and the adventures continued!
We took the bus from Hamburg up to Kiel, got picked up by a member of the ward (local church congregation) and went to pick up the key for our new apartment.
A woman from the real estate company went with us to our apartment to check it over--to make sure the walls had been painted, the light switches worked, etc...and we were in for a few surprises. No kitchen---standard for Germany and Europe in general--but not even an oven or a sink! That...was a bit startling. (We found out later that's actually not even legal to rent without those things..but the apartment was still being renovated..) Add to that the pool of water in what would have been the bedroom...yeah. The woman said that that needed to be dealt with. (agreed!)
Then we went off to IKEA to then be picked up by another woman from the ward a few hours later. (I did have a small breakdown around 11..it was 5am in my head by that time and we hadn't really slept on the plane..but some food and some tears helped, and then I was ready to go again :P )
By that time we had managed to buy a fridge, a bed, a mattress, a simple set of shelves, and a table and two chairs. We borrowed a trailer from IKEA to bring it all back to the apartment, but when we arrived another man from the real estate company that manages the apartments was there to tell us that the current apartment had been declared 'unlivable'...okay.....
Luckily they had an alternative for us--another apartment a few streets away. We were just glad that we didn't have to schlep the fridge up and down the stairs twice!...yup, no elevator. Anyway...4 large suitcases, a mattress and a very cumbersome fridge later, we were in our apartment with all our things and we were exhausted. We thanked the woman who had helped us so much, unwrapped the mattress, threw on the sheet and crashed for a few hours.
Eventually we found enough energy to go get some food, ya da ya da ya......fast forward to Monday (church was lovely, the ward members were really friendly) when we went in to figure out the paperwork. The first thing we heard was 'You won't be staying in that apartment...' *blink, blink* WHAT??...yeah. the excitement continues. But don't worry, it wasn't all that bad.
(P.S. the picture shows the entrance to our current apartment building. Northern Germans are often called "Fish Heads" or "Fischköpp"..F's father always 'complained' that we were moving up North, when his family comes from the South...so we had to take this picture for him :) )
The apartment had just been promised to someone else, so we are going to switch apartments with her--and her's is nicer anyway! Plus we are buying the washing machine, dishwasher, microwave, kitchen cupboards, blinds, etc. from her. Those things are NOT normally included. And she doesn't have to paint the walls white again or rip out the nice floors she put in, because we will take it as is. (According to normal contract, she would have to leave it as she had received it, even if that was more boring and with a worse floor...)
All in all, God has been merciful and helped us a lot along all of our adventures, and I will try and upload some pictures and give more updates. We just haven't been able to get internet set up yet..because we don't have a bank account yet..because we don't have visas yet..because F is somehow no longer a German citizen..because his family emmigrated to Canada and became Canadian citizens...yeah...more on that later.
Overall, life is good and we love the Baltic Sea :)
We took the bus from Hamburg up to Kiel, got picked up by a member of the ward (local church congregation) and went to pick up the key for our new apartment.
A woman from the real estate company went with us to our apartment to check it over--to make sure the walls had been painted, the light switches worked, etc...and we were in for a few surprises. No kitchen---standard for Germany and Europe in general--but not even an oven or a sink! That...was a bit startling. (We found out later that's actually not even legal to rent without those things..but the apartment was still being renovated..) Add to that the pool of water in what would have been the bedroom...yeah. The woman said that that needed to be dealt with. (agreed!)
Then we went off to IKEA to then be picked up by another woman from the ward a few hours later. (I did have a small breakdown around 11..it was 5am in my head by that time and we hadn't really slept on the plane..but some food and some tears helped, and then I was ready to go again :P )
By that time we had managed to buy a fridge, a bed, a mattress, a simple set of shelves, and a table and two chairs. We borrowed a trailer from IKEA to bring it all back to the apartment, but when we arrived another man from the real estate company that manages the apartments was there to tell us that the current apartment had been declared 'unlivable'...okay.....
Luckily they had an alternative for us--another apartment a few streets away. We were just glad that we didn't have to schlep the fridge up and down the stairs twice!...yup, no elevator. Anyway...4 large suitcases, a mattress and a very cumbersome fridge later, we were in our apartment with all our things and we were exhausted. We thanked the woman who had helped us so much, unwrapped the mattress, threw on the sheet and crashed for a few hours.
Eventually we found enough energy to go get some food, ya da ya da ya......fast forward to Monday (church was lovely, the ward members were really friendly) when we went in to figure out the paperwork. The first thing we heard was 'You won't be staying in that apartment...' *blink, blink* WHAT??...yeah. the excitement continues. But don't worry, it wasn't all that bad. (P.S. the picture shows the entrance to our current apartment building. Northern Germans are often called "Fish Heads" or "Fischköpp"..F's father always 'complained' that we were moving up North, when his family comes from the South...so we had to take this picture for him :) )
The apartment had just been promised to someone else, so we are going to switch apartments with her--and her's is nicer anyway! Plus we are buying the washing machine, dishwasher, microwave, kitchen cupboards, blinds, etc. from her. Those things are NOT normally included. And she doesn't have to paint the walls white again or rip out the nice floors she put in, because we will take it as is. (According to normal contract, she would have to leave it as she had received it, even if that was more boring and with a worse floor...)
All in all, God has been merciful and helped us a lot along all of our adventures, and I will try and upload some pictures and give more updates. We just haven't been able to get internet set up yet..because we don't have a bank account yet..because we don't have visas yet..because F is somehow no longer a German citizen..because his family emmigrated to Canada and became Canadian citizens...yeah...more on that later.
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