Week 2.5: House Hunting, German Lessons, Rainy Days

I had the intention of doing at least one post a week... that lasted one week! It's not that I've been super busy as much as just... I don't know, lazy? I finished up my finals last week, and that concludes my first semester of Master's Classes. If I can take two classes during a semester in which I packed and moved a family of six to another continent (with a month of vacation in there as well) and still get two A's (thankyouverymuch) then I'm pretty sure I should be able to complete this program with a reasonable amount of success.

Okay, so last week Tom's task was to find us a house. We are allowed a certain number of days in temporary lodging, and they put a lot of pressure on people to find a house fast. Any house. In fact, there are certain criteria for saying no to a house, and things like "it's on a busy street" or "it has no yard" or "it's in the parking lot of an industrial facility" are not acceptable reasons for doing so. So there's that. Then there's the fact that many landlords do not want to rent to Americans with more than two kids. (Thank goodness we didn't show up with two dogs and a cat, right?) In fact, there's so much demand for housing that landlords will say no to a potential renter for any reason they want. Tom heard about a couple who lost a house because the wife wasn't dressed nicely enough when they went to look at it. (I don't know what she wore, but I would like to again put out my PSA that velour track pants, even if they come from Victoria's Secret, are not daywear.) There's the fact that landlords will not call you back if you leave a message about being interested. There's the part where the housing market is insane, and if you hesitate on a good house someone else will take it thirty seconds later. Most of the houses are not in town-- there are dozens and dozens of villages surrounding Kaiserslautern and so some of the houses are too far for a commute. The one thing that was surprising (especially given the whole family-size thing) was that there were lots of big houses with plenty of bedrooms. This is weird, since evidently no one here has more than two kids. We're getting some looks as we herd around, and one comment I (of course) didn't understand from a grandmotherly looking type at the Christmas market.

This is half the bathroom. Not even half.

But anyway, Tom diligently searched and searched and called and visited, and came across a house in a small village about 20k away from where he'll be working. The landlord is actually a British guy who has four kids. It has three big bedrooms, a big kitchen, a big yard with a privacy hedge, and absolutely the hugest bathroom I've ever seen outside of an episode of  "Cribs". It could be two rooms, if I put a bookcase or something in there as a divider. The bedrooms are also really big, but one has to keep in mind that German houses do not have closets and so a certain amount of the room will be taken up by wardrobes ("kleideschrank"). There is also no carpet, so we'll have to start rug shopping. I foresee a big Ikea trip in our near future! (Bummer, right? Ha.)

This is the house we're renting in the village of Höheinöd. We're not really sure we're saying it right, but we think it sounds a little like "Hoo-ein-ood". 

In the meantime, I was here with the kids. Jacob and Brynn had school last week, and so every day I walked to school with them and then picked them up at the end of the day. It truly wasn't a long walk... but it has rained almost every single day that we've been here. Now, after six years in Texas sunny-every-day weather I do not mind if it rains every day until summer comes, but walking in the rain every day did get a little old. The rain also meant that we couldn't go outside and play, so we were here in the apartment... all day... every day... yikes. Tom rented a car for the next few weeks, but it only seats four so we can't all go anywhere together at the same time. He's also vehicle shopping, but even minivans frequently only seat five because the back seats have been removed. Seriously, this is not a big-family kind of culture!

Tom and his hooptie. 

I've been practicing my German. Tom's cousin Kari lives near Frankfurt and came to visit last Thursday with her daughter Emma, who is six. Our kids LOVE Emma and want to move to her neighborhood :) Kari brought us a book for learning German, which explains many of the things Rosetta did not. I've been plugging away, but my goodness they have a lot of words! And the grammar is complicated. Still, I want to be able to go places and speak with people so I'm determined to learn. We've watched some German TV-- the easiest things to understand are commercials. Seriously, we actually want to watch commercials more than the show! It's fun to watch movies we know with German dubbing. We enjoyed Home Alone, or "Kevin allein zu Haus".

I promised to talk about the Christmas market we went to last Sunday. It was small, but it was kind of neat. It had a medieval theme, so there were a ton of people walking around dressed like it was 1300. There were musicians and dancers, and a blacksmith shop with an actual dude pounding out horseshoes or something. There was also St. Nicholas, who was less of a jolly cartoonish type and more of a terrifying fat bishop. But it was fun to walk around and look at all the shops and people, and we ate some delicious kuchen (cake) and wurst (sausage). Oh, and we tried the glühwein, which is mulled wine and "the drink" of the Christmas markets. I didn't like it-- it just tasted like hot booze. I think next time I'll go for some hot chocolate or cider.

Tom and the kids in front of the castle

And, sparing many details, that brings us to today-- the first day of winter break. There was snow on the ground this morning and the kids are restless so I might bust out the snow gear and take them out for a bit. I'm also trying to get pictures organized and uploaded. I'm still using Picasa, so if you head on over to picasaweb.google.com/pogatch81 you can check out the rest of the Weihnachtmarkt (Christmas market) adventure and more pictures of the new house in the December album, as well as everything from November.