Trash or Recycling????

They have an interesting system for trash and recycling here.  Each house has four or five bins and a giant calendar.  Each bin is for different items:  for example, one is for recyclable things (not plastic and glass bottles that have a redemption value, more on that later), one is for paper, one for garbage, one for food waste and the last for yard waste.  The calendar (kind of) tells you when they will pick up each bin.  However, each week is not the same, you have to pay attention to the calendar.  I am really lost, so I asked one of our neighbors.  His answer was something like,"Your guess is as good as mine.  This system is more of an art than a science."  We have tried to come up with a system inside the house to separate our trash to go into the correct cans.  The brown can is the "bio" this is food items.  The three small cans inside the stainless steel bin are paper, recyclables, and trash.  Then we have to return our plastic and glass bottles to the store where we bought them to get our deposit back.  If we have anything that does not fit in the bins, we have to take it to the recycling center.  We have been there twice with large boxes and cardboard.  They have a great system there with each carton explicitly labeled with exactly what can and cannot go into it....but  it's all in German and we can't read it.  :)

Does anyone know if dog hair goes in the "bio" or the trash?

The Kitchen!

Today is the big day....we finally get our kitchen. In fact, the guys are here installing it now. I am hoping they will finish soon so I can spend the rest of the day organizing it and doing some shopping. Nathan gets off of school at 11:15 on Mondays and Fridays, so he will be home in a few minutes to see the process. I will post a picture when it is complete.

Look carefully at the picture....Notice that we don't have a stove?  We did have a nice glass cooktop brought in and set down on the floor to await installation, but when the installers were bringing in the countertop, the guy who was walking backward accidentally stepped on it and it shattered.  We will get our new stove on Tuesday (July 31!!!!!).  

Yesterday Nathan and Charlie went to the castle in Kaldenberg to attend the Middle Ages Festival. The Prince of Bavaria was the host. There were knights, a tournament and other middle age activities. I was feeling I'll, so I stayed home and rested.

 Nathan had a bout of home sickness last night after the tournament. He misses all his family and friends and speaking English. I think it helped him that I told him Daddy and I would probably have the same problem within a few weeks or months too. It is difficult living in a country where you don't speak the language fluently (or at all). Although we are learning a lot, and are becoming more adept at understanding German, we are still struggling to speak it. Even when I know the words I want to say, they look at me weird like they are trying to decipher my strange accent. Interesting being on the other side for once.

 We still love it here, though. Charlie and I discovered that July is Pfifferling season. It last about two weeks. Pfifferlings are tiny little mushrooms that are delicious. We went to a restaurant on the lake and sat on the patio and had PfifferlingCremeSuppe (Pfifferling cream soup), then a steak with pfifferlingen and some kind of flavorful sauce with potatoes and salad. It was so good. If you come visit us, you may want to seriously consider coming during Pfifferling season.  Delicious!!

We have also been exploring the town a little bit.  Here are a few pictures of the lake and the little castle that are here.

This weekend we attended the "SchlossGartenFest".  It is a huge Bavarian festival with live music, bavarian food (like fish on wood - fish on a stick), and traditional Bavarian water sports.  Here is a picture of big Bavarian guys in small wooden boats racing around in the lake.  Most of the guys ended up in the water.  It was a big hoot.  Charlie is already thinking about joining the race next year and has recruited one of our friends, Mark, to team up with him.  When we arrived at the festival, the band (all the members in LiederHosen) were singing the Bavarian version of Achy Breaky Heart.  Imagine Garth Brookes with an accordian player in the band.

We have been working a little bit more on the house and recently got some curtains for our big living room window.  Although we don't have a lot of furniture and knick knacks, the house is slowly beginning to take shape.

Sunday

Sundays truly are for relaxing here in Bavaria. Absolutely nothing is open except for a few restaurants. It has been a bit chilly here today, so we were off to a slow start this morning. Around 11:00 we decided to go on a walk at the lake. Nathan took my bike Charlie and I walked. We walked along the lake, then stopped for some lunch at the SeeStuberl. Charlie and I shared a huge plate of spare ribs with salad and Nathan had kinder schnitzel. They were having an awards ceremony at the restaurant for the best fishermen. The king fisher won a huge necklace made of about 25 silver colored medals. Each winner got to choose a prize such as a reel, a fishing net etc. it was interesting. We were also invited to a party at the FamilienZentrum (Family Center) today. My friend, Rosalia, is a founder of this center. She invited us to meet people. We met several parents of kids in Nathan's class and also a couple who run an international group for people living in Herrsching. We also toured the sailing club. I may be hired to teach English at the FamilienZentrum. There is also a Spanish club that I may join later. We are getting more settled here and are liking it a lot. Charlie starts work tomorrow and Nathan starts school, so I better figure out something to "start" as well!

Ammersee

Here is a picture of Nathan, Obie and I at the lake.  That dock behind us in for the ferries that come every 20 minutes or so and take people to the other towns along the lake.  I think there are about a dozen stops on the ferry line.  They are really cute ferry boats with paddles on the sides.

Here is a picture of the ferry from one of the other towns coming to our Herrsching dock.  You can't see from this picture, but the Alps are visible right across the lake to the left.

Other news:  We have figured out that there is a website that is like Craigslist but specifically for Germany called www.quoka.de.  Here we can buy lots of items such as a couch and other furniture, cars, etc.  We went to Munich last night to pick up a couch.  Of course, only half of it would fit in our car, so we are going back this morning (Saturday) to pick up the other half.  :)

Nuts and Bolts

Hi!  I have gotten feedback from some of you that there are problems following my Blog.  I have set up some new widgets, so let's see if these work a little better.  On the main page you will see an area in the top right that says you can sign up using your Google, Twitter, or other account (one that you already have).  Once you follow the steps there, you can return and sign in using the sign in button.  This should allow you to post comments.  I still don't know if the posts will be public, but from my end, I can see if anyone posted underneath my post and I can click on that link to see the posts.  I am still working on it allowing me to post pictures, but I have been posting a few pictures on Instagram, so if you have a smart phone, you can download the free app and then search for me "AmyShortt" and follow me there too.  There is one more added feature on my Blog.  You can sign up to get email alerts when there is a new post.  Just add your email to the email line and click on "submit".  Thanks!

School

Nathan and I went to the school this morning where we had an appointment with the head master. Nathan will start school on Monday to finish out the school year. He will take three classes of German each day and then spend the rest of the time with his classmates in the 3rd form (grade). He will follow the same class to the 4th form in September. Here in Germany, they start school a year later, so Nathan will be in 4th grade next year. The head master thinks that Nathan will be speaking German in 6 weeks! We have signed him up for several fun activities during the summer holiday. Cool outings like wasserbombenvolleyball. This is like volley ball with a ball filled with water, possibly like a sponge ball where you get wet when you hit it. Hopefully, this will be a good opportunity for Nathan to practice the German he has learned in school and make some new friends. Nathan and I just went to the store to get him Some school supplies and a pair of school shoes. All the kids have to bring a pair of shoes that are only for indoors. Germans are very clean and never wear outside shoes in the house. Also, the school hours are from 8:00 - 12:00 with two breaks. They have a cafeteria where students can buy lunch after school if they want, but I think most kids go home right after school and eat lunch with their families. I think Nathan is beginning to feel better about school now that he has this opportunity to go this year and focus on learning German.

Success!

This morning we got our very own German bank account with HypoVerseinsBank! Thank God for small successes. They will mail us our "ec" cards which are used like debit cards. Once we get those cards, we will have access to our money much easier. So, now that we are official account holders, we can go get a cell phone. I will post the number as soon as I can. Nathan and I have an appointment at the school tomorrow morning. They want to meet Nathan and get some info from us. They think Nathan should finish the year (until end of July) in the 3rd grade class and then go to 4th grade in September because they start school a year later here. Everyone agrees that he will pick up German quickly and be fluent before he has to go to high school in 5th grade. We are also planning on going to the government office to register our family and the dog in Herrsching on Friday. Everyone has to be registered whenever they move. The German government keeps tabs on everybody and all their pets. Last night we walked down to the local gelato shop and got some yummy gelato cones. Nathan got two scoops of "cookies ans cakes", Charlie got a scoop of blood orange and I got a scoop of coffee gelato. We walked along the lake and watched the sun setting. We could just see the Alps across the lake. Beautiful.

We Are Bayerische!

That's pronounced By-rish like Irish. It means from the state of Bayern, that's the German word for Bavaria. Well, we all made it, including the dog! You would not believe the bureaucracy involved in importing a dog! The Germans definitely have a handle on that. It took us almost the whole day to get the dog out of jail. The vet in Munich was really nice and helped me with some kind of sickness I had on the plane. He said, "I'm an animal doctor, but I can help people too". He gave me some little homeopathic pellets to put under my tongue. They really worked! We stayed at the Marriott in Munich the first night (Friday). It was nice, but we were anxious to get to Herrsching, so we went and met our landlady before the hotel. She said we could move in the next day. Saturday we got up, went to Ikea and spent 5 hours loading up on all the basics, but when we went to pay, they would not take our credit card. They only take debit cards and not the ones from the US. We were able to get some money out of the ATM which was enough to buy some mattresses and pillows and a few other things. We were pretty frustrated, but we did sleep in our flat that night. Nothing is open on Sunday's so we were not able to do anything today. We took a day off Andy will begin again tomorrow. Nathan has met a friend, Sabastian. Today, they went swimming in the lake (Ammersee) and then we all had dinner at their house. The parents are very nice and gave us a dining room table and chairs and some dishes. The father, Andeas, works with Charlie and the mother, Rosalia, has offered to help me work out the school situation and some other things. Their three year old son, Paul, has discovered that I am fun to play with and is learning to ride a bike. After a quick bike ride with Paul, we sat down for an espresso and he had steamed milk. Funny. Obie loves it here as he can go just about everywhere with us. They dont mind him in restaurants and shops. The only place he has been turned away from so far is the beach club. He is a little nervous when we leave him home alone though and the landlady says he cries. He is a little shaken from the trip over here, but I am sure he will recover. We told Mrs. Bogdan that she can let him out to be with her when we are gone if she wants to. She has a beautiful garden and Obie loves it. Hopefully tomorrow I willbe able to get a cell phone and can post the number here. Tomorrow's goals are: bank account, cell phone, shop for a kitchen. Tschus!

Gettin Nervous

We have rented the house, sold the motorcycle and the one car, packed our stuff, and have a plan A and B for the dog.  Now what?  We wait for Thursday when the action begins.  This will be my last post until we get to Germany and it may be a few days or weeks until I can access the internet, not sure how long the Germany Ministry of Internet Services will take to decide whether or not we qualify for internet services in our home (that was a joke.....kind of).

Auf Wiedersehen!!!!

No Longer Homeless, Only Kitchenless

We now have an official German flat.  Click on the link below to see some pictures:

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/opywftw6rbqhrj3/1vrn0_lV8J/Flat

We will be living in a super cool town called Herrsching am Ammersee (pronounced am-er-zae).  It is in the Funfseen (5 lakes) region southwest of Munich.  Our flat is just a few blocks from the lake and the ferry stops right there that can take you to a number of different towns along the 8 mile lake.  I think it will be fun to explore our town and have access to the other towns as well.  If you Google the town of Herrsching, you can see some cool pictures of it.  It kind of reminds me of La Jolla or Carmel by the Sea (only minus the ocean and plus the lake).

Here is our new address:
Charles and Amy Shortt
Adalbert-Stifter-Strasse 9
82211 Herrsching, Germany

Come visit or drop us a line.

I am sure if you look closely at the pictures of our flat, you will notice an empty kitchen.  It is the one with the tile on the walls and the water and gas hook-ups coming out of the walls.  This is how most rental property comes.  You have to buy a kitchen and lug it around with you when you move.  This is very foreign to me, I don't understand how this is practical or logical.  You must have to measure every flat you visit to see if your modular kitchen will fit in it.  :)  We found a pre-made kitchen at the OBI (kind of like Home Depot) that we are going to check out when we get there to see if it will work.  Here is a link to see what it looks like:

http://www.obi.de/decom/product/Kuechenblock_270_cm_mit_E-Geraeten_Edelstahl,_Samarra_-_Front_Nussbaum-Nachb.,_Korpus_Alu-Nachb./5741715

By the way, the refrigerator is in one of the cabinets.....

Check back soon for more updates.

Homeless

We moved out of our house and handed the keys to our new tenants today.  So, we are technically homeless   now.  A few loose ends to tie up Monday and Tuesday before the fourth of July holiday, then we are off on Thursday.  If you ever move out of the country, be sure to get all the information about taking your pet.  This part will be the death of me.  Our schedule for Thursday morning (flight time 11:30 am):  7:00 am:  go to the vet for the final paperwork, take it to the USDA APHIS at 8:00 am for certification, scan and fax to the vet in Munich before dropping the dog off at United Cargo at 9:30am.  Then, we have to get ourselves checked in for our flight by 10:00 am at the latest.  Hope we make it.  :)