Apartment search...

Hey all! First, I want to start off by saying good luck on the first day of school to all of the teachers out there!! I know how you're feeling right now, and in a way, I'm wishing I was right there going through all of that first day excitement with you... But, instead, I'm chillin' in McDonald's, drinking a coffee, surfing the internet, and sending positive thoughts your way! :) Good luck to you all!

Second, I want to say thank you to all of you who have been checking out our blog! I've received alot of positive feedback from it and that makes me so happy! :) In a way, this blog is my way of feeling like I'm still connected to everyone back in the U.S... it's great therapy when I get lonely during the day (considering that I can't really talk to too many people, I just type out what's on my mind now! :)), so I'm glad you all are enjoying it! :)

I forgot to mention in yesterday's post that Brian and I signed up for our German bank account on Friday and we also signed up for our internet/phone line... Unfortunately, it'll take about two weeks for it to get installed, so it looks like I'll be making the hike to Mickey D's for a little while longer! :) Oh well, it's pretty good exercise, so I don't really mind. :)

I'm sure that many of you haven't heard about our other apartment woes (outside of the really bad decorating! :)). We had a slight problem in the kitchen that occurred last week. Brian kept telling me that he was smelling something musty in the kitchen, but for the first two days, I couldn't smell anything. However, on the third day, it was another story. We woke up to an awful stench coming from the kitchen! We spent almost all day trying to figure out where it was coming from (you wouldn't think that it should take that long considering how small the kitchen is... :)), and then we finally located it. In the corner of the kitchen, water was running down the wall from the ceiling... Apparantly it had been leaking for quite a while... So, we called the landlord, and he called the maintainence man, who came to the apartment to check it out. The only problem is that he didn't speak English and the only thing we managed to figure out was that the apartment above us, where no one is currently living, had a leak in their bathroom, which ended up leaking into our kitchen... eeew! The maintainence man then looked at the wall, said something in German and then left, and that's all we've heard about it since.... And that was 4 days ago... lovely! So, as of now, nothing's been fixed and our kitchen still smells... Gotta love the laid back German culture... ugh!! Needless to say, we've decided to see if we could find another apartment to move into after our lease is up in this one (which is in December).

So, Brian made a few contacts at work in regards to rental properties and yesterday, we checked one of them out... Let's just say, I fell in love with the place... It's decorated entirely in orange (which is my FAVORITE color!!) and it's ultra modern... I felt like I was stepping into a house they would have on "The Real World" on MTV. I'm attaching a link to the website, so you can see for yourself... http://www.bodenseetoskana.de/ . After you click on the link, you'll have to click on the small Great Britain flag in the top right hand corner of the page to translate it into English, and then underneath the flag, you'll see a long, skinny, brown box with writing in it... Click on Apartment ROSSO, and the pictures that come up are that of the apartment we looked at... It's quite a place to say the least! :) The only downfall is that it doesn't allow pets, which breaks my heart, because I was hoping to bring Riley back with us in January. :( So, we'll see what happens with everything... All we know now, is that there are definately better living arrangements out there for us... whew! :)

In today's blog, I'm attaching some pics of some of the things I've seen here, that are just so different from things you would find in the U.S.... One of the first strange things that we saw alot of this past weekend, was the amount of cars driving on the sidewalk.... Very odd! Also, there are tons of Smart Cars driving around here and they just look so weird when you see them driving by... They are so little!! I also saw their postmen delivering mail the other day, and it was just different to see... They are dressed all in yellow, and they ride their bikes around with big yellow boxes attached to the back and deliver the mail. Lastly, as we were walking back from our ordeal on Sunday, we came across four wheelers just driving down the street... Apparantly, it's perfectly legal to drive your four-wheeler on the main roads here... So, of course, me being the picture fanatic, had to take pictures of all of these sightings to share with all of you back home! :) As for the picture of the postman, it's not a great picture, but I figured they may think I was kind of crazy taking a picture of them while they're delivering the mail... so I just waited until they rode past me and took a picture from behind! :)

A "Smart Car"... they're so tiny!! And the people here park them virtually anywhere!!

The postman on his daily delivery...

The random 4-wheelers riding down the street.

Well, I've got to run... I am meeting Eva again today. She's actually leaving to go back to her hometown so that she can start teaching, but she's introducing me to another wife of one of Brian's coworkers today. Apparantly this girl is new to the area and she speaks English as well... woohoo! I love meeting new people who I can talk to! :) I'll let you know how things go.... Hope you're all doing well! Miss you much!!