So we collected the keys on Monday and viewed the apartment for the first time. We were very pleased from the moment we stepped inside. It is a lovely newly renovated apartment, on the 13th floor of a huge apartment building in the Olympic Village. We have a nice open plan lounge/kitchen and a separate bedroom with plenty of cupboard space. Our only issue has been with the bathroom, more specifically the shower - and we managed to fix half of the problem thismorning. The shower hose is too short and poor Michael has to crouch to fit under. I only just fit so you can imagine how short the hose is. The pressure was also shocking, but that's the bit we were able to fix.
We moved in officially on Thursday and have settled quite quickly.
So all in all, we are very happy. I suppose I should show you around!
Welcome to our home! This is the entrance including coat rack and shoe rack. Clearly we are already making use of both - including the coats - it has recently gotten quite chilly!
Once you walk in, you see our lovely lounge room. The lounge itself pulls out into quite a generous soafabed. For our future visitors - you know now where you will be staying!
This is the view from the other angle. We have a nice tv and radio/docking station.
Similar view, but now you can see our kitchen/dining/laundry. Yes, our kitchen contains a dishwasher (yay!) and a washing machine/dryer. We are very pleased. And all the utensils, crockery and cutlery came with the place so we don't have to buy a thing.... except a muffin pan!
The kitchen may not look so big to some, but after what we have experienced with kitchens here so far, it is really quite huge in comparison. For most Germans, a kitchen is not a standard inclusion in an apartment, most people eat out every night and never cook, so we positively love our kitchen!
Our bedroom is a strange shape to work with, quite long so we can't turn the bed, but the view is lovely. And after 5 weeks of bad beds and bad pillows, this is now heaven.
And lastly - the view from our balcony. We are one of the tallest buildings in the area, and there is very little noise at all as it is a green zone area - all the roads are underground and you walk everywhere at ground level here. We actually got a fright thismorning when a dog barked loudly downstairs. We have been enjoying the serenity and silence since leaving our other place in the hustle and bustle of Maxvorstadt, and the sudden noise made us jump! But sunsets here are beautiful and early in the morning the frost at groundlevel is also spectacular.
So other than new apartment - I have to say I am also really starting to settle at work. Yesterday I had to spend my whole Saturday at work for a planning meeting. Just as well I was able to treat it as an opportunity to be immersed in the German language. I was quite proud of just how much I was able to understand. It was still very fast and I missed words here and there, but I got quite alot of what was happening. I also managed to get myself onto the Ski course with the kids - I'll be going as a teacher, as they needed an English teacher on board, but I'm excited all the same!
I also was really pleased when the new planned Englischer Vorschule program was approved. I spent Friday with my English team working out our ideas for a program and it was really pleasing for my team and I to see it go through at the meeting. I am really looking forward to starting that program with students in October.
The best bit of all was being invited out to after work drinks with my new colleagues last night. It may not seem like much but seeing as we have only been here a month, it was really nice to feel welcome and accepted so quickly and that the language barrier is not really a barrier! To be fair, two of the colleagues I went with were my English team, but the others are my Tiger team who are native Germans. We had a good laugh at the use of expressions and gestures to just get our ideas across!
The day finished nicely too when Michael and I finally found an awesome Sushi bar. And while we were enjoying our sushi, a lederhosen whip cracking accordion group put on an incredible display not 15 meters away on the main road. So a fantastic night all in all!
I also promised news of Michael's bike ride - but unfortunately that did not eventuate due to a few stuff ups in communication between Michael and his friend. But it will happen soon. Ikea will happen soon too! Due to work commitments yesterday, and shops being closed here on Sundays, I am yet to experience the amazingness that is ikea in Germany. That will be next Saturday.
Lastly, I must comment on the process that was 'holidays' discussion at the work meeting yesterday. We arrived and commenced the meeting at 9am. The first point of business was the decisions and mapping of when everyone was going to take their holidays. This took 2 whole hours! I am not even kidding. I have never ever seen anything quite as serious as holiday discussions! I am lucky that all of my holidays for the next year have been approved - and I still have more than 10 days to use up. We are trying to take two days off here and there and tag them onto weekends so we can have long weekends away. The first of which is next week - we are off to Berlin! YAY! We are also trying to book a trip to Vienna for our anniversary early December, Paris for New Years, Sweden for my birthday in February, and 9 days in Italy at the end of July for Michael's birthday! Like I said, still 10+ days to use up.... hmmmm, where else shall we go?
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