Making progress... slowly, but surely...

Hey all! Today has been quite a day already... I met Brian for lunch at MTU and for all of you that know about "Brian's Schedule" for me, if you had a chance to eat in his cafeteria, you would wonder why on earth he would rather have me make lunch for him... The cafeteria is HUGE and the food is pretty tasty, if I do say so myself.... :)

After lunch, Brian sent me on a mission to figure out how to open a German bank account and to also look for cell phone packages for us... Let's just say that I wasn't overly thrilled about my mission, being that I don't speak German and I have no idea how to communicate with anyone. Let's just say, since I've been here, I've done my best to avoid social situations (outside of ordering food at restaurants) where I may have to speak to people ... Yes, me, the chatterbox, has tried to avoid talking... Sounds crazy doesn't it?! :) Either way, as nervous as I was to talk to people, I was determined to get the needed information...

The first stop was the bank. I walked in and they immediately asked me something in German and I panicked and the only thing I could say was "I'm English"... I could tell I was off to a great start already! :) The poor girl kind of looked at me puzzled and then after I regained my composure, I asked her if anyone there spoke English. She then pointed to this guy that she had been talking to and said that he did. Apparantly he spoke English, but not so well. As soon as I told him that I was there to find out how to open a bank account, he told me "No English" and walked out... Great! At that point, the girl walked me across the bank to another teller and said something in German and then the other woman greeted me in English.... I was feeling much better about the whole situation at that point. :) After my meeting with the woman, I ended up finding out that to open a German bank account, all you needed was a passport. That was good to find out. The only reason we actually have to open a German bank account is because the cable, phone, internet, and virtually every other company requires bank account information. They actually have a strange set up around here... in order to pay bills, you actually have to give the company your bank account information and they take the money directly out of your account.... strange! Apparantly it's set up so that they can't withdraw money or see account balances, but it still is a little strange... So, as of tomorrow, Brian and I are going to open a bank account here, which means that we're one step closer to getting internet access in the apartment and phones... yay!!

As for my phone shopping... it went very similar to my experience at the bank... Quite a bit of fumbling around at first, and then after I found English speaking salespeople (which I'm very thankful for) things got somewhat easier. I also managed to find a pretty decent cell phone package, which includes an iphone... pretty sweet! :) However, before I signed up for anything, I thought it best to wait for Brian to come with me... He's a little better at deciphering all of the German lingo than I am... I can see me getting stuck with some ridiculously expensive cell phone contract or something! :)

Brian also found a girl for me to get in touch with today... She's the girlfriend of one of his coworkers and apparantly she teaches English... Brian told me that she's looking forward to meeting someone who speaks English so that she can practice... Sounds good to me! :) We may meet for coffee tomorrow or something... either way, I'm just happy to have someone to talk to while Brian's at work... :)

This language barrier has taken it's toll on me... As you all know, I love to talk and I love meeting people and it's been very difficult to do here... I have to say that it seems weird that you can be surrounded by so many people and still feel so lonely! :( I'm actually starting to look forward to our German classes so that I can try to learn how to communicate. :)

Well, I have to run... I'm checking out another gym today... That's another reason we're getting a German bank account... you have to have one in order to join a gym. And I have to say that I'm definately in need of a gym membership... I've gone way too long without a good workout and I can definately tell!!

I've attached a few pictures of downtown Friedrichshafen to the end of this blog. Brian and I walked downtown to the lake last night and I took a few pictures. I have to say that it is nice living on the lake... the sunsets are really pretty. :) I'll write more soon! I miss you all very much!!


That's me on top of the "observatory"...
Downtown Friedrichshafen
Downtown at sunset...