is a computer genius. So while I love the title of his first post (so clever, Matt!!), I have no idea what he's talking about in the third paragraph! If you can answer his question, then you earn one million billion kudos points (not the candy bar, the congratulations). Make sure you click on the tabs at the top of his page (About, Contact, Features), because the little commentary is sure to make you laugh! I personally am really, really looking forward to the photo gallery!!!!


Tomorrow I'll be at the FeG Stuttgart (hopefully, I won't get lost trying to find it!!). I've now been officially invited by 4 separate people, so I feel very warmly welcomed and I haven't even been there yet!! :o) I'm looking forward to meeting these people!! And then in the afternoon, I don't know, maybe the art museum (I didn't make it to the art museum or the zoo today, I was simply too lazy (or "faul" in German). And it's actually a Monet exhibit, not Renoir, but interesting all the same!

Have you seen Mr. Mom?

It's a movie from the 80s with Michael Keaton and Teri Garr. He loses his job, so she goes to work and he stays home with the kids. It's pretty funny, if you haven't seen it, you really should rent it (for those of you who know her, I first saw this movie with Jena at her house, so I think of her everytime I think about/see this movie). Anyway, I was thinking about Mr. Mom because of the "Woobie." In the movie one of the kids has this blanket that he calls "Woobie." I can't remember much more than that he carries it around all the time and his dad almost vaccuums it up with the vaccuum cleaner. Cassie, my parents' dog, who now lives with my brother in Chicago, had this stuffed toy that she would carry around everywhere. So I started calling it her Woobie. {Are you keeping up with my train of thought here? I'm coming to the point eventually...} Well, I think Jemma (my little cat) now has a Woobie also. Her Woobie is a baby sock. Hmmm, {you wonder} how did Jemma get a hold of a baby sock?
Well....after Mac & Cheese were declawed, it didn't go so well. It was between Christmas 2004 and New Year's 2005. I wasn't having the best week (and it only got worse), because I got the stomach flu around 11 p.m. on Christmas night. I still wasn't feeling great two days later when I picked them up from their declawing (my mom had taken them because I was so sick). For some reason, the glue they used wasn't sticking, so their paws were bleeding a bit. I called the vet, who said to wrap their paws with gauze and see if the bleeding stopped (eventually they had to go back in to get "reglued"). Well, I didn't have any gauze, so I went to the drugstore and bought some. No sooner had I wrapped their paws then they were pulling the gauze off. What could I do to make it stay on? Aha, thought my illness-influenced brain, I'll go to Target (boy, do I miss Target....Target and Diet Coke!) and buy some baby socks to put on their paws over the gauze and that will keep it on. (Man, when I write this out, it seems really stupid, but at the time, it seemed like such a good idea!) Well, {I was going to write as fate would have it, but I don't believe in fate, so...} as it turned out, it was when I was coming home from Target with the baby socks that I was rear-ended by a pickup truck and my car was totaled. So that really, really was not the best idea I ever had. Anyways, after the policeman brought me home (that can be a story for another time), I tried to put the socks on the cats. Yes, you can laugh now, if you're not already. Needless to say, it didn't work. Cat's paws and baby's feet are not the same and the socks intended for baby don't work for cat. So the socks got tossed in the linen cupboard and because the movers move EVERYTHING (seriously, if you don't empty your garbage cans, the trash is goin' with you!), the socks came to Germany with me. And I don't even know where they were, but Jemma found them (she finds everything!). And now she is carrying them around the apartment in her mouth (I promise I give my cats regular cat toys, but no, she likes hair bands and twist ties and baby socks). All that to say, Jemma has a Woobie. If I can manage to get a photo of it, I will share it with you.
I did more laundry yesterday and it's become apparent, I'm definitely going to have to iron. Everything just comes out pretty wrinkled. If you know me well, you know that I hate to iron. I'm just lazy when it comes to ironing. And I'm really not that good at it. I always find wrinkles after I iron, once I put on the article of clothing that I have ironed. (One time, I saw a wrinkle on the shoulder of my shirt after I put it on. I couldn't be bothered to take it off and iron out the wrinkle and since I had already unplugged the iron, I thought it couldn't be that hot anymore. So I tried to iron out the wrinkle while wearing the shirt. Well, I burned myself. And at that time, I was working in the doctor's office. So imagine how it was to go into work and ask for treatment for this burn where my neck meets my shoulder. Of course I had to tell what I had done. So that became a big joke around the office. One of the nurses very shortly thereafter received an email with a list of warnings on products that seem so self-explanatory that they shouldn't even be necessary. What was one of those products? An iron. What was the warning? Do not iron clothes while wearing.)

~Wow, this particular post does not leave you with the impression that I'm very intelligent, does it??~

Just so you're keeping up with the weather here in Stuttgart, today was gorgeous! Sunny, high of 75 degrees, not a cloud in the sky - just beautiful! Tomorrow will be in the mid-60s, but it's supposed to rain. I thought I would go to the zoo tomorrow, but maybe I'll go to the Renoir exhibit at the art museum instead. We'll see....Sunday should be nice, again in the 70s, Monday in the low 80s (!!) and then back to the low 70s as we progress through the week. It's a lovely start to the month of September! (Hmmm, maybe if I ever need a new career, instead of a test engineer, I could be a weather girl! ;o)

And now, because I had nothing better to do and because my little brother is so curious about the layout of my apartment, I present you with.....my floor plan:
It's totally not to scale!! (Obviously, my bed isn't actually as big as my bathroom, though it's probably pretty close! And it only took me like an hour to put it together....) But it gives you a pretty good idea of where I live. And where you'll sleep when you come to visit. :o)

Have a fantastic weekend!!

Today

....it's still cold, but the sun is shining!!!!!!!! It rained today, too, pretty hard, but I'm not complaining, because today I saw the sun!!!!!! And it's 8 already, but it's not dark yet!!

I really don't have much to tell, so here are my random ramblings for you:

Today while we were at lunch in the cafeteria, I ran into one of the Boschlers from Farmington Hills who I always got along really well with and who's here for a conference. To my {happy} surprise, S. stopped right next to my table, set down the lunch tray and gave me a hug. (I know, I never use initials, but I feel compelled to do so here for some reason.) We really didn't get a chance to talk, but it was just nice to see a familiar friendly face and to hear that I'm missed!

Also today, I was considering my vacation plans. We have to use our vacation days here by March. So I was planning on using about 6 days of vacation at Christmas (the rest being holiday or weekend) and I figured I would then have 9 left (!!) to use before March. But then I realized that I was counting wrong....I don't have 15 days to use before March, I have 19! And that's just my vacation days for 2006!! I better get to some vacationing! I'm thinking Greece, I'm thinking Spain, I'm thinking Budapest, I'm thinking Casablanca.....No that's the movie, the place is Morocco, right? Suggestions of where to go and what to see are welcomed!!

Tomorrow I'm going to be alone at work for most of the day.....most of my colleagues are on vacation and the one person who's in the office with me has meetings which will take her out of the office most of the day. It's gonna be a quiet one.....

Tuesday I have to give a presentation.....auf Deutsch. (If I were telling you this in person, you would hear "Yikes!!!" from my tone of voice.) We'll see how that goes. My German teacher insists I'll be fine, but I have this teensy wheensy problem....when I get nervous, my German gets worse! Think about me while you're sleeping early Tuesday morning around 3 a.m., okay?

[When I got to this point, I decided that I would run my Biomuell downstairs and take some pictures of my car - for you!]

So, here's my cute car!! And yes, it's parked on the street, because I'm still afraid of my garage...Ernst says he'll come over and do a test "park the car in the garage" run with me, so I can see that I'm not going to break the car by parking it in the garage and can start using my garage before it snows (which given the weather we're having right now, feels like it could be next week!!).It's cute, but old; small, but functional; peppy, but old (oops, did I mention that already?). Seriously, though, so far it's a good car, really low mileage, not too expensive, insurance is reasonable, registration fees are comparable to what they were in Michigan for my Jetta. And best of all? It's a Mercedes, people! Never expected to be driving a Merc!! I love cars....well, you're not supposed to love things, right, so I REALLY like cars. If I had to go to university again (besides finishing my Master's, which I really AM going to do!!), I think I'd be an engineer so I could work with cars, particularly a test engineer....I think getting to test these new cars is such a fun job! I love walking across the campus at work looking at all these test cars under cover. There's some really cool stuff out there!! And just so you engineers don't feel offended, I know that you work hard; that there are parts of the job that aren't fun, that you don't like and that it's not all fun and games....but you have to admit, there are some serious benefits to what you do!

And while I was uploading the photos of the car, I found this one that I had taken of Mac sitting in front of my laptop. I guess he had something he wanted to blog, too.... :o) (Too bad you can see the mess in the background - it's not there any more!!)
Hmm, well there was more to this post than I thought.

Happy Wednesday! Drop me a line - I'd love to hear how your week's going!!

{By the way, it's now raining and dark!!!}

Guess what!!

It's RAINING! And what's it supposed to do tomorrow? RAIN!!! Did I move to London or to Stuttgart? Is it August or April?? Hmmm......Somebody send me some sunshine!!! Please!!

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Currently in Stuttgart, Germany 52°F Light Rain Feels Like 52°F Dew Point: 48°F Humidity: 88% Pressure: 29.80 inches Wind: From the Southwest at 5 mph Satellite | Map Room Tonight: Cloudy with occasional light rain . Low 49F. Winds W at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 90%. Tomorrow: Occasional light rain. High near 60F. Winds WNW at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 90%. Hourly Forecast Complete 10-Day Forecast Video Forecast My Stuttgart, Germany Links Edit Links

On a positive note, my German teacher says that I'm losing my slight accent. :o)

I love...

....knowing that you all are reading my blog! I've not only gotten comments, I've gotten emails, too. And that's just so heartening....since I can't connect with you in person, I love the feeling that you're still "virtually" connected to my life. Thanks!

Last week I had dinner with some very nice American women, including Tina, whom I've already mentioned. We went to this outdoor cafe and got to know each other. Nicole is from SC and she lives two streets away from me here in Feuerbach! That was a fun discovery!!

I've also connected via email with a pastor from Germany who will be working at C3 (and he and his wife will be living in my house until it sells or he comes back to Germany in January....let's hope it sells by then at the latest!). He gave me info on a couple more churches to check out and he's put me in contact with some people he knows here. It's such a good feeling, to start to connect with more people here. :o)

It's still raining here and I understand it's raining in Michigan, too. But, you have weather in the 70s and we have weather in the 50s....brrr! And I still don't think my heat is turned on (if I was 100% sure how my heat worked, then I'd probably know if it was turned on or not...). I wore an actual sweater to work today. It's August in Germany, but feels like March in Michigan! Hopefully September will be better!!

I figured out an interim solution to the drippy washing machine....I put a pot under the drip to collect the water and ran the machine anyways. So this was an interesting experience....I think it took about two hours to do one load of laundry! And it's a washing machine/dryer combo, but the clothes aren't completely dry...I think I need to set the drying cycle for longer. So there were clothes pretty much everywhere hanging to dry, because I hadn't purchased a drying rack since I have a dryer. You can probably guess what I bought today....yep, a drying rack! :o) But in the end, I'm happy that the clothes are clean!!!!!!

I also resolved the garment rack problem: Moved the dresser into my bedroom, thereby creating room in the guest bedroom for the garment rack. Completed assembly of said garment rack. Hung up winter coats (yea!!).
And my apartment's not pristine, but much more orderly than previously described. It's not 100%, but it's getting there!! A girl can only tackle so much at one time, right?

I decided that I'm going to teach you, my gentle Readers (I'm feeling very "Emily Post" at the moment) some German with each blog (except for those of you who are German and therefore don't need to learn any....you can skip this part). One of my favorite phrases is used at mealtime and I just find it so wonderfully "Germanesque" (which is probably not a word): "Lass es dir schmecken." Translation: "Let it taste good to you." I love how this phrase is formulated. What do we Americans say at mealtime? Not much, if anything, maybe "Enjoy!" At almost every meal here, someone wishes you a "Good appetite" and then everyone else says "Same to you." I just think it's so great that people take the time to share such good wishes with one another....try it sometime, it's fun!!

I'm going to bed now, but since you're probably eating dinner shortly - Lass es dir schmecken! And have a good week!

This one's for you, Buddy!

It only took me about 18 trys to get these two photos for you. I think he's much cuter in person!!
Love you!!!!!!

Yahoo!

{Author's note: This post has been under construction for the last 4 or so days! Therefore day "indicators" have been added. I apologize in advance for the length!}
No, not the website, but the exclamation of glee. I got a lot done today {Thursday} after work! I went grocery shopping, I went to the pet store, I emptied two moving boxes and a suitcase, I put away lots of clothes (See?? How good does that look???)
I also assembled the coat tree (IKEA) for my hallway. My coats are no longer draped across a moving box, they're now properly hanging up, thereby reducing the amount of cat hair they're carrying around and just generally improving the look of the place. You might be asking, "Sarah, do you really need a coat in August?" The answer is a resounding "YES!" It's chilly here in the mornings. And the evenings....right now, I'm wearing a sweater!

{Friday} I had dinner with fellow expats Joe and Tina. Joe also works at Bosch, but I've known them both since before I worked at Bosch. It was a great time! Tina made Rouladen and Dumplings (yum!). They have a little girl, who is the cutest thing ever. We had so much fun reading books and playing with Little People! It was wonderful to connect with them, to share our experiences and see where there were some definite commonalities (and to not be sitting at home on Friday night)! I had several - aha, I'm not the only one who feels that way!! - moments. I ended up staying there and on Saturday morning, Tina made pancakes. The mix here is a little bit different than Aunt Jemima or than my mom's made-from-scratch recipe, but it was tasty nonetheless and felt like a little piece of home with maple syrup on top!

Tina's also been so kind as to make some plans for us to have dinner with another expat friend of hers, who actually has some German friends! So I'm proud to say that I have mid-week plans! We'll be meeting on Wednesday for dinner, which I've very much looking forward to!

I had only been home for a little while on Saturday when my doorbell (? it's kinda like a doorbell...it's actually the intercom buzzer) "rang." Well, I don't get visitors, so I suspiciously said "Hallo?" into my intercom phone (yep, I have an intercom phone built into the hallway wall inside the door). It was the Post! With my DSL router!!! Well, wasn't my day off to a good start? Pancakes and a router! So I happily made my list of purchases I needed to make, washed my hair and started the washing machine. Now, Simi's dad kinda jerry-rigged the washing machine. We didn't have the right connection for the hose with the outgoing water (don't ask me what it's real name is) to connect into the wall opening. So, (I guess because Simi told him that Americans keep their cars togther with duct tape) he duct taped it. Which seemed okay until it started dripping. Not a problem, I thought. I know where the Obi (think Home Depot) is, in fact I've been there lots. I'm sure I can find the connecter thingie there (I literally wrote "washing machine thing-a-ma-bob" on my list). So I added that to my list of stops and headed out. First stop was the cell phone store, because whenever I tried to make a call (which I do only occasionally), my friendly recording requested that I please call my service provider. Well, I'm scared of telephoning with strangers. It's much harder to understand over the telephone. So I went to the store. Well...in Germany, the Deutsche Post has lost it's monopoly on postal services. There are now private carriers who are delivering mail to some areas (don't ask me, I don't understand it - it would be like if the US Postal Service suddenly had competition for letter delivery, Simi's dad can tell you all about it). Apparently, the service isn't so hot sometimes with these new private firms. So they sent some mail back to the cell phone company (like they did with the Router even though my name is clearly on the mailbox!!). (The guy at the cell phone store says that's been happening to a lot of people. ) And so the cell phone company, as a safety measure, blocked my account. That was thoughtful, wasn't it? So as easily as that, it was solved and my account was unblocked. I headed next to a furniture store in Leonberg that I've heard about on the radio. They have nice stuff, but their furniture is tooooo expensive! I bought a couple of baskets and some other small things, but no couch. Then I went to Obi, where I was so proud of myself thinking I found the necessary whatchamajigit for the washing machine. I also bought a couple of plants (don't worry, I checked to make sure they're not poisonous). Then I headed to Media Markt, where I bought (another) new phone (the guy assured me this will work with Skype and Mac!). I picked up a few groceries, a binder and a hole punch at Marktkauf and headed back here.
I tried to set up my router. Wow, was I unsuccessful. This, I believe, stems from the mail problems. You see, T Com sent me a letter when I first signed up with them. This letter contained my password, etc. for the internet. Unfortunately, I never received this letter. And I now need it to set up my internal modem (at least I hope that's what the problem is, because otherwise I'm going to have to pay 0.12 Euro a minute to receive technical support from T Com). So, I guess I'll have to call T Com tomorrow. I just don't think the German utilities like me (satellite, internet). And then I had a very, very big scare (don't worry, Mom, it all turns out okay)....I had gotten warm crawling on the floor with these cables and moving stuff around my office, so I opened the roof window. It doesn't have a screen, but I was sure that the cats couldn't get out it. I stand up from messing with the plug and the cord and I see that Jemma is outside of the window on the roof. Well, if you know her, she gets very nervous when you try to pet her (except in the middle of the night or if you have food) But I was so freaked, there was no way I was going to try to quietly coax her back in. I grabbed her leg, which was all I could reach and prayed and started talking very nicely to her. She tried to pull away, but I was able to pull her in toward me and grab the rest of her. I promptly closed the window and do not plan to open it again until I purchase a screen. I think I came very close to a heart attack. She wanted to be let go, but I held her for a while....her heart was pounding, my heart was pounding.
Once we calmed down, I tried the internet connection again, but it just wasn't gonna happen. Very frustrated, I decided to assemble the garment rack that I bought at IKEA (my coats and dresses are too long to hang in the Kleiderschrank) and planned to put in the guest room. Well, being the American that I am, I didn't carefully measure the space first. The rack didn't look that big. It might not be "that" big, but it's just too big! So again becoming very frustrated, I left it almost assembled and closed the door to the guest room and went to bed (I have since decided to reconfigure the furniture and it should work out, but by then I was just so done!).
I had decided that Sunday I would go to the International Baptist Church in Stuttgart-Vaihingen. So I set off at around 9 to attend the 9:30 service. Did I mention that my cute little car (still promising pictures!) doesn't have Navigation (yet!!)? I got lost*. You have to understand that the streets here in Germany aren't on a grid. And when the directions say leave the Friedrichstr. (B295) and go onto the Stuttgarter Str. (B295) it could mean, turn right, left or in a circle. You have no idea where the B295 is going or what it's going to do. I mean seriously! What I did was, instead of leaving the traffic circle (which we don't have in Michigan and I'm not sure if you know what I mean, maybe I can find a picture somewhere) to the left, I left it perpendicular to where I entered. So I backtracked, found an empty spot, parked (turned off the car - very important, cars must not idle in Germany - they have remote starters, but unlike at home, they only start the battery to start the heat and not the motor....dunno, ask an engineer, but my colleague said so and he's was an engineer) and pulled out the map. Now this is no little map, it's a book. And you have to change pages to follow it. Eventually, I realized that if I left the circle to the left, I might have found it. So I did that. Somehow I unintentionally made a few more turns and suddenly found myself on the correct street. Then, following not the street signs, but the signs for Vaihingen, I found my way there, mostly. *That's the other thing....you never really get lost here, because eventually you happen on a sign that looks like this or this:

I personally think there are a lot MORE traffic signs in Germany. If you don't believe me, check out Wikipedia here. My personal favorite is this, which means end of the 60 km/hr speed limit (Read: no speed limit at all!!).



Then I drove the wrong way again. But I realized it pretty quickly, turned around and went in the opposite direction. At which point, I was on a street which dead-ended into some American Military property - the Patch Barracks. Now, I know I'm American, but I don't think surprise drop-in guests are welcomed at military barracks. So I turned around before the gate and promptly saw the street I had overlooked, because it looked like a private drive. At the end of that street was the church. But the service had started at 9:30 and it was now 10:30.....5 minutes late, okay; 10 minutes late, maybe okay and probably the norm at C3; 15-20 minutes late, not so okay; an hour late, uh-uh, I'm still my mother's daughter! They have a second service at 11:30, so I figured I had time to find my way back to Stuttgart-Feuerbach and then find my way to the church again, so that if I wanted to go there again, I wouldn't get lost. So that's what I did. I didn't get lost again and I was back there still 15 minutes early. When I walked in, there were a bunch of people in the lobby, mostly speaking English and a man with a big Southern-USA accent greeted me with a handshake and a "nice to see you here." Hmm, I was suddenly transported back to last summer and Anderson, SC. Was I still in Deutschland? I quickly came to realize that as lovely as this church is (and it did seem very nice), it's services are held in English, as it's home to many military personnel from America as well as people of other nationalities who's common language is English. The man in the lobby was the Senior Pastor, a former military officer from Texas. The speaker was the pastor from the IBC in Hamburg, who is a Welshman! What an international place! I think it's fantastic that people who don't speak German have a place to worship on Sunday while they're in Germany, but I feel a little funny going to an English-speaking church while I'm living in Germany. So I'm going to keep looking.
After church, I followed my usual Sunday ritual and went out to Scheppach, where I was again provided with lunch (thank you!!). Then, we went to the new house to see all the progress. It looks great!! The kitchen was supposed to be delivered today and the carpets are supposed to arrive this week, as are the toilets and sinks. The big move is next weekend!! Then we went to the Besen again for dinner....this week I'll tell you that I had Wurstsalat....and around 9:30 I left for home. I thought I'd be home by 10:15. Nope. There was a back-up on the Autobahn and I didn't get home until 11, when I went straight to bed.
That was my weekend. It was good, but I still have a few issues.....My open items in a nutshell:
-drippy washing machine hose
-internet router issues
-garment rack doesn't fit (need to move dresser into my bedroom and complete garment rack assembly)
-no couch
-need to call the landlord to get the phone number for the satellite provider to schedule an appointment for a new cable
-still need to return the first phone to Conrad
-apartment in general disorder

Today I emailed the guy that sold me my car, because I haven't heard from the insurance company yet. (I'm sure I'm insured, right? But will the policeman agree with me when he pulls me over and I don't have an insurance paper to show him??) He promptly emailed the insurance guy, who said they had called, but apparently they called my cell, because they didn't have my work number. Well I never have my cell on at work. So about two minutes later my phone rang and it was insurance guy. Which took me a while to get, because he set off with his name, which I didn't recognize (it was not the same guy from the email). I caught up when he asked me if anyone else drove the car besides me (I guess I did a good job of mmhmm'ing at all the right places until then, because he never questioned me). He mentioned some number in the 800s and asked me if I wanted full or partial somethin'. Huh? I mentioned this letter from State Farm, asked if that would help and asked for a clarification of the full or partial somethin'. He said yes, please fax me the letter and explained the difference in full and partial kasko (sounds to me like Costco, the warehouse store). Well, I have no idea if I need full or partial kasko, so I ask him to hold and go to my colleague to ask him. He says partial kasko. So I go back and say partial kasko to the insurance guy. Later, he actually came to Bosch to have me sign it - such service! My insurance is less than 400 Euro a year! And now when I get pulled over, I can prove I'm insured! Yahoo!!
And that brings you to the current point in my life. So I'm going to bed! G'nite!

Happy Birthday, Andy!

Today is my (biggest) little brother's birthday! So today's blog is about him. In my last blog, I posted a picture of him as he looks today. I did a little digging and amazingly (in the mess that is my apartment at the moment), I located the following:

Andy was born when I was 19 months old. I honestly think I remember looking at him through the hospital window. I'm sure I had no idea what it meant to have a little brother at that point! He was also pretty sick when he was a baby, but I don't remember any of that. I think I remember him as a pretty quiet baby. I do clearly remember your Lambie (whose tail you wore off!).








My memories start to be clearer more around this age....Andy is probably around 1 year old here, which would make me almost about 2.5. The date in the corner of the picture says November '81, but given the clothes we're wearing, I don't see how it could possibly have been taken in Michigan in the winter time (love the picture in the background, by the way, Mom....). So I'm going with November being the date the photo was printed. These are my paternal grandparents and my great aunt. We loved having my grandparents come to visit and going to visit them in turn. And when my great uncle Dale was there, Andy used to love to sit on his lap and comb his hair. I guess he just had to have a special affinity for Uncle Dale from the start (my parents say that's where he got his height - I wish you would have shared a little with me....two inches maybe??).

Josh was born when Andy was 22 months old, so the three of us were really close in age. What I remember most from growing up with Andy was how much fun we had (yep, Josh you were part of that fun, too!). Playing GI Joe, playing Legos, playing school, going to the park with Mom. Being in the Garden Club (heehee - but we sure made tasty gingerbread houses there!), going to the pool, playing on the T-Ball team (Andy picking grass when he was in the outfield - or was that Josh - well whatever, one of my brothers got a mock award for that when we were little), fishing with Grandpa, going to Boblo Island on the ferry with Dad...it didn't matter what we did or where we went, I always had somebody to play with (or wrestle with.....remember how I usually won until you got so doggone tall??) because of my brothers. Sometimes, then, I might not have thought it was so great.....but now when I look back on those times, I can see it so clearly! And for that, I consider myself to be so blessed. So I have to say "thanks for being my little brother, Brother! It just wouldn't have been or be the same without you!"

Of course, later, we had our moments, like all siblings. I can remember some pretty good "discussions" (if you know what I mean). But we always got through it....And now my little brother's a man.....He's married, he's going to be a dad soon, he gives great hugs, he's sooooo much like my dad (which is a good thing - mostly!!)...And he can answer (almost) all of my techie questions!! I'm impressed by what you've accomplished and I can't wait to see what happens next in your life!

So, Happy Birthday!!! Hugs from across an ocean....
Love,
Your Big Sister (Forever and Ever!!)

(Yes, older and therefore closer to 30, but what's 19 months in the perspective of a lifetime? And they say that older means wiser, by the way....just don't ask me who "they" are!)

P.S. Seth, I just want to say that I didn't forget you, it's just that you came along later, but I'm betting you would say that Andy's a pretty good big brother, too!

Aha, success!

My links now open in a new window!!!!!!!
Thank you to my almost-birthday-boy-brother!!

Now if you can just teach me how to write code.....then I wouldn't have to use the pre-fab template from Blogger......
You like a challenge right?
Happy Birthday Week!

Imagine that!

Me posting twice in one day! Do you believe it?? Well, the guys from Bierstoffer came at about 11 or maybe a little bit before. I feel bad now every time that someone has to bring something heavy to my apartment....I have only seen grown men sweat so much playing sports. The one guy was literally groaning on his way up the stairs. When I rented this apartment, I definitely did not consider delivery men! But they were very uncomplaining about it....or maybe their dialect was just so deep (hmm, "deep" - literal translation from German....in English I probably should have written "heavy") that I didn't understand their complaints? Anyhow, here it is in all it's glory. May I introduce you to my Kleiderschrank??? I was very impressed by the professionalism of the delivery men. This was not the most expensive piece of furniture by any means and yet they took their time, used a level and everything!
Okay, Blogger is taking far too long to load the pictures. So instead, I am uploading them to Flickr here. I'm also going to try to figure out how to add that nifty little Flickr window to my blog.... (Andy, if you don't see that little window here soon, can you email me instructions???? I'm still trying to figure out how to make the links open in a new window!~Hopefully with this post, I've done it!)
Anyway, it may not have photographed well, but it's a beauty! Two sliding doors, one mirrored. Four shelves and two thingamabobs to hang clothes on. You might be able to just see the pile of clothes laying on the bed....I intentionally put them on the bed so that I have to hang them up before I can go to bed (maybe I can thwart my procrastinative tendencies yet!).
Is procrastinative a word?? Nope, Dictionary.com says "uh-uh." So, maybe I can lessen my tendency to procrastinate. There, that's better.
Can you tell that I'm in a much better mood than I was on Saturday? And that's despite the fact that it continues to rain here! And despite the fact that I learned today that the phone I purchased last week is definitely not compatible with Mac: "Dear Mrs Brown, i'm afraid, but there are no addition drivers or software for the Mac." Love, Philips. C'mon, people! Oh well....everyone needs at least one good return experience, right? I'll let you know how it goes...
If you find the mundane details of my life interesting (right now my mom is thinking that she could never find anything I write about mundane....), then I'll share with you that I bought another new kind of cat litter today. I absolutely detest the kind I bought last. It's disgusting (no details, I promise). And the kind before that smelled like baby powder which should be good, but just wasn't! So now I bought a third kind. Cross your fingers, please. If this doesn't cut it, I might be asking you to send me good ol' Arm&Hammer cat litter from Stateside. There are other options, too, but they only come in 20 liter bags and there is no physical possibility of me getting that kind of weight up to my apartment. I'm huffing by the time I actually make it all the way up with the 10 L bag!
Speaking, no actually writing, about cats, I have to ask again why they like the sink? Check out this pretty kitty....
Tomorrow morning I start my German lessons. At 7:30 a.m. on Tuesdays and Thursdays for 1.5 hours for at least the next six weeks, I will be at the ISD (Industrie Sprachen Dienst GmbH Stuttgart - you're glad to know what it stands for, aren't you??). I'm really happy about this. Even though I get my meaning through, it's frustrating to feel like a 4 year old at times, either not being able to find a word or hearing my own mistakes. So I'm really looking forward to these lessons. I don't know how people live here when they don't speak any German....or maybe if I spoke in English all the time, everyone would just reply in English?
By the way, I want to be clear that when I comment on German culture or people or whatever, it's not a criticism (unless of course, I were to openly write a criticism). When I point out differences, it's only so that you, my beloved friends and family, understand what my life is like. I've read a few blogs now by American Expatriates where they actually talk about detesting life here. I sooooo do not feel that way!
Okay, a couple more pictures. The view from my bedroom window is pretty great!!
And then, hot off the presses....snapped just moments ago: who needs knick knacks when you have cats?? Again, they just find the most interesting places to lay!

Waiting.....

I don't know about this weather. Today, the high is supposed to be 62 and there's a definite possibility of showers, although the sun is shining right now. But by Wednesday (I had a really hard time spelling that!), the high is supposed to be 85! It's just like living in Michigan!
The un-summer weather is really sad for the people who are on vacation. August is basically vacation month in Germany. Because school is out, most parents pack up their kids and head for various vacation destinations. Take my department at work for example....There are 9 of us. According to my calculations, there will be several days in the next few weeks in which there are only 2 of 9 of us actually at work. Many of my coworkers have at least two weeks, if not three weeks of vacation planned.
If you're very astute, you've noticed that I'm posting at ~10:30 a.m. (German time) and you're now wondering why I'm not at work (and if you hadn't noticed on your own, now that I've pointed it out, you're also wondering). I'm home because my Kleiderschrank is being delivered today. And just like in the US, they say they'll deliver it between 9 and 12. So here I sit, feeling guilty for not being at work, waiting for it to be delivered, making the cats stay in the office with me so they don't get in the way once they arrive (which they don't seem to be enjoying...) hoping it will make it into my bedroom! And hoping they come pretty soon, so that I can eventually make it in to work!
This weekend, while cold, was good. I didn't get too much cleaning done around here (actually, in reference to that, I learned the German word for procrastinate yesterday, because Simi's dad asked me if I had gotten my cable for the new satellite yet and when I said that I haven't yet called, he told me that I shouldn't procrastinate....hmm, see a pattern here?)
Saturday night I went to a "Stairway to Heaven" night (Germans love English phrases) at the BGG. I knew almost all of the songs, but none of the words, because while the songs were all from Hillsong or Matt Redmond, they were naturally all in German. And the words on the screen were perpetually delayed, so I found myself feeling a little silly just standing there waiting for the words to appear. Overall, I enjoyed it, but it was a bit too charasmatic for me. But I though I would check out their Sunday morning service as well. I also found it to be a bit too charasmatic. So I think I might have to try some other places. The International Baptist Church has been recommended to me. And of course, there's the FeG which has a relationship with C3. So we'll see....
After church, I drove to Scheppach, where I was provided with a tasty lunch of zucchini Pfannkueche (yum!). Then we went to the Hohenloher Freiland Museum, which reminded me a bit of Greenfield Village, only the houses are older. It was rainy at first, but then the sun came out and it was actually quite pleasant. After that we went to a Besenwirtschaft, which is a "restaurant" that's run by someone with a vineyard. It's really different here than at home, because people sit together at tables with other people that they don't know and everybody talks to everybody else. I won't tell you what I ate, because it might gross you out (although, Sarah S., now that I know that you used to eat marrow, I guess there really shouldn't be anything that can gross you out, because this is much less gross than that!), but even if it didn't gross you out, you'd be very surprised at me, given my reluctance to eat meat which is identified by the part of the animal's body from which it comes.....But the food was good! The guy next to us had some very interesting theories on Israel, Hollywood and the United States government, which he shared even though he knew I was American. None of it particularly offensive, but some pretty out-there ideas. Also different in Germany: you don't pay and leave until you're ready to do so. So you sit at your table, with or without food or drink, and talk. If you need more to drink, you have to call the waitress over, she doesn't stop by perpetually asking if you'd like something else (and there's no such thing as free refills). Then when you're ready to go, you call the waitress over and tell her you'd like to pay. There's also not the same concept of tipping here. Here you give Trinkgeld (drink money), which usually means that you just round out the bill. For example, our bill was 36 something Euro. And so you give the waitress money and tell her how much you'd like back. In this instance, a 50 and 12 Euro back.
So that was my weekend.....how was yours?
Oh and in my avoidance of cleaning Saturday, I found this fun page! Enjoy!
I'll let you know how the Kleiderschrank works out. :)

Randomness...

What's that saying about paybacks? Oh, right, it has a not-so-nice word in it....so being the good girl that I am, I won't write it here. But you know what I'm thinking right? And I'm thinking it in context of the weather here.....it's cold! As in 55 degrees. And the high tomorrow is 60 and the high on Sunday is 61. And it's rainy! So why paybacks? Because I was complaining about how hot it was here just two weeks ago!!! And now I'm wearing a sweater and my fuzzy slippers from Land's End. Hence my thoughts on paybacks today. By the way, in these multiple family houses, they shut off the heat (completely) from early May or so until October. So I can't even turn on the heat if I want to, even when the lows at night are in the 40s....
I'm also thinking about mourning doves. Why? Because there's one parked outside and as far as I can tell, it lives around here full time. I hear it now, even with the window closed. I hear it in the morning when I wake up, even with the window closed. Aaargh!
Plans for this weekend....clean, clean and clean some more. (Exciting, right??) I want everything to be organized! I just wish someone else wanted to organize it for me! My wardrobe is being delivered Monday morning and it will be good to get all my clothes off the floor.....here's hoping it fits through the door!!!
Sunday I want to check out the BGG. It's a big church here in the area that Simi's dad recommended to me...
I bought a phone on Wednesday that is supposed to operate with Skype....Super, right? Yep, except I didn't read that you have to have Windows in order to install the software. And I love my Mac, but it doesn't have Windows.....Hmmmm......so I emailed Philips to ask if they have the software available for Mac, but I'm not expecting a positive reply. So I think I will probably be having my first experience with returning something to a store in Germany next week....Wish me luck........(How do you say "not compatible with my computer" in German???)
What do you have planned for the weekend? Surely it's more interesting than cleaning! Gee, it seems that I am in a bit of a negative mood this evening....I think it's the weather. I'll try to be more positive with the next post!

Ho hum and the Princess Bride

I unfortunately have no TV at the moment. My building and the building next door share a satellite dish. And it was switched from analog to digital on Friday night. So now I have to call up some company to come and put in a new cable for the dish. So I'm not getting any signal. And while I bragged earlier that I hadn't watched TV since the WM finals, I now realize that was due less to my lack of desire to watch TV and more to actually having fun people around to talk to.....now living alone and with all the shops closing around 7, I find that TV is a very useful source of distraction to pass the hours until bedtime. Without it, I'm quite bored...(I think I need to go to the bookstore!)...Therefore, to amuse myself, I did a google search on americans living in Germany and found all sorts of interesting blogs and ultimately a quiz on the Princess Bride. I, apparently, am Buttercup, which actually doesn't surprise me much....Which character are you? Take the quiz, please, it's short and let me know. I'm curious....


Which Princess Bride Character are You?
this quiz was made by mysti"

I do have a car of my own now! Pictures will follow eventually, when I can be sure that my neighbors aren't watching that strange american take pictures of her very ordinary, not so new model year car....

I do not, however, have a couch. It didn't fit. They even took my front door off the hinge, removed the railing from the stairs and managed to get it through the front door of my apartment. But then they couldn't get it out of my hallway into the living room. I contemplated telling them that it could stay in the hallway, but I think it would be a fire hazard and I would probably wish it wasn't there pretty soon, so I let them take it back. They measured to see if they could hoist it up to the balcony, but once they got it there, it still wouldn't fit through the door or the window. So, off to storage it goes, sadly, for the next three years. And now I need to buy a couch.

Saturday, I not only bought a car, I also bought my wardrobe/armoire. I think I mentioned that there aren't closets, right? So I had to essentially buy one. Unfortunately, it won't be delivered for the next ten days or so, so I have to continue to iron (gasp, yes, me iron and no, mom, I don't iron while wearing the clothes any more....burning myself and the subsequent incessant teasing that I should come with a warning label taught me a lesson) prior to wearing my clothes. Let's just hope that this piece of furniture passes through my door! ;o)

What I know

Ok, so here's what I know. I know where I live - I can find my apartment without navigation, at least coming from a certain direction. I know that none of my stuff was broken in the move. I know my apartment is a mess....did I mention that there are no closets? So until I buy some cabinets or cupboards, most of my stuff (except what goes in the kitchen and bathroom) is lying all over my apartment. I know that I have climbed the stairs to my apartment 19 times in the last two days - both inside and out. I know that I never want to do that again in the span of two days. I know that the movers have a much higher number from one day - Friday. I know my cats are very confused. And I know that my couch did not fit through the doorway of my apartment. It's back with the freight company in their warehouse and they might be able to deliver it by an elevator from outside....if they can get the elevator to balance on the stairs outside my building and if it will fit through the door or window on my balcony. But that all might not be possible, so I know that I might have to buy a new couch. And my couch might have to stay in storage here for the next three years.
There are of course things I don't know, like which garage is mine and how the lift system in the garage works. I don't know if my neighbors can hear the cats when they jump down to the floor from the table, the bed or the counter. I don't know how the trash system here works.
But to go back to what I do know....I know that I'll figure it all out. And I know people to ask when I just don't know. And for that I'm very grateful!
I haven't made the guest beds yet, but they're in place. So email me with your flight information and I'll be sure to make them before you get here. :)
Pictures are to follow.....once I've cleaned up!
Good night!!!

Pictures....

Okay, I think I figured out Flickr. But we'll see...if I did, then you can see the scenic photos from last Sunday here. And just for fun, here are some pictures of the Jemma...

I came home from work to find her here. This is a shelf on the upper kitchen cabinets.....Hmm, and I wondered what they do while I'm at work.

And then I woke up to find her here. She had found her way between the buttons on the bottom of the duvet, so that she's actually laying inside of it. She was all the way in there with her head covered, but I made her come out for the picture, which is why she's looking a little grumpy.

Yesterday I was required to go to an intercultural seminar. I was the only American. There were lots of Brazilians, some Chinese, some Japanese, an Italian, a Venezualan, an Indian couple, an Australian and a Korean couple. And basically we just had to say all the things we think are different (or strange) about Germany or the German people. We wrote these things on cards and then we talked about them. It was interesting to see how all these different nationalities found the Germans to be different. I didn't really learn much from the seminar, but I did find meeting all these people to be pretty interesting.

Tomorrow's the big move day. It's supposed to be cooler than it has been, so the movers should be happy. But it might rain, so that could be not so good.

It takes Deutsche Telekom about 10 days to set up the internet and the request went in today or will go in tomorrow, so posting might be a little sparse for the next couple of weeks.....

And

one more thing....the price of gas!!!! I paid today 1.37 Euro/liter or $1.72 for a quarter of a gallon (approximately). It costs me almost 70 Euro (~$88) to fill my not so big tank! Makes the gas prices in Michigan sound pretty good, huh??? And the prices fluctuate here, too. It went up .10/liter with the conflict in the Middle East....

Wow....

...have I been deliquent! It has really been a long time since I posted! Oops. Let's see, since I posted I got a cell phone (it's so flat!! The technology here is pretty advanced!), I think I found a car and I met most all of the leadership of Bosch's Diesel System division, including the President. So, the car....it's a 1999 Mercedes A160 with only 14,000 km. That's not even 9,000 miles (thank you Apple for including a unit converter in the Dashboard of my laptop!!). That's less miles that I was putting on my car at home in a year! So I think it's a pretty good deal. But I haven't actually seen it. The older (I found out today that it's politically incorrect to say old) gentleman who is turning it in to the auto dealer is supposed to bring it this week. So the auto dealer is supposed to call me and then we'll go look at it and sign the papers if it's actually as good as it sounds.

The other big news!! My stuff is being delivered on Friday!!! It's not in the bottom of the ocean, it's in Germany! I'm really happy about that. It will be a little weird to live by myself again, but it will be nice to be close to work and to have all my stuff. I don't think that the Lauks (Simi's parents) read my blog, but I'm going to write anyway that they've been amazing hosts. I haven't felt at all like a guest, but instead really like a part of the family. And having homecooked meals all the time is pretty great! We eat pretty well around here! (Thanks, Simi and Mats, for arranging this for me!!)

It's hot here, though. Today it was around 90. We have air at work, but it's not so fantabulous. So, it's pretty muggy. And we don't have air at home. So it's just downright hot. It's supposed to be a record high 37 C on Thursday or 98.6 degrees. Lots of offices don't have air so the government is urging employers to pay special attention to the temperature in their offices and send people home if necessary.

The other thing that happened last week...I took a German test. And I did pretty well...so well that Bosch internally can't offer me any lessons. I have to go to an external company for one on one lessons. So I'm pretty proud of that. Tomorrow I have to go to Bosch headquarters for an intercultural seminar. I guess this is where they're going to tell me everything about these strange German ways. :)

Last Sunday we walked in the mountains and I have some pretty good pictures which I'll put up soon. The scenery here continually amazes me. I love that one minute you're in the city and then 20 or so minutes later, you're in the middle of a cornfield or a vineyard.

I am really struggling with the keyboard here. My keyboard at work is different, of course. And I use that so much that I'm actually getting used to the fact that the z and the y are switched. Or that I have to press shift to get the apostrophe. So then when I come home and try to type, I make all kinds of mistakes and it's (or it"s) making me nuts!

This past Sunday we went to a Backhaus fest in one of the neighboring villages. The women of the little villages used to take turns baking the bread in a "baking house" in the village. So now they celebrate and make these cakes with onions or with cinnamon and sugar (they remind me a little bit of quiche, but not exactly). So we went there and met the neighbors and lots and lots of other people. It was really fun.

Have I mentioned yet that I have to go two towns over for gas? Unlike at home, where there's a gas station on every corner, here you actually have to go aways to get to the gas station. Which is fine, as long as you keep in mind that you might have to drive to get gas. So no more "almost empty tank" Sarah (thanks for that trait, Dad), no siree. When that needle gets to 1/4, I'm at the gas station. Because you never know when you might get stuck in a traffic jam. And the next gas station might be quite a ways away. This morning, the drive that should take me 40 minutes took almost two hours (and that was with my wonderful Navigation telling me to get off the freeway, because it was backed up for 14 km because of an accident - I'm so buying a navigation system for my car!!!!). And then going home was okay, a little traffic, but not terrible, but headed in the opposite direction, the traffic was backed up for 10 km. People were actually standing out on the autobahn, because they really weren't moving. Like I said before, we don't know what we're talking about when we talk about traffic jams!
One last little tidbit....I haven't watched TV since the end of the World Cup! I'm sure my reality TV friends (yep, you know who you are :) won't really believe that!

Skype

Did you download it yet? Because I now have a headset and would be soooo happy to hear your wonderful voices!! It's easy, it's free and best of all, if you download it, we can talk!!! Download it here, send me an email with your Skype name and I'll talk to you soon!

Vienna

First I have to tell you that on Monday as I was walking to work at our little plant of 12,000 people or so, I ran into Joe on the way into my building. Joe is also an expat and I have known Joe since before I worked at Bosch, because I used to work with his mother-in-law, Gisela and his wife, Tina, used to be a teaching assistant at Wayne State. Of course, I knew they were here, but I thought that I would have to email them in order to get in touch with them. I really didn't think I would just run into him. So that was a nice surprise!

On Monday afternoon, we flew to Vienna for a conference with all the HR people from around the world who work in the Diesel Systems division. The flight there is only about one hour and it's a small plane. On the way, though, there were lots of thunder storms. So just before landing, the pilot had to make some really sharp maneuvers to avoid them. I've flown quite a bit, but I can honestly say that was the first time I really thought the plane might crash. It was pretty scary.

But, thankfully, we got there safely and took a taxi to our hotel, a very nice four star hotel, the Gartenhotel Altmannsdorf. Then we met up with most of the other Bosch people and took a bus to downtown Vienna. Vienna has so many old buildings and it's really quite lovely.





















We had a tour guide give us a walking tour. And this was a pretty serious tour of about 2 hours. (Europeans are serious about walking! But it was good, because we ate very well during the trip and all the walking was an opportunity to burn off the calories!!) I took a few pictures of the Hofburg palace, which was the winter residence of the Hapsburg family, who were the rulers of Austria for many years.

I promise that we worked while we were in Vienna. And actually, we worked pretty hard. But they had also organized a really great program for sightseeing in the evenings as well.

So on Tuesday, we went to the Riesenrad, which is a giant ferris wheel, originally built in 1897 and then rebuilt in 1945. It's a symbol of Vienna. It's 212 feet high and moves really slowly. It has cabins rather than seats. If you didn't know, I'm more than a little afraid of heights, so this was a pretty big deal for me. I took pictures, but I was definitely holding on the whole time. It was also very nice, because they provided champagne for us to drink while we rode the Riesenrad. So it was very luxurious!
Here are a few pictures of the view of Vienna from the Riesenrad.














































On Wednesday night, we went to the summer palace of the Hapsburg family, Schloss Schonbrunn, which is very beautiful! Unfortunately, we weren't allowed to take photos inside.
The Hapsburg family has a very interesting story, if you ever have time to read up on them!!


























Then we walked to dinner at a restaurant that our tour guide said was the best restaurant in all of Vienna. We had Tafelspitz, which is meat cooked in a soup with some vegetables and bones. First, you eat the soup. Then, you take the marrow out of the bone and spread it on toast, add salt and pepper and eat. Then you eat the meat, which is served with creamed spinach, hash browns and an applesauce and horseradish mix. I assure you that I tried everything.

Except the bone marrow.

I would highly recommend a trip to Vienna. My only caution would be that you go in spring instead of summer. It was incredibly hot and as European standards are different, this four star hotel (voted the best hotel in Vienna) had no air conditioning in either the guest or meeting rooms. So it was pretty uncomfortable. And walking in that much heat is not the happiest thing. But I met a lot of great people from around the world, who I look forward to working with!!

We came back on Thursday afternoon, I worked yesterday, today I picked up my keys (my landlord is very nice, I can move in whenever I want and I met the previous tenant, who works for Bosch and is moving to Bamberg, the plant in Germany that I'm responsible for). Now you're up to date. Oh, except that I should tell you that I switched cars, because Europcar sold the Opel I was driving. So I'm now driving a BMW again! :o)

Oh, and one more thing. I said I would look for pictures of the plant. Well, I didn't find any actual pictures. But I did find the site layout, which might give you an idea of how big it is. We have a really great arial photograph on our wall and if I ever find the electronic version, I'll share it with you. But for now, this is the best I can do. I work in building 343, which is sort of on the lower left. And I park at Tor 10 now. But before I was parking at Tor 7, so you can see I wasn't kidding about the walk!




I hope you're having a fantastic weekend! I miss you all and I so appreciate the comments and emails. Please, please keep 'em coming!

Finally....

I have some pictures! First, here's the one I think is the funniest!! My cats love water and so they like hanging out in the bathroom. It's been suggested that I should perhaps leave the lid on the toilet open and maybe then they wouldn't need a litter box.....Wouldn't that be nice!











Here's where we watch football....The glass wall slides open and it's generally pretty cool inside. There's a table, so we eat in there sometimes and because of the nice weather, the TV is outside in there right now.




And there's a garden, with kohlrabi (I looked it up and it's called the same thing in English), zucchini, lettuce, other vegetables and if this was panoramic, to the right you would see raspberries and another kind of berry, but I don't know what it's called in English and can't find it in the dictionary.

The backyard is in three levels. The garden is on the highest level, the TV house (that's not what it's called, but I don't think it really has a name) is on the middle level and then there's a table on the lowest level, just outside the back door. And everywhere, there are flowers....

Oh, and sometimes there are kids around, too....This is Jonas.
And the view from the backyard is pretty good...












This weekend is very exciting! Today, I get to go pick up the keys to my new apartment. The old tenants and the landlord are doing the final walk-through today, so they thought it would be easy enough for me to come as well and pick up the keys. And then I talked to one of the former expats from Bosch, who is moving out of his apartment this weekend. He has a combo washer/drier and a TV that he's giving to me! So we're going to pick those up tomorrow and hopefully take them directly to the apartment (I have to doublecheck that this afternoon).

I'll blog about Vienna separately. But I do have one last picture to share (with Heather's permission of course!), this one from America. This is the adorable Henry (Hank) Wood on his first birthday!

One more thing.....

Today the air freight came! So I will finally be able to share some pictures with you.....But at the moment, blogspot is really being difficult, so we'll see when you get to see them. Here are a few pictures of the area from some other people, in the mean time: Hohenlohekreis. (It's so humid today that the snowy picture in that link actually looks good.....the heat must be getting to me!!). My favorite thing is that you are so close to the city, but you have the mountains just out the window!
I'm sooooo happy to have the stuff I need to keep the cats fed and watered while I'm in Vienna next week!!! And having a few more clothes and shoes is pretty good, too!
So because I was late to work (the delivery guy couldn't find the little town of Scheppach, because it wasn't on his map, so he came at about 9:15, instead of between 8 and 9), I decided to drive all the way into work. It took about 40 minutes. Then I found the parking lot, which took a few more minutes. Then I had to walk - and I'm not even kidding here - like a quarter or half mile (I don't know, I'm really bad at distances, but it was so not kidding, really far away). At some point, I'll try to load some pictures of the factory or at least a site plan so you can get an idea of how massive it is. Anyway, I decided from that experience that generally, taking the train is much more preferable, due to the proximity of the train station!
Oh, my other favorite thing here - minimal speed limits on the autobahn. When there is a limit, it's usually 120 km, which is 74.6 miles per hour. When there's no limit, well, then there's no limit. My little Opel is pretty speedy!! If you know me well, you know that my lead foot is enjoying this greatly!!!!!
All right, well that turned into more than one thing.......Gute Nacht!

Introductions

I've been thinking a lot about introductions lately. What's the value of a first impression? How easily do we allow our perception of people to change over time? Why do we snap to negative judgement in some cases and in others keep an open mind for a while? I don't know....these are just some of the thoughts that have been running through my mind lately.

Needless to say, I've met a lot of people in the last few days. People at church, neighbors, people at work, realtors....And I wonder how I come across in German. I know I don't talk as much (some of you might be thinking that's a good thing ;). Anyway, musings.....

Yesterday was good. I was in line for thirty minutes to get an ID badge. Because of the president's visit on Monday, they weren't making badges. So there were a lot of people there on Tuesday. This badge is different than my Farmington Hills badge. I use it to not only badge in and out of the gates and doors, but also to clock in and out and I can load it with money to pay for lunch at the cafeteria. Speaking of clocking in and out - it's very odd since I haven't done that in like 5 years.

Then we had our department meeting. This is where each of the consultants (that's what Leo says the translation is, anyways) goes around the table and talks about important topics that might affect others. It was interesting, but a lot of it went over my head since I just don't know all the processes or at least I don't know how they're called in German.

Then we went to lunch, again. And pretty much it seems like my department regularly goes together. We talked about soccer. And then when we came back, my boss brought out ice cream treats that he had to welcome me. So we stood around and ate those and chatted. Then the guy from the central personnel marketing department, whom I met in Farmington Hills when we first started talking about my assignment, came in. He had an ice cream, too :) and we chatted a bit.

Then I met with one of my colleagues to start to learn about my new job. So here's the deal....I'm responsible for supporting the Diesel System Human Resources people and the Germans on assignment in Turkey, Brazil and Japan. I have to help the HR people with strategic matters and the VAs with succession planning, development, their job upon return to Germany, etc....I'm not sure how it sounds, but it's pretty complicated, because you really have to understand the Diesel Systems business worldwide, find a contact network and understand the situation in each of the plants, which includes understanding the culture in that country. So I learned about Turkey for a while. It was pretty interesting. And I thought it was close, but it takes 8 hours to get to our plant in Turkey, because you have to take a 4 hour flight to Istanbul and then drive 4 hours to the plant (including a ride on a ferry). And the plane to Istanbul leaves around 5:30 p.m....This is all unless you're going with our executive management, because they have a private plane.

Oh, the rest of my job....I'm also responsible for the Bamberg plant here in Germany, the diesel systems trainee program and the biannual (twice a year?) diesel systems HR conference. So it sounds like I'll be busy....eventually.

Last night was a sad night for the nation of Germany.....they lost the soccer game after the extended play with Italy by a score of 2-0. They were so close to the time running out and having to do the 11 meter shoot-out, which most everyone thinks they would have won. So people here are sad....seriously. Now Germany plays on Saturday to see who will be in third place. Who they're playing against will be decided in tonight's game. I have the same philosophy here as I do with the Red Wings....if Italy was good enough to beat Germany, they should win the whole thing! I don't know what we'll do with ourselves, though, now that there's no more football.......

And the President of Germany, too!

The title will make more sense later. But before you read on, I think this is going to be a long one, so grab your popcorn and your soda before you start reading.....
It was a busy weekend. On Saturday, we all had breakfast outside. Then, I picked raspberries in the garden (yep, still promising those pictures...). It reminded me of when I was a kid and we lived in Pleasant Ridge. We had a raspberry bush in our backyard and I remember eating berries right off the bush (yum!). Saturday night (between the two football games) we went to a wine fest in one of the local towns. I tried a couple different types of wine and found a really tasty one that I enjoyed. There were two bands, one playing salsa music and the other playing American oldies. It wasn't crowded when we got there, but there were people everywhere by the time we left. One thing I find really interesting here is that everything we go to/do seems to have such a mix of people, in terms of age.
Sunday, we went to church. I really enjoyed it. No one earns any money from the church, but some of the men take turns leading and speaking. The guy who spoke on Sunday spoke really clearly and I understood his talk and really appreciated what he had to say. Again, I thought it was neat, because while it isn't a big church, there were people of all ages there.
That afternoon, we went to a street festival. It was fun, but so hot that we really didn't stay that long.
So, on to today.

[ok, so I didn't finish this post yesterday. It was late and I was tired. And the cat was playing in the waterbowl, which is super annoying. So I turned off the computer and went to bed. So now it's Tuesday....]

It takes me a long time to get to work here. And on Mondays, it's especially bad. So we left extra early, at 7. I drove about an hour - because of the traffic, not because of the distance - to a train station and took the train from there to a stop down the street from the Bosch plant (supposedly, it's closer than the parking lot...but I don't yet know where the parking lot is!). That takes about twelve minutes. Then I walk for about 5 minutes or so and there I am. I was therefore about a half hour early, but that was fine.
And then I had a short talk with my new boss, whom I like very much. He thinks it's better if we speak in German right off the bat and then when I don't understand, I just have to say so. It's good, but soooo tiring. I have to concentrate so hard. Think about how it is when somebody mumbles or talks really low...you might understand, but you have to really listen to them all the time. That's how it is for me. And then sometimes I just have to say "Huh?" (Of course, I say it in a much more polite manner than that, but you know what I mean.) Then they showed me my desk (there were really lovely flowers there for me) and the computer guy was already there setting up my computer. I have a laptop, but with a monitor and keyboard.
Janina (the assistant in our department) showed me the bathroom, the coffee maker, and the drink machines....what are they called???? You know, when you put in money and it gives you a chilled beverage??? Can't think of it at the moment. But anyway, now I know where the important things are! ;)
Then I worked on the computer for a while - accepting meetings, reading some emails. Then we went to lunch. And on our way to lunch, what did we see? A helicopter landing right at our little plant (of 12,000 workers). And who's was it? Why the president of Germany, of course. That's how they welcome all new associates on their first day....Kidding, of course. But really, the president of Germany was there on my first day. (The story is here: Bosch. I don't know why it's not in English, but you can look at the pictures anyway...and maybe they'll put the English text up soon....)

[Okay, now it's Wednesday and I'm still working on the same posting! I promise to try to finish it today!!]

The cafeteria at Bosch is quite large. They have typical German food, except for this week when they're doing sort of an International theme in honor of the World Cup soccer games. As we were coming out from lunch, the president was driving away and our chairmen were all standing around, so I got a good look at quite a few of them, which is a rare occurence.

After work, I went to the apartment and signed the rental contract. So it's official, I'll be living on Burgherrenstrasse in Feuerbach for the next two years and 11 months. Feel free to stop by any time. ;)

Because work is so far from "home," I didn't get back until 8! So I was pretty tired!!! And I think that was pretty much my Monday. (Finally!)