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!