Registering with the city and we got cell phones

When you move in Germany you have 7 days to register your new address(Anmeldung) or pay a fine. Once the lease was signed the countdown was on. First it was the weekend, then I told Pete the office was opened until 6pm when really it closed at 4pm so getting there at 4:45pm didn't get us very far, then it closed at lunch for the rest of the day, and finally it was a success, but only after Pete couldn't find the entrance and had to be let in some emergency door by a very kind man.

 We found that we needed cellphones to order furniture, arrange pickup times, and to generally keep in touch with each other. Pete made his way to the T-Mobile store (they are everywhere here) and picked out our plans and phones. Pete came home with two awesome phones, we have never been owners of awesome phones before, and Jack is in love because he can play Angry Birds-even Space Angry Birds. After he got his phone set up he was going to set up mine, but where was the envelope with the sim card? We looked everywhere: garbage, backpacks, under tables, under couches, and in the refrigerator. We didn't find it. He had to go back the next day and get a new sim card. It all worked out but after three attempts of going downtown to register with the city and not being successful and then not having the sim card-- it just was the topping to a bad week for Pete. I know it has been super hard on him having to do everything for us and try to squeeze in math, but it just shows what a wonderful man he is and how much he loves his family.

 Pete and Jack have discovered a love for NordSee. Jack's new love of fish is surprising to me, but he says that he loves it almost better than candy. Now when Pete and Jack go out together (alone) NordSee is tops on Jack's must-do list. Other members of our family have been eating lots of fish too. Luke has been eating this:

 Thomas has been eating this:

can you believe that there is fish baby food?

Trash separating in Germany is truly a big deal, luckily we have experience thanks to Granny. There are many containers in front of your residence. 1. Paper and cardboard (blue) 2.Plastic and compound materials( yellow) 3.Organic waste(brown container) 4. Household waste (black or grey container). There are also containers in the streets for glass. We have also seen containers for clothing and shoes. You also pay deposits on some (but not all) aluminum, plastic, and glass bottles. If you have deposited bottles you have to return them to the store you bought them. You can either hand it in at the counter or in some grocery stores there is a machine where you put your bottles in, the machine scans it (to make sure they sell that item) then you get a receipt to take up to the counter for either cash or store credit. Pete returned all the bottles in his office today and got 4 euro. 

our deposit bottles

list of what can go in the Gelbe Sack

Organic waste

We bought Apfel liquor, which I think is actually Apple Schnapps. I heard you are supposed to serve it in frozen glasses and after it was chilled, but even warm it is so good.

Jack's shoes got destroyed. They basically fell apart, the insides ended up looking like wet cardboard, and they were no longer shaped quite like shoes. He got new shoes though-- Spiderman shoes. Since they have web power and other super hero powers they make him kick the ball harder/further and he can run faster than ever.

Luke loves to draw and it doesn't matter on what.

he is actually really good at it, and yes there are stickers in his hair

A couple extra pictures-

Jack can hold Luke

Super Cute Thomas

Market and Kindergarten

Wednesday we walked to the Domplatz for the weekly market. I would call it a farmer's market but it is so much more elaborate than the farmer's markets of home. There are these huge tents, carts, and booths some have awnings or an extended tented area with tables and chairs so you can enjoy the coffees, sodas, teas, sandwiches, breads, and dips you've bought.


The meat stands have steak, sausage, and so many different types of meat hanging from their stands and in their display case, it is like going to a butcher.






 The fruit and vegetable stands are abundant with whatever is in season, right now there are the reddest juiciest strawberries I have ever seen or tasted and huge thick white asparagus but don't worry they have the small thin green asparagus too if that is more your speed







The bakery stands are my favorite and there are loaves of fresh baked bread in the back of the booth and at least 15 different cakes and pastries in the display window; I got käsekuchen and Jack got an Amerikaner.

The fish stands have filleted and whole fish with their fishy eyes just staring at you. Pete went to one of these stands and got-I think- a matjes sandwich,raw fish and onion on a roll. Jack and Luke each had bites.

The cheese stands had wheels, blocks, and samples of gouda, tilsiter, butterkäse, steppenkäse, and so many more. We didn't buy any cheese this time, but maybe next time, it all looked so good.


                                                                       There were stands with spices, scarves, hair dye, belts, pelts, flowers, trees, and candy. It was wonderful and for whatever reason as I walked through the image from the movie, Nottinghill, when Hugh Grant is walking through a market kept flashing through my mind.





Our next adventure was enrolling Jack in kindergarten. Kindergarten in Germany is for ages 3-6 and is more like American preschool. I had been emailing the head lady but she wanted me to call, and while I was so afraid to do this I tried, but realized our guesthouse only let us call within the University and not out- so I emailed again and asked if we could just do it face to face. Luckily, she agreed and said there would be someone around who could speak English. We took the bus to what will be our new little town and just rang the bell not sure what to expect. She answered the door and immediately asked if we were the English speaking American family. I wonder--do we look American? What do Americans look like to other people? Her English was quite good and better than our, or at least my, German will ever be, but she was not confident enough to conduct this meeting alone so she lead us to the playground where immediately I almost started to cry(due to happiness), I won't lie, I have had a hard time adjusting and Jack has too, which of course breaks my heart more, so when the first thing I saw were about 5 boys riding bikes and scooters in a circle (just like when we would drop Jack off at Montessori) I about broke down right there, instead I just smiled. The teacher of this group of children spent a year in New Zealand so she speaks the best English, and since she can speak English well they are going to put Jack in her class. Jack and Luke ran off and began playing with the other kids while they told us about the school, went over the contract, and etc. Luke was keeping up with those kids just fine and loved being there as much as Jack, too bad he has to wait another year. There are two girls, sisters, who speak English and German in this class,their dad is American and his grandmother was from Evansville, IN, which is where I am from, so that is just insane to me. We met him, obviously, and he has been living in Germany for 10 years and still doesn't feel like he can speak German, he said for the first two years he was just totally lost. Oh no-- we are only living here for two years! The school day is also very different than the American school day. Drop-off is anytime from 7am-9am depending on what you, as a family, have going on. The kids bring their breakfast(you know rolls, cheese, meat, and fruit--we were told)and they can eat it at any point in the morning then around noon you pick up your kid so they can eat lunch at home and this lasts until 2:30 when you take them back to school. The school day ends between 4-4:30pm. Jack gets to start in June which makes me very happy. We walked to the Catholic Church and two steps to our left the weekly market in Roxel was happening then 5 steps straight ahead was Jack's school.

Roxel weekly market

St. Pantaleon

 Then we walked to our new apartment because the boys and I haven't seen it yet. The walk from the church square to our house is maybe 5 minutes. The inside of the apartment is truly unfurnished. No kitchen, no light fixtures (just wires hanging out where the lights should go), no mirrors, and there are no closets except the hall closet and in there you need to buy the rod that would allow you to hang up your coat. So there is a lot of work to be done but the town is so small and quaint- I think we will end up liking it.

This is the kitchen

In between Roxel and Munster there is the KaufMart which is basically Wal-Mart, and let me tell you no matter how much I dislike what the company of Wal-Mart stands for I love the fact that there is a place where you can get groceries, toys, underwear, gloves, make-up, and etc. Not having a place like this was making me so stressed because I had no idea where to buy stuff like cheap make-up and socks, what about a vacuum, tools, toaster, sheets, and pillows? We won't go all the time because we have to load our haul back into town via bike or bus, but it is nice to know that we can go once a month to load up on stuff we need. Also, it is nice to have when we are trying to stock an apartment. I actually smiled and let out a deep breath when I walked in- perhaps a sad commentary on Americans, but wow I was relieved.

There is still a mountain of stuff to do-a huge mountain- but I am beginning to think that once we've ticked it all off I might be able to relax a little and not want to jump on the next plane home.

Here are a few pictures of us.

Luke unzipped Thomas's bed and they played for 15 minutes before we found them.

Pete enjoying an awesome strawberry

Super cute Thomas

Jack and Luke playing soccer

Me just watching

Jack playing and posing

Luke putting sand on the swings

Jack spinning Luke because he is faster and stronger than me

Prinzipalmarkt and the Store.

On Friday Pete had to teach for the first time, and his students didn't know that their recitation class would be in English and that their teacher spoke NO German. Pete's adviser went to class with Pete to break the news to them and then left. Apparently there were a few intakes of breath but no one said anything. Pete said the students were chattier during class than American students but they didn't complain or act as unprepared as American students, one guy even said that if Pete wanted them to come to the board to show the rest of the class how to do a problem they were used to it-American students don't like doing this because it makes them feel uncomfortable.

Then we decided to take the bus to the Prinzipalmarkt. Now this is a big deal for many reasons. 1. We don't speak German  2. I don't like public transportation due to the stress factor( finding your route, what is proper etiquette, paying attention to your stop, do you have to switch, if you do what happens then, and etc.) something I will have to adjust to while in Europe. 3. In Germany you do things right, quick, and the way they are supposed to be done. There is none of this taking up people's time because you don't know how to do it. There is a strict order and script and it must be followed. Pete went over and over the bus route and over and over what he needed to say and we made sure we had money and we told the kids to get on the bus, be still, and get off quickly (but safely). The bus ride went well, but I am not sure we will do it often because it is very expensive to just take a quick trip on the bus. When we move Pete will probably have to take the bus every week so he will have to buy a monthly bus pass, but at least then he won't have to worry about talking to anyone, he can just flash his pass. Also, I don't think I will ever have the courage to do it alone or alone with kids. I would rather not go. On our way back from the Prinzipalmarkt we bought our tickets at a booth near the bus stop and not knowing what to do I did what the person in front of me did, which was flash the tickets at the bus driver and try to walk back but this was wrong. I had back up step off the bus then step back on in order to put the tickets in some automated machine that stamped them. See, so much stress riding the bus. I would rather have my car, turn my music up, drive where I want, basically how I want, and when I want. 

We got off in front of St. Lamberti Church. It is a Catholic Church and is known for the Anabaptist cages. There are three cages where they put the bodies (after they had been tortured and executed) of the three Anabaptist leaders who took control of the town in 1533-1535. Once the town had been recaptured, the bodies were displayed as a warning to others. We did not go inside any of the churches we saw downtown, and I am not sure when we will, unless we decide to attend Mass at one of them-- they are all still active parishes. The boys have, on numerous occasions, shown us they aren't quite ready to handle themselves in public. While breaking down while in restaurants, shopping, or just walking down the street is one thing, throwing a huge fit or fighting in the middle of a church tour is not something I want to experience. I know they will say to themselves-oh those Americans with their loud voices and even louder kids. 

just above the clock you can see the cages

The stores down there are very expensive, most we won't be able to afford-ever, but we found H&M and it was more our speed. The Prinzipalmarkt is so crowded,there are nice restaurants up and down the street,flower vendors dot the market,and dogs are everywhere and they are allowed in the stores, by the ice cream bars,and in the restaurants. We always get excited and a little sad when we see a Golden Retriever.

Stadtweinhaus- town wine house that is now just used for meetings

St. Ludgeri- one of the oldest Catholic buildings in town. Dates back to 1173

Tradition says that if you are a single 30-year-old male you go to the Rathaus to sweep up bottle caps while family and friends taunt you

Today we went to the grocery store. Pete has been the one going since we moved, but today we made it a family outing. We decided to walk to Lidl. Pete has been going by himself to REWE but Lidl was closer so off we went. We walked down the Promenade past Lake Aa and saw a wedding party-a limo decked out in yellow and white flowers and yellow and white ribbon with about 5 cars behind it also decked out in yellow and white ribbons all honking the whole way down the road. The weather was nice, the walk was fine, but we weren't quite getting where we needed to be. After quite a while we realized we missed the road we needed to go down, so we had to turn around and go back to where we needed to be. Once in Lidl I sort of took a step back because this is not what I thought. It is like Aldi's in America (there's an Aldi's in Munster too but it isn't close to us), you put your Euro in the cart and head through the turnstile and off shopping you go. Now there doesn't seem to be much rhyme or reason to the lay out. The products are not displayed nicely, there are a few shelves but all the items are sort of piled up and in boxes. When you first go in there are jelly and fruit spreads on one side and chocolates and chips on the other side. It didn't quite make sense. It was very compact and crowded feeling and there weren't a lot of options. Pete said that REWE was much much more like an American grocery store and there were more options and more products, but it is the expensive grocery store. Checking out is a fast process and you have to be ready to be fast. You put your groceries on the belt then you start bagging, and you have to be fast because if you aren't the cashier tells you you need to be faster. We are very American in our shopping habits, we had two carts(the carts are super small) and lots of groceries. Almost everyone had just a few things, but we had a week's worth of groceries- we did get weird looks. I tried to bag as fast as I could while Pete put our stuff on the belt,but we still weren't fast enough. Once Pete finished he didn't start helping me bag so the cashier basically told him to help me because we weren't going fast enough. Of course this was in German but it was pretty easy to figure out. Pete ended up just grabbing a handful of groceries and throwing them back into the cart figuring we could bag them outside. I began thinking about why Americans buy so many groceries at once and I figure it has to do with convenience and options. When I am at home maybe I plan on eating burgers but what if by the end of the day we want pasta or what if the kids want grilled cheese? We need all those foods on site just in case. I like to eat cereal everyday but what if I run out, do I really want to go to the store just to get cereal? If I just buy a couple large boxes every couple times I go then I don't have to mess with it. We bought Quark at the store today-it is a spreadable cheese that is high in protein but by itself pretty tasteless. We had vanilla yogurt, fruit spread, fresh strawberries, and Quark all mixed together-- it is so so so delicious. I mean great. The Quark makes it thicker and creamier. So good. Also, the fruit spread was great- raspberries with vanilla.

These things are different

Here are some more things that are different
-they don't use flat sheets, instead they have a down-comforter looking blanket that they place inside what Jack calls a pillowcase.
-the pillows are these very large square flat pillows. I fold mine in half so it is more like I am used to.
-something is different about the coffeepot but I can't quite figure it out since it isn't a huge difference. The last two times I have made coffee about half the water/coffee ended up where it was supposed to the rest appeared to stay in the coffee filter with the grinds. Hmm.... Pete thinks there is some sort of latch that isn't fully catching.
-we haven't eaten fast food here, but we have started watching cartoons, and the commercials for McDonald's show that in a Happy Meal you get nuggets, fries, and a garden salad with cherry tomato.
-the toilet paper is thick and rough not at all soft.
-the water here does not have fluoride but the salt does. So what-increase the salt intake?
-cafes are not for studying, Pete got some weird looks and left after an hour.
-in Germany my kids love Barbie. The first cartoon we found was Barbie Fairy Tales and the kids latched on immediately. Now anything girly Squeezie calls out--Barbie.
-if you are in the bathroom for more than just a minute or two then a fan automatically comes on.
-the washer and dryer should be easy since I have been doing laundry for many years now, but I felt like a college aged boy just learning for the first time and not getting it at all. The cleaning lady happened to walk in while I was trying to figure it out and she showed me ( I don't think she really speaks English so she just did it and then watched while I did it.) When we move to our new apartment( the one we think we are getting) there is no dryer, you just hang your clothes on the clothes line in the attic.
-foods get taxed at different rates. more natural foods are taxed at a lesser rate. Beverages, boxed items, or pre-prepared items are taxed at a much higher rate.
-fruits and vegetables are very expensive here because everything is imported. Our goal is to go to the farmer's market sometime soon to see what prices are there plus it looks huge and really cool.

The weather here is cold and dreary. When we go out it is clear that we should have packed coats, hats, and gloves- everyone has them on, but we do not. When we wake up in the morning and pull back the curtains you see clouds, gray skies, and wetness on the ground every morning. It never rains the way you think of rain in KY or IN, but it just sort of drizzles or spits rain throughout the day-everyday. There are only about 3 hours of sunlight a day.

Pete has been super busy- he went with his adviser to visit a lady who had free furniture and plates to give us. It won't be everything we need but it will be a lot of stuff. A bed for me and Pete, tv, tv stand, food processor, plates, utensils, a side table, and more stuff. This is good because we will have to buy everything for our kitchen. Our apartment is going to be unfurnished and in Germany this means that the kitchen is just an empty room with water hook-ups- no sinks, no cabinets- just an empty room. When you move you take your kitchen with you. We were told you can buy a kitchen on ebay, but we may have a connection to one that doesn't involve bidding.

Pete is going to the bank today to set up our bank account. We still have to fill out paperwork for insurance, but the man who helps with that is in the office when Pete has to be at the bank and getting our free stuff. We have to have insurance before we start our visa process so hopefully the guy will be in his office later this week.

Pete has learned studying in Germany may be difficult for him. He is used to studying at night but this is appearing to be a problem. He went to his office last night to study and around 9:45pm was going to leave when he realized the building was locked and he couldn't get out. He waited to see if someone would pass by but this did not happen, so he just went upstairs and found a wall with phone numbers and just started randomly calling the numbers. He got someone on the phone and fumbled his way through German after learning that the guard did not speak English. While he felt like his German was not good enough at all it must have been good enough to get the guard to understand where he was and that he needed to be let out. How scary and stressful!!!

We miss home a lot, and I am sure we could all go for our favorite fast food and our favorite dog, but adjusting to a new place is never easy and it takes awhile to feel like home. Hopefully in the next few months we can carve out a niche for ourselves. I think that Pete was right when he said that Germany will be enough like America to make things more uncomfortable when they are different.

Our first weekend in Germany

On Thursday Pete left his bike at the math building so we all walked with him to pick it up. Along the way I realized that this town is covered with graffiti. It is everywhere!!! It is odd because in America when I see graffiti I associate it with gangs, and here perhaps it is the same, but when Pete asked if a certain neighborhood was safe he was basically laughed out of town -of course it is safe.  hmm......... well, safe or not, you can't go whole block without seeing graffiti.

One thing we have seen scattered around our walks- cigarette machines on the sidewalk.

Another interesting thing we saw on our walk was what appeared to be an old military installation with razor wire fencing. This is the building next to the math building.

On Friday we decided to walk to the Castle/Palace. We walked around the Botanical Gardens that is part of the ground. We saw some very beautiful and vibrant flowers. On our way out we saw a sign that said the cafe was serving Eis und Kuchen (ice cream and cake). Since most places were closed due to the holiday we thought this would be fun. Being nervous to try this by ourselves for the first time we hemmed and hawed near the entrance then we went for it seating ourselves outside. We figured we would basically get a menu then point or try to pronounce what we wanted while pointing, but things just didn't go that way from the beginning. Pete said, "speisekarte bitte."(menu please). The waitress proceeded to give us a largish spiel about the food-none of which we understood. She gave us a look like-Please tell me what you want now. Oh my- we just wanted a menu and that apparently wasn't in the cards today. After looking at Pete to see if he knew what was going on I said, "Spreche keine deutsch."(I speak no German). While this statement was enough in my mind it didn't offer the much needed follow up statement because she looked at me and said,"Was sprechen dann?"(What do you speak then). I was quick to say English. A wave of relief spread over her face and she then went on to tell us her spiel again. I guess food wise they were serving pommes frites and some small traditional Munster dish but she couldn't really tell us what was in them, and they were serving drinks. She went ahead and got us a menu even though it was only good for telling us what drinks they had. We had wanted the ice cream and cakes but they weren't in the menu and she hadn't mentioned them so we figured we would go with the pommes frites since it was Friday and she hadn't told us what was in the Munster dish. The kids got Fanta which doesn't taste a thing like American Fanta it tastes more like orangeade. Pete got espresso and I wanted a beer, since we know that back in the States I like to drink Hefeweizen, we ordered that. When our drinks arrived my beer was grapefruit flavored. Haha. It tasted good, but very girly. We were told earlier this week that Hefeweizen is the beer of pregnant ladies-so I guess I picked the girliest beer around. Our pommes frites arrived with a side of mayo-- which is how you eat them here. After we had finished we noticed the waitress bringing a table an ice cream menu. Oh man. Not sure if you had to ask for the ice cream menu specially, but we weren't going to find out because our children became HORRIBLE!!! Some people can take their kids out to eat-- we cannot. Yelling, screaming, throwing shoes, sitting on the table, crying, trying to run away, and loudly saying how cold they were. It was very cold (in the 40s) but still this is not how you act in public. I am not sure we will ever experience a real German restaurant because I doubt our kids can handle it. Not sure if we did this the correct way or not, but we flagged the waitress down to ask for our check. We figured not following the rules would be better than 3 screaming kids ruining everyone else's cake. Once the waitress went to get our total, I rushed our kids out of there, leaving Pete to pay alone. People did stare quite a bit- I don't think German kids act like that in public.

Jack in front of the Castle/Palace

This row of flowers was so bright and colorful

Picture of castle from the garden

Cafe where we tried to order ice cream but got french fries instead

On Sunday we slept through Easter Mass, which was disappointing because that would have been a neat experience, but we have next year too. Once people woke up and got mobilized we decided to walk to the Promenade and around Lake Aa. It was sunny and around 45 outside- we put lots of layers on the kids after what happened Friday. It was so beautiful to see the sailboats, paddle boats, and ferries out on the Lake. The path around the lake was full of bikers and walkers. It made me realize that on a 45-degree day in the States you probably wouldn't see so many people outside walking and enjoying the day. Before now you wouldn't have seen me do it, but once you get out and start moving you just feel so much more energized. I am not sure that you would even see that many people walking around outside in America on a 70 degree day. Pete commented that we hadn't seen any obese people the whole time we have been here. It is true. Perhaps we have seen people who could lose 10lbs, but none have been what I would call fat. Even with all the beer and bread the lifestyle doesn't lend itself to obesity.

Getting familiar with our surroundings

We are still trying to get on a schedule and it is not working out at all. At this point it feels like we may never leave this apartment for more than 30 minutes. Right now the boys still want to go to sleep around 7pm EST, which doesn't really help when that is 1am here. Of course, this means we wake up around lunchtime and then the boys are still cranky and want to take a nap around 4:30pm. This is becoming a vicious cycle. We woke them up slightly earlier today- 10:45am and I am going to try for no naps today so they can go to bed at a decent time. It would be nice to visit our town a little more. Things shut down pretty early so our schedule isn't really giving us the opportunity to sight see. Pete has gotten out a bit more but not much. The university here isn't on a centralized campus like in the States. It is spread out in one part of town. You see a bakery, a hair salon, the music building, apartments, cafes, the physiology building, and so on. The administration building is an old castle but we haven't made our way there yet.

 We did eat lunch with Peter Albers at a university dinner hall. They have screens when you walk in that tell you the three dinner options upstairs and the dinner options or build your own salad options downstairs. Then the main part is just like a regular dinner hall with the big open area and many tables full of college kids. I didn't go with the Peters to get food but Pete told me later that the biggest difference was that there were actual older women with hair nets cooking the meals. When you leave you take your tray and put it on tray racks and a cafeteria lady takes it from there. It reminded me of elementary school.

 The Peters went to buy some food at a grocery store but I stayed home with the three kiddos. Pete said it wasn't much different from American stores and there were some American products there and we bought a few. The beer Pete bought had 20 bottles and came in a heavy plastic crate- you save the bottles and crate and get your deposit back which was about 3 euro so it is pretty significant. He ended up paying for two plastic bags since he didn't bring ours( we did pack a few of our cloth bags) and had to bag the groceries himself. The grocery store isn't easily accessible to us so the Peters are going again tonight. They have to go tonight because the long holiday weekend starts Friday and nothing in town will be open. Friday, Sunday( though on Sunday everything is closed anyway), and Monday are all part of the holiday. I asked what holiday and when Peter said Easter I felt dumb, but in America we do not get Friday- Monday off and the towns certainly don't shut down completely.

 Bikes are everywhere and it is easy to see how Munster got the name Biking Capital of Germany. They rule the town and if you cross into their lane even a little bit they ring their bells, give dirty looks, or yell. As you walk down the street there are red brick lanes which are the biker's lanes- don't stray into those. Getting off the bus you have to step across the red brick lanes but we watched as a biker angrily let a bus rider know he shouldn't be in the red lane- so if you must cross it be fast and make sure bikes aren't coming. I will also answer Granny's question about helmets-- no they don't wear bike helmets here.

We did have a few minutes yesterday to walk around and we found a playground. The boys were so excited. We learned once we got home and looked at a map that if we had followed the path around we would have come to the old Castle( new administration building) and botanical garden that are part of the grounds.

little castle like structure right before the playground that the kids can run through

the path that led to the playground

this swings back and forth and side to side

boys love trucks in all countries. also, the boys are wearing socks on their hands because we didn't pack winter coats or accessories and it was drizzling and cold

metal slides?!

this is a merry-go-round, it spins in a circle

On the way back Jack kept saying how much Germany was like America. He was excited to find out they have birds, trees, playgrounds, dogs, and cars. I am not sure what he thought it would be like but I am glad it doesn't seem too foreign to him. Looking at the cars around town you see BMW, Fiat, Mercedes, Volkswagen, Opal, and Ford. The cars are all small and vans seem to be mostly delivery vehicles. I may have seen one van that looked like a family car but it was hard to tell.

These are the cars parked on the street and sidewalk and it is like this everywhere we have been. Mom and babies have to share their walking lane (the gray brick) with parked cars.

Inside our apartment it pretty standard. The people running the guesthouse are beyond prepared and thoughtful. The apartment was furnished with plates, utensils, bunk beds, dressers, pans, tv(we don't use it), step stools for kids to reach the sink, a potty training chair for Luke, a pack and play bed for Thomas, broom, vacuum, towels, and they let us use bikes for our month stay. The heat is very expensive and not very warm when it is on. There are units(similar to what  you see in American hotels) in every room. So after the first day we have just left them off. Hot water for showers is short lived, there is a tank above the toilet that warms water once you press a button, but we have yet to finish a shower with hot water still going. In this apartment there are no tubs but some apartments do have them. No microwaves, at least not here, but really that isn't a huge deal. The bed for Pete and I is what looks like two single beds connected, so there is a crack in the middle, and this has become the children's favorite place to play or get stuck. We have been offered furniture for later and this type of bed was once again offered to us so I am not sure if this is standard or not. The toilet has buttons on the wall- a big oval and a small oval and you flush based on how much water you need for what type of business you had to do on the toilet.

We bought some pretzels and bread from a bakery the other day and she knew we spoke English so she told us our total in English. It was very nice. The fresh fruit and veggie store where Pete bought me a coke did not use English but the total was on the cash register. Speaking of Coke it is all over the place so it is quite easy to come by, but 1L of coke is more expensive than 1L beer. Coke comes in plastic bottles and again you pay a deposit this time it was 15 cents so I need to save it so we can get our deposit back. The taste is slightly off but it is really hard to tell until the after taste. I think there is real sugar or at least more real sugar in it vs corn syrup. I won't complain though- I am just glad to have coke readily available to me.

Pete is going to look at an apartment today. There is an apartment about 20 minutes outside Munster in a town called Roxel that is not furnished(meaning no kitchen shelving and etc) and at this point we are unsure how large, but it is 500 euro less a month so it may be worth it. The apartment is also located within walking distance of a grocery store, bank, and farmer's market so again all positives. We aren't sure if something fell through with the original apartment or if they are just giving us options. The secretary was out of the office when Pete went in yesterday. I suppose I will find out more when I see Pete tonight.

So hopefully next time I write we will have a better schedule and have seen more of the town.

bye.