Our apartment is once again a total chaos! When I left this morning, not only were all the bottles and jars still piled up in the hallway, but all of our new roomate Caro's stuff is strewn throughout the apartment. She was supposed to move in fully yesterday, but painting her room took much longer than they expected. (Amazingly enough, you need more than one coat of white paint to cover a dark green wall..) So we have boxes, dressers, backpacks, a desk, i.e. the complete contents of a furnished room, crammed into our already somewhat cramped common room. I'm really excited to get home from work today though, as by then it should all be gone, including the recycling! Should be fun.
In other news, I got an email a few days ago from the other Foreign Language Assistant here in Bad Oldesloe. "What's this, Another FSA in Oldesloe? Shouldn't Dustin have known about this already?" you may be asking yourself. Well, if she was teaching English, I would know about it! Paula, on the other hand is from Spain, and is therefore, naturally teaching Spanish to the students of the Theodor-Storm-Gesamtschule next door. So we're going to get lunch after school today. I'll be very interested to get her impressions of the school next door, to ask what it's like to live here in Oldesloe, and to finally meet someone around my own age here in town!
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
Monday, October 5, 2009
Comin' down the pike...
Hey folks,
Last week and this weekend were, honestly, pretty uneventful. We spent a lot of time this weekend at home, re-arranging the house somewhat, getting ready for the new roommate to move in on Tuesday. We used Henrike moving out as an excuse to get rid of some of the junk that has piling up in the apartment, including lots of things from people who don't even live in Hamburg anymore, much less in our WG! We also have been experiment with re-arranging the kitchen, trying to improve the breakfast area, and keep the hallway less cluttered. We used to have one of the refrigerators in the hallway, along with two cupboards where we all keep our food, but when we got the hardwood floors partially redone in the hallway, we moved the other fridge into the kitchen. So things have been pretty fluid recently, the apartment seems to change daily! It will be even more extreme when Stephan borrows the company car tomorrow so we can finally get rid of all the junk, and the recycling that has piled up in the apartment. Germans, as you may or may not know, are somewhat crazy when it comes to trash (just look at the trash cans to the right for an idea...)
and recycling. You would think, then, that it would be easy to recycle here, but no, you have to collect all of your old glass and plastic bottles, and take them to the recycling yourself. Well, at least all of the glass that doesn't have Pfand on it, i.e. you get money back when you take it back to the store to be cleaned, refilled, and resold. So the old saying, "You don't buy beer, you only rent it" is true in Germany for the bottles too! In a large apartment like ours, that happens to be located relatively far away from the recyling, it tends to pile up for a while, usually until the piles collapse, or they are so large that they hinder access to the apartment^^ Well, it will all be gone by Wednesday morning, so we won't have to worry about it any more... for a while at least.
Speaking of junk, the old computer monitor I found, and promptly named "Hoss II" in memory of my old CRT, has decided it wants to leave the apartment on the Junkyard Express as well. After lugging it up the stairs, cleaning it up and testing it out, it worked great. When I tried to turn it on again the next morning... nothing. Makes a faint clicking sound when I plug it in, but there is absolutely no reaction from the power switch. Oh well, I guess I really don't NEED two monitors^^
Saturday was actually pretty fun. There was a gigantic fleamarket in Tostedt, Niedersachsen. (Click on the link for pictures from previous fleamarkets.) The entire downtown area was lined with tables and stands selling everything from old junk to new junk, and
fish sandwiches to Glühwein! I found myself a charger for my cell phone (so I don't have to leave my laptop on all night to charge my phone) and a super heavy-duty bike lock, for a grand total of 12€. OH, I guess I haven't mentioned my bike yet! But that is a story for itself, and will be handled in another post. Maybe even tonight if you are lucky!
So, I'm signing off for now, but here's a look at what I will be up to this week (hence the title of this post...)
Tuesday:
1.Stammtisch with Hamburg Fulbright Alumni at Roxies
2. Our new roommate Caro is moving in!
Wednesday
1. All the junk and trash in the apartment disappears!
Thursday
1. Lehrerausflug! We teachers are going on a field trip! A bunch of the teachers here in Oldesloe are going hiking, and then boßeln which is a somewhat strange, yet typically north German combination of shot-put and bocce. Afterwards, we are all going out to dinner together, so it should be quite a fun outing!
OK, I've been sitting at this keyboard way too long, I'm out!
Last week and this weekend were, honestly, pretty uneventful. We spent a lot of time this weekend at home, re-arranging the house somewhat, getting ready for the new roommate to move in on Tuesday. We used Henrike moving out as an excuse to get rid of some of the junk that has piling up in the apartment, including lots of things from people who don't even live in Hamburg anymore, much less in our WG! We also have been experiment with re-arranging the kitchen, trying to improve the breakfast area, and keep the hallway less cluttered. We used to have one of the refrigerators in the hallway, along with two cupboards where we all keep our food, but when we got the hardwood floors partially redone in the hallway, we moved the other fridge into the kitchen. So things have been pretty fluid recently, the apartment seems to change daily! It will be even more extreme when Stephan borrows the company car tomorrow so we can finally get rid of all the junk, and the recycling that has piled up in the apartment. Germans, as you may or may not know, are somewhat crazy when it comes to trash (just look at the trash cans to the right for an idea...)
and recycling. You would think, then, that it would be easy to recycle here, but no, you have to collect all of your old glass and plastic bottles, and take them to the recycling yourself. Well, at least all of the glass that doesn't have Pfand on it, i.e. you get money back when you take it back to the store to be cleaned, refilled, and resold. So the old saying, "You don't buy beer, you only rent it" is true in Germany for the bottles too! In a large apartment like ours, that happens to be located relatively far away from the recyling, it tends to pile up for a while, usually until the piles collapse, or they are so large that they hinder access to the apartment^^ Well, it will all be gone by Wednesday morning, so we won't have to worry about it any more... for a while at least. Speaking of junk, the old computer monitor I found, and promptly named "Hoss II" in memory of my old CRT, has decided it wants to leave the apartment on the Junkyard Express as well. After lugging it up the stairs, cleaning it up and testing it out, it worked great. When I tried to turn it on again the next morning... nothing. Makes a faint clicking sound when I plug it in, but there is absolutely no reaction from the power switch. Oh well, I guess I really don't NEED two monitors^^
Saturday was actually pretty fun. There was a gigantic fleamarket in Tostedt, Niedersachsen. (Click on the link for pictures from previous fleamarkets.) The entire downtown area was lined with tables and stands selling everything from old junk to new junk, and
fish sandwiches to Glühwein! I found myself a charger for my cell phone (so I don't have to leave my laptop on all night to charge my phone) and a super heavy-duty bike lock, for a grand total of 12€. OH, I guess I haven't mentioned my bike yet! But that is a story for itself, and will be handled in another post. Maybe even tonight if you are lucky!So, I'm signing off for now, but here's a look at what I will be up to this week (hence the title of this post...)
Tuesday:
1.Stammtisch with Hamburg Fulbright Alumni at Roxies
2. Our new roommate Caro is moving in!
Wednesday
1. All the junk and trash in the apartment disappears!
Thursday
1. Lehrerausflug! We teachers are going on a field trip! A bunch of the teachers here in Oldesloe are going hiking, and then boßeln which is a somewhat strange, yet typically north German combination of shot-put and bocce. Afterwards, we are all going out to dinner together, so it should be quite a fun outing!
OK, I've been sitting at this keyboard way too long, I'm out!
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