Soggy Situation

Things are going well here. We've finally got a fully-furnished apartment, and now we're attending to the finer details. However the decoration process has come to a temporary halt because it makes me nervous to put any nails or screws in the walls. Yesterday our drill hit a hollow space which we did not expect to encounter in these very solid German walls. Unfortunately, it wasn't just any hollow space, but one that produced a small stream of water that trickled down the bedroom wall. And not just any water, but water that was on its way from the upstairs apartment's toilet down to the sewer. A plumber came, chiseled a hole in the wall to get a better view of the pipe, put a temporary patch on it, and said he'll come back next week with the proper equipment to remove larger chunks of wall, cut the pipe and replace a section of it, and re-build the wall. He will also bring a handy device that senses where it's safe to put a nail or screw.

Honey, We're Home!!

I have had 12 different addresses since 2002. That's a lot of moving. A lot of packing and unpacking, sleeping on air mattresses, cots, floors, futons, "real" beds of varying size and quality, cooking gourmet meals with a butter knife and hotpot, sharing things, borrowing things, losing things. A lot of settling in without getting too comfortable, because it's never the end. So, here we go again... and why not start with the track record as a nostalgic drum roll:
Seminole Dr, Fremont
Holden Hall, MSU
Wilson Hall, MSU
Beau Jardin, Lansing
Snyder Rd, East Lansing
Durand St, East Lansing
Random Rd, Cleveland
N 19th Ave, Phoenix
Trappers Cove, Lansing
Falltorstrasse, Wixhausen
Fabrikstrasse, Pfungstadt
AND FINALLY: Frankfurter Lanstrasse, Darmstadt! At last, we're here! And miraculously, the internet got here before we did, so it's an even more joyful transition. I've been to the German version of IKEA twice already, hauling huge sacks full of plates, garbage cans, rugs, bathroom accessories, etc. on the bus across town. The first time was in the pouring rain; the second time I realized I could just check the forecast on the INTERNET:) before going. So things are coming along. I even got my residence visa (an extremely unpleasant experience, only successful because Alfredo came with me and nobody can resist his sleepy eyes and charmingly calm silence). Tomorrow we're getting a washer and dryer, and Thursday we're renting a moving van and heading to Frankfurt to pick up a bed, TV, kitchen appliances, a grill for the patio, and all the other things we could never dream of lugging around on public transportation. It should be fun. Alfredo is driving because of course it's a stick shift, and I'm navigating. Luckily my parents got us a EuroMap chip for the GPS for Christmas, so there's no need to rely on my superbly gifted sense of [mis]direction.