The Adventures of Gus and Janice: January 2014

Okay, I am WAY BEHIND on my blog, but I had a few minutes, so let me catch up. I last left you in early August, having just returned from a trip to Italy/Croatia and preparing to move back to the US. Pretend that it's August as you read this!

So when you move into an apartment or house in Germany, there are a few things you do.

The first is pay a HUGE security deposit. This is 3 months' "cold rent." In Germany cold rent is just the actual rental cost. What you pay your landlord, however, is "warm rent," which is cold rent + "side costs." These side costs include things like trash services, water, association fees, heating, and similar costs. In our case electricity was separate (set up privately) and we heated with electricity (floor heating!), so our side costs were relatively low, but because we had the big house with the yard, our rent was high, meaning our deposit was sizeable.

The next thing you do when you move into a place is the handover. During this time you do a walk through documenting the existing condition of the place. This entails going room by room and marking any damages, turning on faucets, light switches where applicable (most places don't actually come with lights), etc. It can be a lengthy process depending on how detailed you want to be. My recommendation in hindsight is to be over the top. Take several hours. You will be glad later! We relied on our relocation agent and were not intimately involved in the process.

Anyway, that was last year. Fast forward to the start of this month and the moving out process.

Now, back in June the realtor, who works for our landlady Ms. Z, tried to get us a renter that would take the place as is (necessitating our moving out early, which we were willing to do) so that we cuold avoid painting, etc. We did the same by working through the school and talking with the incoming teachers. Well, to cut a long story short, we knew we were heading to Glückstadt on the 8th and said we wanted to do the handover that morning. However, as we got closer to moving day we got the feeling that the handover was not going to go well. The comments Ms. Z was making to our neighbor at the viewings, etc. had us worried. Further, we felt she was going to have a follow up renter in the house by mid-August despite the fact that we had paid through the end of the month. Well, we pushed back by saying we wanted to change the handover date to the 23rd. Suddenly the offer of the 15th with half our rent refunded came out. Hmm. We agreed to it, figuring if the handover didn't go well we'd at least get something back.

We consulted heavily with my friend Frank, who has a bit of experience moving around, and got a list of things to watch for. We also emailed the realtor and asked for a specific list of what they wanted done in order to make everyone happy. Finally we double checked our contract for the list of moving out procedures. Then we set to work. We cleaned the whole place thoroughly--which included the insides of the metal blinds, the window frames and panes inside and out, painting the walls, scrubbing the bathrooms, the works. Then we cleaned and painted some more. Our neighbors trimmed and weeded the bejeezus out of the backyard, and I attacked the vines on the balcony. We spackled and smoothed. Then we cleaned and painted some more. Lots of work! We noticed EVERYTHING that had ever been wrong--every spilled spot of paint from the previous person, every cracked tile . . . you get the idea. We sold our car to a scrap dealer, got a rental car, and loaded it up, leaving just a few items and a mattress in the house, and headed up to Glückstadt on the 8th as planned. I will return to our apartment in a bit.

We had a big house, so it was a LOT of painting!

Oh, and a LOT of taping--baseboards, outlets, doors, windows . . . yikes!

The stairwell was a pain to paint--especially that stupid hand rail, which also needed painting

Window frame insides . . .

. . . the ceiling above the shower . . .

. . . and the small bits of wall in the kitchen, which was too small for a roller!

During the two weeks we were in Glückstadt Gus took a German class. He commuted every day to Hamburg on the train, studied flashcards, did homework, and actually sort of learned a bit about the nuances of the German language. We all noticed improvement! The first weekend there we took part in the 24 hour swim fundraiser. This basically consisted of Gus standing at the grill for a few hours, me briefly handing out a slice of cake or two, and generally hanging out in the guise of volunteering while people took turns swimming laps. I was a backup swimmer and did go in the water for fun briefly, but ultimately my contribution was pretty much social. Saw a ton of friends, though! That night we went to another friend's birthday party. Gus left early with some folks, but I stayed to the very end with a handful of folks. I am pretty sure I came in around 6 am (though we did stop briefly back at the pool to see how the overnight swimmers had fared)! I spent much of the next week just chilling with Oma, who was a bit sick during that time. Good quality time with my grandmother, lots of sleep and reading, helping Gus with homework, lunch with the family . . . what could be better?

Now back to that pesky apartment and the saga of delays. Because Gus had class, Frank agreed to take 2 days off and come with me to München to close it out. I left Glückstadt at 6:30 on Thursday morning (the 15th), only to get stuck at the train station because of an attempted suicide on the tracks in the next town. I finally met up with Frank around 9 am, only to learn that he had not made it to the Finance Office before meeting me. So we headed north to the office. Thankfully it didn't take long, but we then had to go back to Frank's house to get his stuff (typical Frank!), get coffee, eat something, get gas . . . so it was nearly 11 before we left for München! Then we hit an autobahn closure and spent 45 minutes walking around the autobahn talking with other drivers. We didn't get into Zolling until almost 8 pm. So much for meeting friends in town! We grabbed dinner in Freising, then headed to bed--only to be unable to sleep until about 2 am. Ugh.

We got up early on Friday and finished the packing and cleaning--something Frank does so well it put me in a panic about having missed spots and not getting our deposit. We finished in time for a quick pretzel breakfast before our 10am appointment with the landlady and realtor, who showed up, took a quick look around, did a meter reading, and then handed me the entire deposit plus the extra rent in cash. Unheard of to do it in 30 minutes (an hour is considered extremely fast) and unheard of to get it back in full in cash. Lucky us! Well, we found out why. As we were saying goodbye to the neighbors the new renters were coming in. They had their handover appointment to move in and get keys at 10:30! What!?? We knew it! But to be fair, the realtor and landlady did more than right by us.

Anyway, Frank and I said goodbye to the neighbors (yes, there were tears), then headed over to the school to pick up a few things, drop off some stuff, and pay out the 50 Euros we still owed someone. I was really well behaved. We were there only an hour in spite of it being one last time of saying goodbye--after not having seen everyone all summer. We had lunch at Il Faggiano's, the place by campus, and then we hit the road (more tears from me). Well, we left Haimhausen at 1:30 only to hit MASSIVE traffic on the A9. Should have known. We tried a back road only to get stuck behind tractor after tractor. It took us until 4:30 pm to get to Ingolstadt, which is normally 45 minutes to an hour away. Ugh. Then it was construction, minor traffic, taking a wrong turn, a contact lens mishap . . . and by 10 pm we knew we wouldn't get in until VERY late to Frank's--much less Glückstadt. I opted to spend the night at his place, which wound up being a great idea--we got in at 1 am and wouldn't have reached Glückstadt until 2. Frank had to be somewhere at 7, so we left his house at 6:30, both of us exhausted. At least I got a nap! Anyway, the trip was a success, and I only cried a little tiny bit (Frank might disagree).

Somehow I have no pictures of this trip. Weird, but we were so busy driving and then cleaning.

Saturday Gus and I spent the day getting ready for that evening's festivities--our goodbye party! We went shopping, headed over to the T Lempfert house, and started prepping for dinner. Gus was at the grill (of course) and made American style hamburgers. They were huge, especially for our German friends not used to American portions. There was a trying on of my dirndl, music and singing and dancing, and general good spirits. Martha made us a lovely cake with the names of all of the people at the party (plus a few who were there in spirit) who were wishing us well. I cried again. One of the highlights of the evening was the surprise appearance of Heilmar. About 10 years ago he moved to Halle, which is a ways away, and I hadn't seen him in 9 years--though ironically enough Frank and I were talking about him as we drove through Halle. Turns out he was in the north, had heard about the party somehow, and just dropped in. It was so nice to see him! Anyway, by 3 am we were all kinds of wiped out--especially me.

Most of my photos from the party are on my German phone. I only have this of me with Henryk.

The next week was more of the same--hanging with Omi, an afternoon of shopping and such in Hamburg, and generally enjoying the company of friends and each other. Relaxing and recovering from the stresses of the prior months were high on the agenda! Friday culminated with a soft interview at the international school in Hamburg, lunch at the Landungsbrücken, and then back to Glückstadt to hang with KK and Mike, who had come down from Denmark for the weekend.

I took the time to take some READ pictures (for posters at Cal Young) around Hamburg--city hall above and the harbor below

And at the harbor in Glückstadt

Ami, Oma's Pomeranian

Friday night we went out with our friends Heike, Henryk, Frank, and of course Mike and KK to the Reeperbahn to go dancing. Fun times! Saturday the four siblings headed into Hamburg and met up with Frank again. We went to the Lego store (of course), had lunch on the Landungsbrücken, then went to the Speicherstadt to the Hamburg Dungeon. This is a humorous and historic "haunted house" style attraction with a few rides, lots of true history, and an overall interactive tour that is super fun, even if Karen and I were translating for our husbands the whole time. Mike was chosen as the first singled out victim, choosing the elevator button and being the first into the rooms. Frank was put on trial in the religious medieval kangaroo court, and Gus was accused of assisting him in his shenanigans. We had a great time participating in the legend of Störtebeker, Hamburg's most famous pirate, and in a medical lesson about the plague.

Afterwards we headed to the St. Nikolai church, which is actually a sort of ruin. Anyway, from there it was back to the train station, where Karen, Mike, and Gus caught a train back to Glückstadt while Frank and I went out for ice cream. I caught the next train, which was supposed to get me in to Glückstadt in time to go to Heike and Henryk's, where we were invited to dinner. Unfortunately the conductor wasn't paying attention or something and forgot to stop in Glückstadt! I wound up in Itzehoe, but the train had arranged for the train heading back to Glückstadt to wait for us so we could get home. I got in an hour late. Oh, well--a very odd experience! Anyway, we enjoyed our cookout at Heike and Henryk's house.

"Useless button"

Mike, KK, and Frank

The ruined church

KK and Mike at the Landungsbrücken

Sunday was much more relaxed, with time with family the highlight. That evening we headed over to the train station to see Mike off, after which KK, Gus, and I did some photography and wandering around Glückstadt to the harbor (my favorite place!) and just around town. Monday was packing the last of our stuff, an early lunch, and then Karl-Heinz came to get us. Off to the airport and the USA. There were, of course, ~~absolutely NO tears~~ LOTS of tears from Oma and from me. KK stuck around until Tuesday afternoon, so that eased Oma's transition. We flew from Hamburg to Frankfurt to San Francisco to Eugene, arriving around midnight Oregon time (9am German time). And that, my friends, will be the next blog post because this one is long enough!