First real snow

It snowed for the first time a couple days ago.  It wasn’t that exciting of a first snow, however, because the snowflakes fell gracefully to the ground and promptly melted.

Thursday night, however, it snowed again while we were indoors in a place with few windows.  So when we walked outside, we were pleasantly surprised to find a very light dusting of snow over everything.  It was quite lovely.  I consider that the first real snow of the season.

It has been snowing off and on for the past few days, but only very lightly.  There is still no more than a light dusting, but it’s cold enough that the snow is still there.  Today and tomorrow are supposed to be sunny, though it’s very cold (in the negatives — Celsius).

Progress on unpacking

Today is another IKEA day for Tobi and I.  Our stove is finally installed (after some very incompetent craftsmen and a pretty blasé, imprecise electrician) and we need some new pots and pans, as we currently have only one that works with the electromagnetic waves.  Our refrigerator is also here, as well as our washing machine.  We’re still waiting on the dishwasher replacement from IKEA – they sent us the wrong size last time.

There is still a lot of unpacking and arranging to do.  Not everything has a place yet.

We’re going to pick up the Christmas tree today, though, before we go to IKEA.  That way we can decorate it tomorrow.  :)  I’m so excited!

All settled

Moving went really well yesterday morning, especially thanks to some friends who showed up to help us out. We did it all in under 4 hours, and with only two trips with the truck.

Now we’re all moved in, and we’ll have lots to do to unpack in the next week or two. (Especially because all of the boxes are currently sitting where my Christmas tree will go!) Our big electrical appliances are all arriving either this week or next. We really had to make a big investment – dishwasher, oven/stove, washing machine, and refrigerator. We’re getting an induction stove and our refrigerator is American-sized. It makes me feel like a real adult, purchasing these types of things! I knew this before, but even more now: being an adult is really quite expensive!

Ready for the holidays

I’m talking a little bit about Thanksgiving in most of my classes this week. Last year we did a big Thanksgiving meal for a bunch of friends, but this year with the move and everything, it’s too much effort. Plus the fact that our kitchen isn’t quite ready yet. So we’re skipping the traditional Thanksgiving this year, but I’ll at least make a pumpkin pie to get in the holiday spirit.

Monday, the official Christmas season began here in Germany, and all of the Christmas markets opened. So last night we went to the Christmas market in our neighborhood for a cup of Glühwein (mulled wine). Some random guy at the booth convinced us to get it “mit Schuß” (with a shot of rum) and it made us extremely tipsy, having not eaten dinner beforehand. But we wanted to celebrate our first night in our new apartment, and it felt very festive standing there on wood chips and next to bales of hay in this wintery village they set up.

In the Dammtor S-Bahn station, near the big Hamburg conference hall, they’ve got Christmas decorations up already, and I’m ready for it. The weekend after Thanksgiving is typically when my family sets up the Christmas tree. I don’t think we’ll make it for this weekend due to the boxes, but we’ll definitely do so next weekend. Tobias and I are going to make some ornaments together, and we have a few special plans for our tree, which I will share more about later!

Today I decided that I feel ready for Christmas music. Time to turn them back on in my iTunes!

Finally an update

I caught the cold that’s going around here, and it really knocked me out this week.  I even even had to cancel Tuesday evening’s classes and laid in bed from 1 p.m. until the next morning when I had to wake up for work at 5:45.  Thanks to some TLC from my boyfriend and drinking lots of fluids, I’m starting to feel better.  I actually feel a little worse today than yesterday, but perhaps I’m just tired from all the packing we’ve been doing to prepare for our move on Monday.

Our move involves four parts.  1) Putting all the IKEA stuff together in the new apartment.  2) Packing up things in our old apartment.  3) MOVING those things from one apartment to the other.  And 4) Painting the old apartment back to white.

We’ve been collecting banana boxes from local supermarkets.  We now have approximately 30 of them!  Certainly no need to buy cardboard boxes here.  We spent all morning and afternoon packing things up, labeling boxes, and stacking them up out of the way.  But of course it’s kind of chaotic, as you can see in the picture!  Moving wouldn’t be moving without having to climb over boxes for a week or two.

Progress in the new apartment

Things are coming along quite nicely.  Tobias has impressed me quite a bit with his building, plumbing and carpentry skills.  I was pretty good at figuring out the instructions to put the bookshelves and kitchen drawers together, along with other smaller items, but the stuff we did tonight was totally out of my league.  Using a circular saw that a friend generously let us borrow, he cut the countertop for the kitchen this evening.  Now we just have to wait for the big electrical appliances….

The drawers aren’t really blue, don’t worry.  That’s just the protective plastic cover.  It’s starting to look like a real kitchen, though, isn’t it?  We’re so excited!  There is still a lot of work left to do on it, though.

I’ll definitely be M.I.A. the next few days again.  We move on Monday from 10-2, and then I have to go to work after that.