Post-Bank-Depot: Your One Stop Shopping Paradise

I'm back in the good old internet cafe in Braunschweig, typing and listening to The White Stripes beat out "Seven Nation Army" over the room's radio. Now that I know the city a little better, I can tell you that the cafe is on Bohlweg (a street) right next to the Rathaus. The Rathaus - er, literally, the "advice-house" - is just the German name for the local munical/capitol-type building where all of the local government stuff goes on. It's in downtown Braunschweig, which is known as the inner city or "Innen-Stadt". I came here on a bike lent to me by the nice colleague lady I've been staying with. Biking around the city is super fun and super fast. I spent the morning just zipping around town on this bike. I went to a Penny-Markt, which is like a nice cheap little grocery store, except that it also sells some weird stuff like jackets and lightbulbs too.

Oh, a note about German stores: I'm finding that many of them have one main thing that they sell, but that they also sell lots of other strange things, and that these things change from week to week. So, for example, Tchibo may sell mainly coffee ... but one week it might also sell men's and children's clothing and another week it may also sell camping gear. Penny-Markt and Rossman are two other store chains here that do it, so far as I know. So, do American stores do this too? I'm thinking on Starbucks, and how it also sells CDs and miscellaneous things ... but it's not exactly the same situation. Strange.

Anyway, I went to Penny-Markt this morning and bought a nectarine, a sandwich, and some chocolate milk that tasted just like the stuff you get at elementary schools. Nummy - or, as the Germans say, lecker. I also went by my school. It's big. Like, nice and big and roomy on the inside. Which I'm totally not used to in Germany. But I wasn't there to do any work just yet - I don't actually start until Monday. I was just there to meet my colleague, who took me to the Postbank. The Postbank is another one of those mish-mashed stores. It's a post office, but it's also a fully functioning bank and an office supply store. Like Post-Bank-Depot, or something. Anyway, we went there to see if I could open a Girokonto (bank account). Turns out, I have to have an address first. Which brings me to my current trial - finding a room to rent. I've found an okay place with this guy named Peer and I think I may rent from him, but if that doesn't work out I may also have a place with a friend of a friend named Nadine. I'm meeting them both this weekend and should have a place by Monday. Finally.

Oh, and here's another cool thing: I just found out that a German friend of mine from Oklahoma now lives here in Braunschweig. She is, in fact, right around the corner from me. I know someone in the city now, which means I may just have a social life. W00t! I found her on Facebook and gave her my cell number, so I'll let you guys know later if I found her or not.

One more note to add to the Things the Germans Do Differently file: German bedding. Every German bed I've slept in so far has had a bottom sheet (like a fitted sheet) for the mattress and then a big poofy comforter that is not tucked into the bed. There's no top sheet and you don't really make the bed. I mean, there aren't a lot of covers and things to tuck back in. You just fold the comforter - "The Poof", as an old boyfriend of mine who had one used to call it - and lay it on the bed. Also, the pillows are all big square downy things and aren't nearly as firm as American pillows. It took a lot of punching and rolling and such for me to get the ones on my bed like I like them. So, the bedding I like; the pillows, not so much ...