Old Pictures

Just uploaded pictures from the past couple of months and thought I'd post some from the move.

The van with the mattress and box springs on top and lots of stuff for the storage unit inside:

The storage unit with all of our stuff in it:

Keith with Josie's crate and our bags in Tegel Airport, waiting for the bike:

But where's the bike? Here it is (two days later):

The Past Few Days

Sorry for not posting for the past couple of days. I'll try to summarize what we've been up to.

Wednesday: Went to our new vet. He's really good with the animals and we can get good dog from from him. Julia, you will be happy to know that Josie is now a Hill's puppy. It's weird, people take their dogs with them everywhere here and really care for their dogs, but we couldn't find a single dog food in stores that listed meat as the first ingredient. It's also much more expensive for any dog food over here. Thanks to her increased cost of food and our decreased cost of food, her daily intake costs about half of what ours does. When normalized to body weight, the values are approximately equal. Anyway, the vet said that both of the animals are in very good health, which is the important thing.

Thursday: Since my boss is going to be out of town for the next two weeks, I went to the Institute on Thursday to meet with him and discuss the project a bit before I get started. The Institute is part of the Golm Science Park, which is basically in a field with wildflowers. While waiting for the bus to catch the train back to Berlin, a tractor drove by. My boss is very nice and gave me a tour of the facilities and showed me my new office as well, which I will share with four other people. The facilities and people all seem great and I'm excited to start for real on Monday. I received a list of people who I have to visit (IT people, librarian, department director, etc.) and obtain a signature from. I have to complete this list as well as some other forms about my qualifications before I can really begin research, but I'm shocked and pleased by how few barriers there are between me and my work.

Friday: We went to the local city hall and received our Anmeldungbestätigungen (residency certificates) today. This is something I have been dreading, but we waited less that two hours in a waiting room with chairs for our numbers to be called. I went first, and we were lucky that Keith was interviewed by the same woman as I was because she did not speak any English. With these forms and our freshly arrived debit cards, we can get real cell phones now!

We went out to eat tonight at Zur letzten Instanz, which claims to be the oldest restaurant in Berlin (at 390 years old, I think that's a pretty safe claim). The food was delicious traditional German cuisine. I had roasted ham hock with cabbage and potatoes and Keith had a Berlin-style meatball (think the most delicious meatloaf you've ever had) with fried potatoes and veggies. For dessert we had an apple thing on a pastry with ice cream. The restaurant is comprised of two buildings and the interior is very historic and interesting. Apparently Napoleon ate there once.

I hope it stops raining so we can go to the zoo tomorrow.

At some point I am going to write a post about the poor job people do in locking up their bikes ranging from not at all to locking to a post that is only three feet high with a thin cable lock. It's so bad that I am sometimes tempted to move people's bike just to teach them a lesson. I need to start documenting with photos, but within the next week, expect an expose on the topic.

Honest to goodness Duff Beer

I found this in the local grocery store, and could not help myself. It is the properly labeled (non-Fox licensed) form of Duff beer. Apparently there are interesting trademark laws in Germany where if you do not produce a product from a trademark, it is free to be trademarked and used by another entity. Do not be worried though, I had this Duff tonight and it was quite tasty (as it has to follow the Reinheitsgebot beer law). Brought to mind Homer's ode to beer...

Versicherung

Insurance is very important over here. In addition to health and renter's insurance, liability insurance is basically necessary. Not just for us, but for Josie as well. We are liable for anything damage that results from our actions in perpetuity. Luckily the insurance isn't very expensive, but it's still different that such policies are required.

On Sunday we did some touristy things. We walked down Unter den Linden and saw the Berlin Cathedral, the museums, the parliament building, the Branderburg Gate, and a bunch of other things. It was pretty crowded, particularly the area around the Brandenburg Gate, since it was Sunday. Lots of odd street performers, i.e. the statue people covered in silver paint, a man in a bear suit, and Native Americans.

On the way back, we walked around an archeological dig on the former grounds of the Palace of the Republic (GDR seat of parliament). Peter's Square and St. Peter's Church used to be there and they've uncovered thousands of skeletons and evidence that Berlin and Cölln, its sister city that actually occupied the excavated land until the two cities were merged in the 1700's, existed as early as 1237.

We used that walk to explore and little bit and also to scope out places to go and things to do with our future guests (hint hint). Besides the museums and touristy things, very little is open on Sunday. We did find an amazing Vietnamese place in the Mitte region. Such delicious food and wonderfully aromatic tea!

Dog park fun

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We had a great time over in Volkspark Friedrichshain where we found a great dog park. It has rained for about 2 days straight so there were some fantastic puddles for the dogs to get into and they all seemed to have a great time.

We Really Need to Get American Pillows

The lack of neck support is killing me.

Sunset over Alexanderplatz

I saw a beautiful sunset coming out our window tonight, so I took a time-lapse out the window. The video is a compilation of 651 photos over several hours. (Watch it in HD for full effect!)

Bike drama

I did finally receive my bike, but I will give everyone just one guess as to what condition it was when it arrived. (Hint, that really is a ~2" diameter puncture mark straight through the center of the box.) Loving Air Berlin customer service so far, just got hung up on by the JFK branch. thankfully the German branches are much nicer.

JFK to TXL and the first two days

Our flight to Berlin was uneventful, but getting from the entrance of Terminal 8 to the plane was an ordeal. In short, it took four Air Berlin employees and 2.5 hours to get us checked in. Not through security, which was very quick because we were escorted through with Josie. Just to get our four bags, a bike, and a dog checked in.

We didn't really know what to expect when traveling with Josie and Loki, but they were so good. Loki meowed a little bit in the car, but didn't complain at all on the airplane or in the airport. It's probably because he was scared, but he's very happy now in his new home, so it all worked out. Josie was amazing during all of the travel. I'm so grateful that both of them arrived safely. I was very nervous about getting them through customs, but the officials didn't even examine the animals. Some of them made noises at Josie while another one looked through our paperwork. Maximum three minutes.

Air Berlin lost Keith's bike. We suspect that it was never put on the luggage mover thing to be sent to the plane. We weren't alone: at least three other people from our flight we missing luggage. The people at Tegel were very helpful, but the bike has yet to be located. It may have been for the best that the bike didn't arrive because the van that we reserved was an actually an extended hatchback that only just held everything else. Keith drove and did an excellent job driving stick and not getting lost.

Our apartment is great. It even has a washing machine and dishwasher! The apartment is about half the size of our last place, but the space is much more functional. Plus, it's in an awesome location with an incredible view. I'm looking forward to seeing the sun set behind the TV tower if it ever starts raining.

We've been really productive the past two days. We got a cell phone, groceries, and opened bank accounts. There are still a bunch of things to do, including some government things I'm pretty sure need to be done in a specific order (notification of residency then residency permit and extending my visa), but we are definitely settling in.

I'm hoping the rain stops tomorrow so we can do some touristy things. I know this might sound strange to those of you suffering through the heat wave, but the temperature didn't get above 60F today. It was a nice change, but SmartWool should not be worn in the summer.

View from our window!

We Have Arrived!

We all made it to Berlin safely and so did most of our stuff.

We will post more later with pictures (including some of Alexanderplatz from our apartment!).