Settling in

I arrived in Schweinfurt on the 30th of August and as a result had one day at work to meet people before it was time for new teacher to begin. I stayed at my colleague's home again and collected my apartment keys the next afternoon.  My colleague's husband and son helped move everything into the apartment from the Berlingo, carrying everything up and placing it in the correct rooms, awaiting my arrival the next day to start settling in. 

Why only the next day?  Because I still did not have my Ikea furniture - it was to be delivered only on the 1st from 8am to 2pm.  That meant no bed yet, and nowhere to sleep.  But the best part of the next day was that D was also flying in from the US, and arriving to help just in the nick of time to build my Ikea furniture. Somehow everything worked out just as it should have.  I drove to the apartment around 7:30am, parked the car, started to unpack and organize the kitchen.  Ikea arrived around 9:30, D arrived at 10:00 am after having flown in to Frankfurt at 6am, training it to the Schweinfurt station and walking to the aparment.  Yes, I am that close to the station. 

 

Upon arrival D had to put together his couch first which was a fifteen minute job.  He then needed a nap to manage the rest of the day. He napped while I went out for groceries, and returned with the necessary food for the weekend and Monday.  After making dinner D started making my bed, but it took several hours before we realized that he would not be able to finish it due to the complicated bed slats.  I would end up sleeping on my mattress on the floor.  The bed was finalized the next day. 

In general D being here has been a godsend.  He has made it possible for me to manage this move by not only being the muscle for moving things into the apartment and building furniture.  He makes me dinner every night, does the daily shopping, and listens when I come home tired.  I am loving having him here and having his support.  And he is enjoying taking a break to figure out what comes next.

During the first week I also adjusted to the new sounds around the area:  the continual pealing of the church bells, the quiet passenger trains and the louder transport trains passing behind the buildings next to us, people driving in to the quiet streets to drop off items, parties in balconies across the street, the regular closing of the metal shutters found on most buildings, and the chatting of people taking walks together and with their dogs. I have even started getting to know the neighbors.  

So this is what the apartment looked like that first week. Welcome to the apartment: 

I have not included a picture of D's room as it is really quite a small space.  

 

Since then the kitchen has become more Ikea-like and there is now a real dining table with a usable surface. And I have purchased some organizational item's for D's room and some "kallax" bookshelves for storage. We also now have an air mattress that is doubling as a couch.

The struggle of moving to a location where furnished apartments are extremely expensive is that you have to buy everything from scratch. Therefore, it will be a few months before I can afford to buy the rest of my furniture:  closets, bookshelves, a couch, a television, entry way items, a dryer.  And most likely they will be purchased in that order.  It is fun to make decisions on these items, but it requires patience to await the purchases. Soon enough! 

 

The next step will be to travel to Latvia to bring back another portion of my storage unit.  This time 4 chairs, the remaining boxes from Thailand, D's boxes and some of N's belongings, along with some book boxes and all my art work and decorative ceramics. Once again I will be sorting in the storage unit with D's help, and moving the last third of the items into a smaller unit.  Once we return here it will mean finding places for everything and eventually buying more shelves. 

I have decided to break up my writing about this move. If you plan on continuing to read about my last month's experiences come back soon.  I will be posting about: 

 

- My new job

- Sorting things out German style

- German food choices

 

Fun fact:  All stores in Germany close at 6pm on weekdays, and do not open on Sundays.  And not all restaurants are open on Sundays either.  Therefore, everyone has to be well organized for food for the weekends.