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.