Downstairs great room

Basically these pictures were taken by turning around from the picture I took in the front hallway. Not that exciting again - the space is bigger than it probably shows in the picture. Sorry for the mess in the first picture - our key to the garbage cans is not working, and it's kind of pilling up from the shipped container. You should be able to see how the kitchen opens up into the big room downstairs. The infamous sky lights are just above the couch and to the right of the washing machine. That reminds me, I need to show pictures of the plants I'm going to kill.

Kitchen

The kitchen's good and efficient. Has all the stuff you need to cook, etc. Looking at it you would think that there's not enough storage space for much of anything - but so far there's no problem. (I think I'm just used to having a lot of crap in my kitchen that I seldom use).

One thing we really like is that the sink and fridge are hidden behind a wall, so we can have a big mess in the kitchen, but hard for someone to really see. Even from this picture you don't see the fridge which is behind the wall on the left.

Believe it or not most of the stuff in the kitchen is complements of IKEA (I'd say 95%). This is also where the washer/dryer is in the house, which took some getting used to. Because the machine doesn't have a vent, it takes awhile for the clothes to dry - but I suppose this is one of the benefits of not having to pay utilities.

Plants that we're going to kill

It's not like that I'm bad with plants, it's more like I don't do well under stress. Seems the last tenant killed a couple plants, so the pressure is on. Not to mention the fact that three of the plants are ones that I always kill - two ficus and one Boston Fern.

They assured me when I moved in that the Boston Fern is a surviver, and it really likes its location, but I still remain unconvinced. Don't get me wrong, I'll water the freaking things, but I want the expectations lowered from the beginning.

Upstairs Hallway

Again, another undescript picture. The upstairs hallway (taken from the top of the stairs) shows the door to the office/guest bedroom on the left, the normal bathroom on the right, and the 'big' bedroom straight ahead. Trying the train Patrick to keep the doors shut, but it's an uphill battle.

Big Bedroom

It's small, and it looks even smaller with the picture. The bed size (albeit half the size of the bed back in Indy) seems to be OK. Window shown here can be used to access the top of the roof next door, which is pretty big.

The other picture is a 180 turn from the previous picture. Shows the closet storage space, which isn't too bad (once it was rearranged).

The "Other's" perspective

It feels kind of weird to be posting on something titled 'Wades Journal', so I may end up doing one of these on my own, but this will do for now.

As W indicated earlier, my flight here was pretty uneventful. I was able to fly Business class on the overseas leg, and it was very nice. The added leg room and ability to recline are invaluable. I even slept for an hour or so, impossible for me to do in coach.

So far, everything is great. I love the apartment. It is small, but it is such a great use of space. Lots of ideas for us to use back in the states. I have just started to get out into the city, and it is great. All of the small shops and stores are going to be fun to explore. And the Shoes! Guys wear cool shoes here. Not the boring brown and black things back home. I've already got my eye on a couple of different shops near the apartment that offer some interesting choices. Wade was right, it's a good thing I will be working over here.

We ate at 'La Casserole' my first night here, and it was very good. The coolest thing was that the restaurant was about 30 feet from the entrance to our apartment. The words 'location, location, location' were never more true.

Spent yesterday learning how to get around. Since W was at work, we called Chris Hagan, and he came over and showed me around. I learned how to get tickets for the metro, and he showed me some of the city outside the city center. It was cool to get another persons impressions of the city to compare to W's.

As far as language goes, at first I thought it was bad. I couldn't understand anything anyone said. They speak so fast, and I don't yet have an ear for it. But it is already getting better. As W mentioned earlier, I had to go to France Telecom to help resolve our Internet problems, and nobody there spoke much English. My French was better than I thought. I didn't get very fancy, and pretty much stuck to present tense, but I got my point across. They were very accommodating, and very helpful.

More to come later.....

Last weekend

Short reader's digest of last weekend:
1. Coffee
2. Market
3. Four hour drive to Stuttgart (should have been less than half that)
4. Hugo Boss outlet
5. German State Fair

Lesson's learned from last weekend:
1. Coffee at plant is way cheaper
2. Market's spank grocery stores
3. Wade should never navigate in Germany
4. Joe Moeddel's development plan is to be able to wear a scarf and not look gay
5. Drunk people pretty much act the same regardless of what country they're from

And one more thing . . . new clothes

The arrival of the container was just about perfect. Patrick flew in at 11:00, and the container came in about 2:00 in the afternoon. With the exception of a couple pieces of huge luggage that we're not sure what to do with (evidence on the left) - everything seems to fit in the 700 sqft apartment. Talk to me in about three months to see if I still fit in the apartment.

The Internet's Here Too

Yeah, now we have the Internet at home. Should make things a bit easier at work, and it also makes updating the blog easier (kind of had 0 time at work to do it). DSL is about the same price as the US, but you can get a router that is also wireless, gives you your TV channels, and does some sort of other crap. Don't really know the details.

The important point was that in order to get the thing to work, Patrick had to go to the telecom store and pick up the correct modem. Not sure how grammatically correct the conversation was, but at least he got the right thing.

Patrick's Here

Apparently having better luck than I in arriving in Strasbourg, Patrick arrived safely Wednesday morning. I was even prepared to take the day off to show him around Strasbourg, but he told me to go to work anyway. Probably a good thing too, since it sounds like he went to sleep, took a walk around town, and then slept again until I got home. Took him out to a proper french meal at La Casserole, but I hope he doesn't think we'll be eating like this all the time.