Friday, February 29, 2008

Friday, February 29, 2008

Champagne Wishes and Dim Sum Dreams

Happy Leap Year! Yesterday, I learned the difference between champagne and sparkling wine. Some of the activities organized by the American women's club I joined, include daytrips to museums, factories, etc. So I decided to go on a tour of the Kupferberg museum and cellars in Mainz with the group. Technically, Kupferberg produces "Sekt" which falls between champagne and sparkling wine. After a sample glass of rose Sekt at the end of the tour, we all went out to lunch at a Mexican restaurant.

On Wednesday, I got to see the seedier side of Frankfurt. The women's club had organized a dim sum lunch. The restaurant was in the red light district. I stepped out of the central train station and because I was overpunctual (as usual), I decided to walk around a bit. I kept thinking "must not make eye contact with anyone" as I walked down Taunusstrasse. That was the first time I've seen an internet porn cafe...

The dim sum was very good (that means, no chicken feet or thousand-year-old eggs) and I enjoyed meeting new people. One of the women told me that the Taunusstrasse is actually fairly safe because they have had so many cops patrolling that area. Must make mental note not to go there again.

Monday, February 25, 2008

Monday, February 25, 2008

Yellow Garbage Bag Eve

I have a hard time keeping track of all the different garbage pick-up days. We are supplied with yellow plastic bags that are picked up twice a month. These are for recycling packaged goods marked with the green dot recycling symbol (looks like a ying yang symbol with arrows). Paper and cardboard belong in a blue garbage bin that is picked up once a month. We have to bring glass to designated glass containers. The rest goes into our grey garbage bin. Every neighborhood has its designated days for paper and yellow bag pick up.

I can't wait for the day when we are out of renovation/move-in mode and can begin to explore the area. We went for a nice walk on Sunday. It was beautiful out - 16 degrees C and sunny. On our walk, we saw two dogs chasing a rabbit across a field. B managed to whistle one of the dogs over and distract him. The other dog soon was called back by his owner and luckily the rabbit was spared. We were impressed by the speed and endurance of the rabbit. After our walk, we ate at the nearby farm and treated ourselves to German pancakes and cranberry sauce for desert.

I have found an American women's club in the area, contacted them and I'm going to a newcomers coffee this week. It's an attempt to develop social contacts in the area. I hope they have tea too because I don't drink coffee.

Sunday, February 17, 2008

Sunday, February 17, 2008

Childproof

B was installing lights this past weekend. We noticed that our apartment had been thoroughly childproofed. To plug anything into a electrical outlet you have to slide the plug into place, and the balcony doors have locks and alarms on them.

We are using energy-saving bulbs as much as we can. IKEA has some cool and inexpensive lighting solutions. For the dining room and the living room we want to install something fancier. B and I disagree a little on that point - he wants to put a fluorescent tube on a wide ledge above the balcony door to shine up and provide indirect lighting against our cathedral ceiling. Well.. ok... as long as it doesn't hum, flicker and give off the warmth of a meat locker.

The electrical wires have different colors in Germany than in the US - green/yellow for ground, black and blue. Just about everything electrical and electronic is different. We had to buy a SCART (huh?) to cinch connector for the TV and the cable TV outlets look different too. B paid the mandatory TV and radio tax online. The particular agency handling this is called the GEZ. Their motto: "GEZahlt?" means "Have you paid (your TV and radio tax)?"

We were also introduced to our town's "Recycling Hof", or recycling center, this weekend. We took our IKEA furniture boxes and were amazed at all the things that are recycled - aside from the usual paper, cardboard, plastic and glass they had bins for corks, batteries and fluorescent tubes (ha, ha).

Friday, February 15, 2008

Friday, February 15, 2008

Settling in

Here I am, connected again. It all takes a little longer than expected. No internet cafes in the immediate vicinity but a lot of nice coffee shops with "Kuchen" (cakes).

The past couple of weeks were spent running to IKEA and the German version of Home Depot to buy closets and tools to put everything together. In our move, B's rechargeable drill disappeared.

Other items that fell victim to the transatlantic voyage - a glass end table and our kitchen trash can. We are a bit mad about the glass table because we had told the movers that it needed crating just like the glass coffee table at the time they were packing everything up in the US. They just wrapped the end table in cardboard. Oddly enough, it did arrive crated but a corner was chipped. Here is what we think happened: the movers dropped it and then crated it. Our metal trash can looked completely dented as though someone practiced for a soccer tournament with it.

Oh well, we'll fill out the claim forms and hopefully get some nice new stuff for it. We still have to buy light fixtures, a couch and a dining room table.