Home Sweet Home

my new view

I finally got into my apartment last Friday! That means, though, that I didn't have internet service until last night, and five days is a really long time!!!  I have been in Germany for ten full days now, and, well, it has been really cold and wet, but it is beautiful and green. Here are a few things I've learned so far:

1.  You need a Euro coin to use the shopping cart at the grocery store. At the local EDEKA grocery store, the carts are locked together at the handles. There is a slot in the shopping cart handle, and when you put a coin in, the lock is pushed out.  When you put the cart back and push in the lock, the coin comes back out. So, if you want your money back, you will put the cart where it belongs...after, of course, you have bagged your own groceries...in the bags you brought. :) I think it's a pretty good system. I haven't asked, but I bet they have fewer cars in the parking lot with dings on them.



2.  Washing clothes is complicated.

...and that's just the washer. The dryer doesn't actually dry the clothes in the typical (American) sense--it just takes out the water somehow (and you have to empty the water bin after a couple of loads).


3. There is no such thing as free TV.  Even those three stations you can get without cable will cost you.  If you have a TV, you have to register it and pay 17 Euro (about $25) A MONTH.  Yikes!

4. Not everything is more expensive.  Even with a horrible exchange rate, I found a cell phone plan that is comparable to my plan in Texas, but it is cheaper. At the grocery store, water, drinks, juices, and local produce are all cheaper, too.  I've read that the German government subsidizes farms that grow real food (unlike the U.S. government, that subsidizes the inedible stuff that becomes HFCS and the like). 

5.  There always seems to be some kind of festival.

old town Oberursel the day of the Weinfest

St. Ursula's church in Oberursel right before the downpour disturbed the Weinfest