Hey all, a quick technical note: I've added some stuff on the side bar to your left that should make navigation a little easier. First, there's an archive section for all of my old posts. Second, there's a button now that you can click to subscribe to my blog (with or without comments). How cool, yeah? Indeed. Now, moving on:
Good news, lovelies -- I've found a place to live! I'll be living with a lady named Nadine. She and her daughter have a cute, awesome second-story apartment pretty near my school. They live in a quiet old neighborhood with lots of trees and they have a big room open for me. I get to move in on Wednesday, which means that I can finally start the long paperwork process to get my first paycheck. See, coming to a new country and working takes up a lot of paper. First, you must get an apartment. That's a contract, which is a piece of paper. You take that paper to the Einwohnermeldamt (think of it as the office where you go to register "Hey, I live here now!"), where you get the I Live Here piece of paper. You take that to the bank, where you open a bank account. The bank gives you another piece of paper with your bank account number on it, which you take to your work (the school, in my case). Your work takes these various pieces of paper with information on them and files another piece of paper off to the state so that the state will pay you. The state will probably also send you a piece of paper saying "We got your papers" and will then credit money to your bank account electronically every month around the 15th. The funny thing is that nobody here writes checks. It's all e-transfers or cash. All that paper just to get hooked into a paperless banking system ...
In any case, I'll be starting that out. Also, I start school on Monday, which I'm super excited about. I meet with the principal, Herr Thamm van Balen, and maybe with some of the teachers at 8:30 in the morning. Way, way early for me, but the Wilhelm-Gymnasium starts at 7:45, so 8:30 is no problem for them. They're probably all eating lunch by then, having worked a long hard day thus far. At any rate, I'm ready to start teaching.
I bought a camera today. I so love shopping in Germany that it's not even funny. It will probably become a terrible addiction soon. Everything that comes from Germany seems to be well-made, but some well-made things are cheap and some are expensive. For example, I bought a digital camera today for 39€ (I finally figured out how to make the euro sign!). Yes. 39. I don't care if the dollar is 2 to 1 with the euro (which it isn't), that would still be a pretty good camera for $78. Super cool, super cheap. Too bad the shoes aren't all so preiswert.... Oh, I also bought a camera with attached microphone (for 12€) so Skyping is in the cards very soon. Tutorial to follow.
I had an intense moment of homesickness/Heimweh today. It's the first I've really felt, but I sure felt it. I listened to some Flogging Molly on my computer and looked at all of my pictures from home. Then I read my birthday cards from my 23rd (which was just August 28th, not too long ago). The apartment was all quiet and I was looking through these sentimental cards. I completely forgot that the one Mom and Marvin gave me played "Ce-le-brate good times, c'mon!" really loud when you open it ... so, that was a startle. But it made me laugh. Thanks, guys! Also, Daddy, I am p-r-e-c-i-o-u-s, precious!
Good news, lovelies -- I've found a place to live! I'll be living with a lady named Nadine. She and her daughter have a cute, awesome second-story apartment pretty near my school. They live in a quiet old neighborhood with lots of trees and they have a big room open for me. I get to move in on Wednesday, which means that I can finally start the long paperwork process to get my first paycheck. See, coming to a new country and working takes up a lot of paper. First, you must get an apartment. That's a contract, which is a piece of paper. You take that paper to the Einwohnermeldamt (think of it as the office where you go to register "Hey, I live here now!"), where you get the I Live Here piece of paper. You take that to the bank, where you open a bank account. The bank gives you another piece of paper with your bank account number on it, which you take to your work (the school, in my case). Your work takes these various pieces of paper with information on them and files another piece of paper off to the state so that the state will pay you. The state will probably also send you a piece of paper saying "We got your papers" and will then credit money to your bank account electronically every month around the 15th. The funny thing is that nobody here writes checks. It's all e-transfers or cash. All that paper just to get hooked into a paperless banking system ...
In any case, I'll be starting that out. Also, I start school on Monday, which I'm super excited about. I meet with the principal, Herr Thamm van Balen, and maybe with some of the teachers at 8:30 in the morning. Way, way early for me, but the Wilhelm-Gymnasium starts at 7:45, so 8:30 is no problem for them. They're probably all eating lunch by then, having worked a long hard day thus far. At any rate, I'm ready to start teaching.
I bought a camera today. I so love shopping in Germany that it's not even funny. It will probably become a terrible addiction soon. Everything that comes from Germany seems to be well-made, but some well-made things are cheap and some are expensive. For example, I bought a digital camera today for 39€ (I finally figured out how to make the euro sign!). Yes. 39. I don't care if the dollar is 2 to 1 with the euro (which it isn't), that would still be a pretty good camera for $78. Super cool, super cheap. Too bad the shoes aren't all so preiswert.... Oh, I also bought a camera with attached microphone (for 12€) so Skyping is in the cards very soon. Tutorial to follow.
I had an intense moment of homesickness/Heimweh today. It's the first I've really felt, but I sure felt it. I listened to some Flogging Molly on my computer and looked at all of my pictures from home. Then I read my birthday cards from my 23rd (which was just August 28th, not too long ago). The apartment was all quiet and I was looking through these sentimental cards. I completely forgot that the one Mom and Marvin gave me played "Ce-le-brate good times, c'mon!" really loud when you open it ... so, that was a startle. But it made me laugh. Thanks, guys! Also, Daddy, I am p-r-e-c-i-o-u-s, precious!
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