Another Week

Well, hopefully only a couple more of these flashbacks and then we will be caught up.

June 2-9, The Aftermath

Monday June 2nd was my first day at work. First order of business: call the plumber and the electrician. The plumber couldn't make it Monday so it had to be Tuesday. The electrician assured us the cooktop was not functional and that we shouldn't use it, so they unplugged it so we could take it back. When I got home, we took off for ikea and carted the cooktop with us, along with a list of a couple more things to pick up. Well, the returns place said they couldn't help us and we needed to contact the manufacturer - which happened to be whirlpool. We tried and tried and tried to get them to understand: we spent our money at ikea, the product is faulty, so we want to exchange it for a new one. But, to no avail, we drug the cooktop with us for nothing. The list didn't come in handy either as Jodi ripped it into a million tiny pieces, accompanied by, well, you get the picture. So, we almost left the cooktop sitting in a dumpster at ikea, but we decided to take it with us, after all, we still needed to be a little frugal. We went to bed with hopes of running water for tomorrow, but we all know how that is going to turn out, right? Tuesday morning, the plumber showed up. After a few chuckles about my handiwork, he had everything hooked up, and we actually had water! Jodi was giddy, and maybe freaking the poor plumber out. Did I mention we cut the hole in the stainless steel too far from the sinks? The placement of the faucet was kind of arbitrary, so we put it where we thought looked good, and didn't give any thought to what was going on under the surface. I had to 'chisel' out about 2 inches of wood supporting the sink top with the drill using it like a rotary tool (dremel). It was pretty funny. Definately not at the time. The plumber got a chuckle from the wobbly faucet too, and he rearranged a bunch of the washers and stuff and made it look easy. I should mention, we followed the instructions from ikea as to the placement of the washers, so that part wasn't entirely our fault. Next on the list was to call the whirlpool guys, who in turn referred us to a local business who would contract out the electrician to come and check out our stovetop. The fellow came Wednesday. Five inches of his crack was hanging out the entire time he performed the operation. No englische either. Jodi describes him as the most offensively rude acting and looking person ever. We let him in, and the wild boar started wreaking havoc on the contents of our house. He used dish towels and duct tape for hot plates (to protect his gentle hands) - the duct tape actually melted onto one of the burners. When he had the cooktop uninstalled, he scraped up the stainless steel counter beside, and Jodi had to grab a random rug and stuff it underneath. Needless to say, Jodi and him had it out for at least 25 min. (remember, nobody understands each other) and they phoned me and our translator Martin at work to figure things out (on the guy's cell phone, we still didn't have a phone). The final verdict: the cooktop is functioning normally, and the smoke will wear off and the brownish hue of the cooktop is not out of their specifications. By the end of his 'test', all four burners had smoke coming off of them and had turned the entire cooktop surface browny. Note to self, and everyone reading, whirlpool/ikea blows. Please do yourself a favor and don't buy electrical stuff from ikea. At first, we wanted to stand our ground and take this to the highest authority, but after 2 more days of the run-around (ikea-whirlpool-frommer-local electrician) we figured no one was responsible, so we have given in to the big corporate machine. We are getting soft. Remember superstore? So, we resigned to get the original electricians back to hook the thing up, and they reluctantly did; they still didn't think it should work like that. Well, either it works for a long time, or maybe it will break down all the way pretty soon, and we can completely whiz 120 euros down the toilet. Enough about the cooktop. Jodi's main hope was to cook a meal before Mom was scheduled to go home, but the electricians came back the day that Mom went home - Thursday. We were glad to have the kitchen finally hooked up and complete, but we felt we were drug through the mud for so long that it wasn't even that exciting to have a functional kitchen. Thanks Mom G. for all the help during the first couple of weeks, we couldn't have done it without you. And thanks for sacrificing three weeks of your life, it was definately no holiday. Thursday was a pretty sad day with mom leaving, as we had grown quite accustomed to the team we had. Friday was much of the same. As was Saturday. And Sunday. We were enjoying the slower pace and getting things sorted out and organized. Well, I suppose that's the end of this week, the next blog will be about our trip to Colmar, France, that we did on June 14 (the next Saturday). We'll leave you with a picture of Reese, enjoying one of the many (!!!) books we brought with us.

Jodi and Jeff

Gracious Neighbours

Ok, so we are all doing a little better, and we are going to try to catch up on this thing in the next few days.

May 29 - June 1, The delays begin...

Thursday (the 29th) I had to go to work (maybe I should have got paid for this week too) to sign my contract, and the kids and Jodi and Mom came too. Jodi had to sign something too. Not sure what that was for. I guess she is an employee of the Klinik too. We had a decent leisurely morning, except for Mom - she and Jodi both had head colds. Mom's was bad. Jodi and Mom and Erika went downtown to get some more supplies, and I went to let the electricians in to hook up the stove and cooktop. Everything went smoothly and they even cut the hole in the stainless steel for the faucet for me. Of course, I was using the steel punch wrong. I suppose I should have kept the instructions. Well, we had spatzle and rotisserie chicken with cooked carrots. Yes, cooked and hot carrots. It was amazing. Our first cooked meal at home, and it was great, even if we couldn't wash the dishes in the kitchen sink (the bathroom sink was starting to build up a little residue unfortunately). So, we piled them up beside the kitchen sink, because, of course the faucet installation would be done relatively soon. We put the kids to bed and I promptly started to work on the sink. I really wanted to get the fresh water hooked up tonight so we could use the darn things. I ran a couple of measurements by Jodi, and I assured her we had about 12 inches of copper pipe to spare. Jodi assured me I could cut at least six off. So, I took the pipe cutter thing, and voila! off came the six inches on each pipe (one for hot, one for cold, of course). The faucet we bought, which was pretty cheap (10 euros, not bad), required that one of the pipes be smaller than the other or else the bolts would get in the way of each other and we would have to bend the pipes. Well, I knew we had 12 inches extra, and I already cut 6 inches off, so I could easily take off another two or three, and still have some left. Apparently not. I guess 12 minus 6 minus 2 works out to be about -4 because the stupid pipe wouldn't reach anymore. This was the defining moment of our relationship. After choice words, Jodi went and scrubbed the dishes in the toilet again, while I tried to make the pipes stretch to the friggen hole. It didn't work. Well, the Praktiker list just got a little longer. On Friday morning, to mend our relationship we decided to hang one of the 300 lb upper cabinets. They are really heavy. The concrete walls make drilling and putting screws in very difficult. I have to say, it was the hardest thing I have ever done physically trying to screw in the hangers (by hand, with pliers). Even though they were put into concrete hangers/plugs, the concrete leaves no room for the expansion of the plugs and makes it almost impossible. I couldn't use a drill either as the hangers had no grooves for a screwdriver bit. Anyways, one done, one more to go. We decided to start putting the second one together at 9 pm, and also drilling the holes into the wall around 10. Well, the neighbours below us told us in Germanese that they were trying to sleep. We sent Mom to the door to play dumb because we were being pansies hiding in our bedroom. "Can you get that Mom? Not sure what they would want..." That day we did finish most of the other projects including our bed. So, back to the sink. We solved the pipe issue, just to find out that we couldn't tighten the faucet down enough. It kept flopping around, which I am pretty sure isn't normal operation. I am sure ikea would say otherwise. We were past sanity, and Jodi was just giddy and laughing, and telling me to hook it up as is - we can at least wash the dishes. After about two more hours of trying to tighten, we decided to call a plumber. I tried to get to a plumber that night, but to no avail, and no one (we checked all of one place) was working on the weekend. Funny, we are laughing as we write this, but it was not a laughing matter at the time. I was mad. Here's a picture of one of my assistants helping me with the cabinets, and the actual placement in the kitchen. We were definately praying for the next couple of days that the thing would stay on the wall. Mom wouldn't even go near them. Can you believe we ate in this kitchen last night?

Saturday morning we finished up the second 1000 lbs cabinet and put it up. Jodi and Mom left for a little shopping excursion (actual shopping, not solely interested in household needs) while I sweated it out again trying to get the cabinet secured with those blasted hangers. After pounding the pavement for most of the day, Jodi decided to have a bath and Laveryne started to make a cup of tea. 'Started' is the operative word here. It took about 20 min. for the burner to heat up, and before it was done, we noticed smoke and the smell of an electrical fire. We vacated the kids by the time Jodi got out of the bath and opened all the windows. As it turns out, our nice cooktop was starting to burn (or something anyway) and it looked like it was burning the stainless steel top. About a two inch ring around the element was burned to a nice copper/almond color. This was exactly what Jodi wanted to hear. Well, we hit the breaker and went to bed in our disbelief. Remember, Saturday marked the two week point, and only two days ago we were certain that the sink and cooktop would be operational, and it seemed we were back to the beginning. Oh, except for the beautiful fridge. It was working. Here are a few pictures of how the place was coming along. In reality, everything else was progressing except for the non-functional kitchen.

As you can see (Figure A), there was a small hiccup with Erika's bed. Nothing a pipe wrench and some wood glue couldn't fix (the duct tape approach didn't work out). Handy Manny strikes again, and you can't even notice it. On Sunday, we went to the zoo for a little relaxation, and to get away from our place. The zoo is relatively close, and you can walk easily to it. It was actually pretty funny, you could see pretty much all the same animals at an Alberta farm. Except for the horsey thing (Mammoth crossed with a donkey) that they claimed was of North American descent. The zoo was pretty big, but only had about 10 different types of animals in it, so it turned out to be quite a haul to see everything. We stopped at the end for a ride on a spectacular carousel:

We hoped that Erika would get her euro's worth before the thing bucked her off and fell apart. After that, we started to walk back home in the 40°C weather. Needless to say, the 20-mile (probably about 10-15 km roundtrip) was a little much given the events in the last couple weeks. We started to see mirages on the way home, and considered curling up in a farmer's field. Thus ends another day on our German holiday. Sorry about the novel again. Stay tuned...

Jodi and Jeff

Uh-oh

We will have to keep you in suspense for one more day on the continuation of our story. We are all sick today. Boo-hoo. Sorry to let the masses down. Here's a little peak at what's to come: dryer installation.

Jodi and Jeff

The Stuff Arrives...

Back to the story...

May 26-28, Building days

The fellas unloaded all the stuff. And we started to put the Ikea stuff together. This is our place with about a quarter of the stuff unloaded:

I had to take off at this point and go to work to get some of the administrative stuff out of the way. So the ladies started to put stuff together. I also stopped at a local hardware store (Praktiker) to get a jigsaw and drill and some other little stuff. By the time I got home, Jodi had worn a hole in her hand from all the manual screwdriving. My project was the kitchen:

The women had already put the table and 2 chairs together, and also the daybed (our couch so all of our visitors have a place to stay, nudge-nudge), the kids' little table, a spinning play chair, and the butcher block thing (???). Our place was an absolute sty. I did get the kids to help me put some stuff together though:

The two most rewarding things were having a couch to sit on and plugging in the fridge so we could actually keep meat for longer than an hour and have some cold milk for cereal (warm, funky-smelling milk goes great with chocolate chunk cereal though). We completely underestimated the work we needed to do for the kitchen. Too bad we didn't have the cash outright to have it installed. I got the base cabinets built, and tried to figure out what we needed for the plumbing and wiring. So, around 9 pm we just needed to put the cabinet doors on and call it a night. Oh my. Fast forward 2 hours later, and we just needed to put the cabinet doors on and call it a night. To make a long story short, handy Manny (a.k.a. Jeff) had put the mounting brackets on backwards, so we were never able to make the 'Click' sound - as instructed from the ikea handout - to attach the doors. No amount of brute force or cussing could make the doors attach and make the 'click' sound (as shown by a small tap of the thumb in the instructions). So I changed the brackets around, and 'click', the job was done in 5 minutes. Thus ended the day, and I had a big list for Praktiker for the next day. In the morning, the wash machine got delivered, and this was a beautiful moment. Probably the highlight of Freiburg so far, as shown below:

Then I went downtown to get my 'tax card' so that I could be gainfully employed, got some stuff at Praktiker, and headed back home. By the way, buying drill bits and special sized pipes with my knowledge and salespeople who speak mostly German do not make for a comfortable shopping experience. Also, a round trip to the store is about an hour on the train and walking. In the afternoon, we put Erika's bed together, and the ladies had already put a wardrobe, two dressers, the wintergarten bench and one more dreaded kitchen chair together earlier. So, in the kitchen, we needed a way to make a hole in the stainless steel top for the faucet, and we bought a handy little tool (manual metal punch) from ikea to do the job. Seemed easy enough, it even came with instructions. No matter how hard I tried to reef on that thing, I couldn't get it to cut through the steel. So we moved on to something else: the plumbing. Good grief. Talk about out of my league. I can barely plunge a toilet. One of the pieces in the drainage system was bought from ikea, and it came with some handy instructions, including a little hole covered by a thin piece of plastic that you needed to just 'tap' out with a screwdriver. The thin piece of plastic was unrecognizable after I was through with it. It took an hour and a half, but me and my knowledgeable plumbing assistant (with years of experience, or at least, years of 'coaching' experience) had managed to pry a large enough hole for a small amount of water to pass through. The time we were 'on the clock' included dripping sweat, blue smoke from all the nice words, and Mom's gentle prayers in the background. Good enough. Yeah right, a 'tap'. So basically, we got nothing accomplished that night and I had an even longer list for Praktiker for the next day. Well, I suppose we got a cute picture of Reese:

On Wednesday, exhaustion was setting in from trips to Praktiker and endless building projects. You might imagine our lot: meat and cheese and buns for almost two weeks does not a happy troupe make. We decided that I wasn't a trained electrician, and we wanted to get a professional to hook up the cooktop and oven. So, how do you find an electrician without knowing German? Well, you head to the place you bought the garbage and try to get some numbers. And we did. 2 numbers, I think. The public phone in our quarter of town wasn't working, so Jodi and Mom took the tram downtown (15 min) to make some calls. The first guy never answered. The second one hung up on Jodi twice. The first time she thought it was a mistake. The second time she got the hint and realized this fellow was maybe not the best choice. So they headed to another electronics store nearby and a nice salesman did the calling for us, and after an hour and a half of waiting for them to call back, we had an electrician appointment for Friday. What a nice salesman, we didn't even buy anything from him. That night, I fiddled around with some more of the plumbing, figured out we were missing more pieces, and wrote it on my Praktiker list. So, in conclusion for the day, here's what I accomplilshed (couldn't have done it without a 1 year-old):

Actually, I think we did the desk and bookshelf, a wardrobe, last dresser, and Reese's crib. Oh, and somewhere in the last couple of days (Tuesday??) we made another fun trip to ikea with two strollers so we could bring back another mattress and some other random items. It was a good time, and free from rain.

Jodi and Jeff

The 7th Circle of Hell (Ikea)

Before we get back into the story, I have a couple of sidetracks I thought I would divulge. First and foremost, a special 'hello' to Lesley, Tim, Bailey, Nichole and especially Griff. We are praying for you guys and we hope all goes spectacularly during the procedure tomorrow. Ok, now, on the less serious side - it seems I am quite adept at bathroom etiquette. In the last month and a half, I have walked into three bathrooms while people were conducting their business. The last time was today, in a public bathroom in the klinik of all places. It is completely on my mind now whenever I open a bathroom door. I think I will adopt the strategy of knocking everytime before I try the door, no matter what. The thing I don't understand is, lock the friggen door! If the door was locked in these cases, it would have never happened. Who doesn't lock the bathroom door, especially in public places? Oh, and I am not talking about walking in on Jodi or Erika either. Today, my new, aged, hospital 'acquintance' was tucking Captain Winkie into his pants when I walked in. I am more than happy to pass this vision on to you. Well, back to the story...

May 24, Hello again Ikea (ih-kay-ah)

While perusing the Ikea receipt (which seemed as long as Santa's list), we came to the conclusion that they hadn't ordered us a kitchen sink cupboard. For the uninitiated, ikea freestanding kitchens require a cupboard bottom first, and then you put on your range or sinktop or counter surface. So, we had a kitchen sink coming, with no where to install it. Well, off to ikea to pick up the missing part. We were hoping to add it on to the large delivery we already had coming for Monday, but as our luck would have it, this couldn't quite be arranged. So, we lugged the 100 lb base cupboard from ikea to the bus stop (0.5 km walk) onto the bus (20 min), transferred onto the tram (0.5 km walk, 15 min ride), and then from the tram station to our place (0.2 km). Oh, and we also had some other purchases to take with us as well. And Erika and Reese. Did I mention it was raining? Grandma took care of Erika and Reese, and I took the one box and Jodi took another one, and we tried our best. Jodi's hands started giving out on the 2nd transfer, so the 45 min trip took a little longer than expected. But, we got it home, and it wasn't too bad to put together:

I even had time to showcase my electrician skills (of course made difficult by ikea), but it sure felt good to have a light in Erika's room (or any room for that matter):

So, now all we have to do is cut a hole in the back for the water taps, and a hole in the bottom for the drain, and easily install the top and faucet. Doesn't sound too bad...

May 25th, Reese's First Birthday

Not much happening again in Freiburg for the Sabbath, so we were free to relax and enjoy the gaffer's birthday. We started off with some buns and meat and cheese for breakfast, and then took the tram to Günterstal (a ritzy suburb) and caught a bus to the bottom of a small mountain nearby. From there we could take a ride up a cable car to the summit (Schauinslandbahn).

It was a really good time, except Mom G. almost derailed the car and tried to claw herself out of 6 inches of plexiglass. We were just talking about random stuff when Mom started focusing really hard and concentrating on an otherwise superficial topic. The bells went off for Jodi and she knew the claustrophobia was kicking in.

Luckily, I had a thick pamphlet I could wave her way to lower the body temperature enough to keep her from passing out (and/or taking us all with her). The frantic waving got things under control in a couple minutes, and the remainder of the trip was amazing and pamphlet free; the mountain is full of 'diverse vegetation' (Sarah and Peggy). It was really green, moreso than I have ever seen before:

The top had a cute playground for the kids, and a little (albeit touristy) restaurant which Mom bought us lunch at. The trip down was much less eventful, and Reese was pretty tuckered out. All in all, a pretty fun first birthday.

Jodi and Jeff

Corpus Christi / Schnitzel

Today, we are going to do two days. Look out!

May 22nd, A German Holiday

Needless to say, a random German holiday falling on the first week we arrived kind of set us back a bit. Absolutely nothing was open on the holiday (and every Sunday) except for the Turkish vendor selling meat that grows on a stick (donair anyone?) and kebobs. We took the time to go to downtown Freiburg and explore for a bit. The old city has these little canals with supposedly fresh water running in them. I wonder how many intoxicated locals have relieved themselves after a long night of boozin'. Being ignorant as we are (ahh, bliss) the kiddies sure had fun (it's actually a common thing to do):

There is supposed to be this big, grand church - the Münster - in the middle of Freiburg (built in the 1300s) that Mom G. and I couldn't find on our last visit for some reason. So as we wandered around, we figured we should try to track it down. Turns out it wasn't that hard. It's rather large. It's funny though, even with a building that big, you have to have a break in all the other buildings to be able to see it because everything is so packed together. With the events of the past few days, it was really cool to see this building and walk through it. It's going to sound corny, but pictures just don't work to convey its structure and beauty and grandness. Seeing something like this kind of erases all the garbage we went through this week. Well not really. Sort of. It was neat. Here is a picture of us just after we spotted it through a narrow alley. We are definately showing the effects of the last few days. Jodi looks like she just wet her pants, and I am staring off into space/constipated. You can see the top of the Münster (barely) behind us.

And that's the extent of the pictures we got of the Münster. Better luck next time (I suppose you have to come see it for yourself). We did get a couple of the inside, but they do not do this amazing building justice.

This lady was nice enough to pose for us:

Erika lighting a candle for Corpus Christi:

And that was about it for this day.

May 23, Deutsche Bank/Arcor/Martin

Another day of smiling like the good Canadians we are and signing things we don't understand and leaving the kids with Grandma. In the morning, we opened up a bank account and set up our phone line. We couldn't believe how long it was going to take to have a phone - 3 weeks at least! But the guy was really nice. We also got a 24 euro broom. Don't ask. But it does have a nice ladybug molded on the bottom. "The envy of all brooms", apparently. The broom was soon accompanied by a matching toaster, for a modest 54 euro. You heard right, $80 CDN for a 2-slice toaster. We did do a lot of penny-pinching at Ikea... all for the toaster I guess (not shown). So, we picked up Grandma and the kids and went to Martin's for lunch, which was a good time, thanks to Grandma taking Erika for a 2 hour walk. Elizabeth (Martin's lady friend) sent us on our way with a large piece of coffee cake. We also got some directions to a large department store downtown, where we found a wash machine, electric teapot, hairdryer, and Grandma got Reese a little push car - "The Big Bobby Car" a.k.a. "Big Booby Car" courtesy of Erika. We ended the night with some delicious buns and meat and cheese, and I think we will sign off today and leave you with a movie starring the Big Booby Car. Voila:

Richard Wad

Back to the story...

May 21st, No more driving.

In the morning, we all went downtown to town hall, because we had to register our address with the local authorities (everyone does within a week). Then we all went to a cute little hotel restaurant where we enjoyed some nice schnitzel and some Hawaiian toast thing and good soup. This was also the beginning of trying to order a regular glass of water. This is actually quite difficult, because, for the most part, all of the water you order at a restaurant has "gas" in it. That's ok for me and Erika, but Jodi can't stand it, and it's a little 'spicy' still for Reese. Anyway, after lunch, we went back to town hall to get our visas renewed - the ones we got in Canada were only for entrance. This was very, very painful. The international office was a hallway of doors, and you were split into different groups based on the starting letter of your last name. There was two doors for S's but one was closed for the day so we all got lumped together. Of course, all the people with S last names had to show up on our day, or so it seemed. The hallway was stifling and small and crammed. We gave Mom a break for the afternoon and brought Reese with us, which wasn't the best decision, as the wait turned into about 2.5 hours. The actual visa process was pretty easy, but of course costed another 150 euros out of our pocket. We had to ski-daddle (yup, ski-daddle) over to the Budget rental to take our car back and meet our personal translator (thanks again Martin) so we could explain that only part of the car was being returned. The beefy (as in built, think stereotypical Arnold-German-woman) was really nice and Martin made the situation a breeze. And we just smiled and nodded. And signed stuff. This all after we showed up late and left Martin standing on the curb for 30 minutes while we drove back to our place to get an extra diaper or something. Actually I think it was for the police information that we forgot. It also gave us a chance to drop Mom off with the kids at home again. Thanks Mom! So, we were now car-less, and Jodi and I had a romantic walk back through the industrial area of Freiburg. We bought a coffee from some random wooden shack along the way and marveled about the past few days and how crazy things had been. Little did we know this was only the beginning... We then had some meat and cheese and buns for supper (spreadable meat this time, mm-hmm. Actually, no it wasn't). So ends Day 3 in Freiburg. Ahhh, home sweet home:

More updates tomorrow.

Jodi and Jeff

Uncontrolled Intersections

Now, back to the story...

May 20th, Polizei/Ikea/Polizei

We were hoping that if we took back the rental car that was late first thing in the morning, that maybe we would get lucky and not get charged for an extra day. So as soon as we got up (the mattress wasn't actually that bad on the floor) we all headed to Budget - after meat and cheese and buns for breakfast of course. It seemed like we got off with the rental being late, although the guy didn't speak any English, but I had a good feeling that we wouldn't have to pay extra. We piled into the tiny little EuroFiesta and I had my first taste of the sweet ride that Jodi had been driving for the last couple of days. The thing was pretty tricky to drive. Now, Budget was only about ten blocks from our apartment, and on the drive home, we were talking about the "yield to the right at uncontrolled intersections" rule - which is used quite a bit in Freiburg, and an uncontrolled intersection happens about every five meters in our neighborhood. I thought I was finally starting to get the hang of it when we side-swiped a station wagon in the middle of the intersection. Of course, he came from the right. Oops. Everyone was Ok, and the guy was pretty nice and 'told' us (he knew no English) that the Polizei were on the way. We had rendered his car completely un-driveable, and I was already making plans of how we could pack up and get back to Canada. When the police showed up, they took some pictures and then took the guy off for questioning. I thought they were going to decide our fate without us even being involved. After about 15 minutes, they came and got us and we went and sat in their police van. After a couple of questions in broken English, the very nice police lady asked if we had any money. We both immediately clammed up and remembered stories a colleague of mine had told us about the police in central America, and how they coerce people to give them money in exchange for their freedom. Of course, this is not Mexico we are talking about, but we told a large fib and said we had no money. (I had about 1900 euros in my neck-man-purse-passport-carrier-thing: Jodi's idea). Immediately after I said that, I thought - we're finished, they are going to find the money and then we will be enjoying the inside of a German detention cell. Over the course of an hour and a half of questioning, we finally figured out that the officer just wanted us to pay the fine up front because we weren't from Freiburg, and then we finally conveyed that we were from Freiburg. The whole ordeal was tremendously confusing. I am still confused. Well, not really. We ended up not giving them any money, but we had to come down to the station later for a statement that night with our own personal translator. They let us go and we met up with the kids who were hanging out with Grandma at the park, and we were off to Ikea again. In our broken car. When we finished the showroom proper and headed into the self-serve area to pick up all the stuff we had written down, Jodi started to hyperventilate and became a walking zombie. What was supposed to be a fun, purchase-your-new-home-in-one-trip was turning out to be far too much to handle under the circumstances. Mom G. pulled out an earlier speech from May 17th (mental breakdown day) about having to just get through our problems as there is no other feasible option (framed in terms of labor/transition/delivery). In the end, we bought absolutely everything we could think of for our place including the kitchen, and hoped they would take Visa again - and they did. By now, we were on the preferred customer list with all the stuff we bought. Next, we drug all of our purchases over to the delivery place. Then the poo-poo hit the fan. The gal went through every item on our receipt, checking to make sure the numbers/quantity/price or something matched what we had on our skids. Makes sense of course, but we had a lot of stuff and it took a painfully long time. The original cashier made a couple of mistakes - we quadruple paid on one item, but missed paying on three, but this was not all discovered at the same time by the delivery worker, and Jodi/Mom made three trips back to cash to settle. Apparently, they couldn't deliver everything - we had to take some of the loose stuff like dishes, garbage cans, kitchen utensils, clock, and a neverending pile of small house stuff. When everything was done, we got the really bad news that none of the stuff could be delivered until next monday (6 days)! As upset as we were we didn't have time to be phased by it as we had to cap off the seven hour Ikea outing so we could get to the police station and meet our translator for the statement. We drove home, raced the stuff upstairs, left the kids with Mom and then went to the station. We each did separate interviews/interrogations with the officer and Martin, our translator (a colleague from the klinik, a.k.a. the guy who found our apartment). The officer was an incredibly nice lady, but the whole process was kind of scary - the statements were recorded on audio tape, and the proceedings were very formal. Turns out the fella was completely intoxicated - 0.21. We just thought he was a nice guy. Perhaps a little bit of the language/culture barrier seeped into this one for us. Well, we are crossing our fingers that his drunkeness might take some of the blame off of us. I'm sure we will have to pay the deductible for the rental car though. Big deal, just a cool 750 euro. Yikes. Pass the offering plate around... We topped the day off with some buns and meat and cheese, and relaxed and rejuvenated on our mattresses on the cement.

We promise these will start to get shorter. I think. See you tomorrow. Same Bat time. Same Bat channel.

Jodi and Jeff

Home for the Snyders

Ok, continuing on from yesterday:

May 19, Our new home

We woke up around 9 and showered, which felt great. The hotel included breakfast, which turned out to be plethora of... cheese and meat and buns, and other stuff too. But cheese and meat and buns for breakfast? The whole deal was actually quite good though, and it was a cute little restaurant. We had to pick up our keys and do the walkthrough for the apartment at 11. The walkthrough was quick and painless, thanks to Mom watching the kids, and one of our guides spoke english, so that made things easier. We did get a large lecture on the many different types of recycling/garbage. In total, there are 6 different disposables: glass (broken into green, brown and white, with a separate container for each), plastics (packaging), paper, compost, waste (all the stuff left over/garbage) and plastic recyclable bottles. Anyway, then we took off to Ikea to get some essentials, which included mattresses, pillows, etc. It was kind of funny, the day or so that we arrived, Ikea decided to change all the models/prices of the mattresses, so all of the pre-shopping we did in Canada was a waste. We did end up finding some of the older models in the self serve part, but I don't think they were the same. We pulled up to the checkout, and we saw a funny sign with the word VISA with a big 'X' through it. Hmmm..., that looked foreboding considering our temporary financier (thanks Mom) had arranged to pay for the stuff on VISA (she actually had pre-paid onto the VISA). After a weird, dazed conversation, we decided to use our Mastercard, which was supposed to be our living money for June. But it didn't work. We started to think we would be sleeping on the cement apartment floor. The next few minutes were a blur of Grandma and unpaid merchandise and kids and ice cream and some strange poster of a hot dog with brown and green garnishes on it. On top of it all, we were supposed to get one of the cars back to the rental place by 5, and we were cutting it close. So we cried our story to the cashier (turned our she spoke English) and she called her manager, and he pushed the magic button to make the VISA work. At any rate, we shoved everything into the two cars, and headed back to the apartment. We had to park fairly far away (I'm not sure why, we have a parking spot underneath the apartment), and after about 6 trips back and forth I had unloaded the car, and Jodi and I quickly took the car back while Mom kept the kids. We got to the rental place at 615, and it closed at 6. Oops. 125 dollars down the drain for keeping the car an extra day. We moped back to the apartment, and enjoyed a hearty meal of meat and cheese and buns, with the addition of Nutella and jam. It was kind of fun sleeping on the mattresses with nothing in the place, almost like camping or something. The cement walls made talking almost unbearable because of the very prominent echo, and the giggling, screaming and crying of the kids made it difficult to enjoy unfortunately. So this is our place...

Jodi and Jeff

Willkommen zu Franky

Ok. For the uninitiated, we are doing some flashbacks, so you might want to read yesterday's novel before you take a look at this one. So, where were we...

May 18th, Frankfurt Airport and Arrival in Freiburg

Customs at Frankfurt airport was pretty easy. It was no where near as hard as I thought it would be, they just asked us how long we were going to stay. We had to get 3 of those luggage cart things for all our beautiful Rubbermaids, and we still had to carry backpacks and Mom G. pulled her suitcase while pushing Reese in the stroller. It took about half an hour to get about 100 m with the current setup. Apparently, the carts have an automatic braking system, and you have to push down on a lever to get the thing to move smoothly. Too bad we didn't figure that out until after we wore grooves into the floor. Just kidding. But the brakes were hard to figure out. All the luggage was intact, which was incredible considering the pack job. At the end of the gauntlet, we picked the "nothing to declare" exit (not sure if that was the right one) and breezed right through. And then the fun began. We went to pick up our cars at the Budget rental place, and it turns out that the Budget rental place where we actually reserved the cars was in the other terminal. So me and Jodi and Erika went looking for the other terminal while Mom and Reese guarded the mountain of luggage. Now, I am not so great with instructions, so the 20 min return trip turned out to be about an hour and a half. That also included making a wrong turn somewhere and taking a tour of the Frankfurt airport after picking up the cars. When we got back to the original terminal with Mom and Reese, I was pretty fed up and strung out, so I quadruple parked on one of the busiest roads at the airport, tossed Jodi the keys and took off to get Mom/Reese/luggage. Needless to say, it was a stressful 20 min for Jodi managing the two cars, keeping angry Germans at bay for the crazy park job, and listening to Erika wail from the backseat. By the time I got back, she had them both parked properly, one behind the other. All our stuff fit well into the larger rental car, and Mom picked up some lunch/supper/breakfast/snack for us to eat. Things were finally going a little smoother. Then, as I put Reese into his deluxe 1975 rental car seat, I heard the beautiful clicking sound as the buckle was secured into place. Except it wasn't secured into place. It was snapped in half. So I went back to the Budget rental place, and they inquired with a couple of the rental companies nearby, and the representative gave me the deluxe 1956 baby bassinet (sp?) model. I was a little unsure about this one but I was a little desperate so I picked it up and ran back to where we were parked. In the meantime, the airport Polizei informed the women they needed to pay for the parking in the arrivals area. Mom tried to talk some sense into him about our situation, and it was actually a long talk, so I hear, even though he didn't speak English. As soon as Jodi caught sight of the atrocity I was carrying, she started shaking her head and pointing me back inside. So, I did the right thing and sent her back inside to deal with it. After a short conversation, we were promised a seat would be delivered to our car in the arrivals lane. We had a leisurely supper in the car with kids (buns with meat and cheese, coffee), and as time ticked away, we got some more food to keep Reese happy. An hour later, Jodi went back in to see what was going on, and we were assured it was on its way. Another hour later, I went inside, and the sales rep phoned the guy who was supposed to drop the seats off. Around the same time, he showed up with a choice of three seats for Jodi to pick from. She quickly picked out the newest model, installed it in the car, and we were off to Freiburg, about 4 hours behind schedule. We felt assured with securing Reese in the car and it slightly made up for the lost time and foggy experience on no sleep. Perhaps it was a good thing we waited it out and got a good seat...? The drive to Freiburg was pretty tricky - for Jodi anyway. I took the lead in our sporty rental car followed by Jodi in a Ford Fiesta equivalent with the kids and Mom, and we were going to go nice and slow on the autobahn. I guess I had a heavy foot that night, and I lost them in a matter of minutes in the blinding rainstorm. It was crazy to see all the drivers flying past us at incredible speed. After about an hour of white-knuckling and sweating, Jodi's Mom convinced her to stop trying to follow me. Oops. We did meet up at a gas station about half way there, and then we got to Freiburg at around 12:00. And then I took a wrong turn, and we had a quaint midnight tour of Freiburg on a couple hours of sleep and both kids awake. At around 12:30, we finally pulled up to our hotel (the same one me and Mom G. stayed at in December for the interview). The room was actually incredibly nice, and exactly what we needed. Erika and Grandma bunked on the pull out bed couch thing, and we put Reese in the playpen. Within about 15 minutes and only a couple of tears from Reese, we were fast asleep. Ahh... lovely hotel Lowën. I definately recommend it. So ends the 2nd day.

These first couple of days are pretty long, so we are going to have to pack it in for now. More to come tomorrow.

Jodi and Jeff

Hello..., is it me you're looking for?

I think we will tell our story about the last couple weeks starting with our first day (May 17th) and then working our way to the current stuff. Or else we might spoil the drama. And there is a lot of it. So, without further ado, here it is:
May 17th, 2008: The Flight

Last night we tried to pack all of our containers. Thanks to Laveryne we are still on our way to Germany, after Jodi almost had a mental breakdown and I sat around with my head up my rear and generally acted like the proverbial third nipple. We now have everything we think we are going to need in the next two years in 5 Rubbermaid tubs and two suitcases. (Plus 500 lbs of carry-on, we'll get to that later). The main problem is the actual weight of all of our stuff. In total, we are allowed to have 200 lbs as checked baggage (including Mom G.'s amount). So, if 199.5 lbs is taken up with kids' books, as Jodi wanted, that leaves enough for a pair of briefs. And this is where the wailing and gnashing of teeth began. It was very difficult to cut out some of the stuff we thought was essential to have, so it just felt like - maybe we shouldn't be going at all. Clearer heads prevailed, and we strategically packed all our stuff, leaving behind the xbox, wii, clothes, and 1 more kid book to be brought later. We didn't sleep well last night, we were just to wrought with despair about the coming days. Anyway, so the beginning of today I went to pick up some duct tape and luggage straps to secure the Rubbermaids, and visited with Ryan and Elyse at Peters'. We packed up my Dad's truck and Mom G.'s beetle, and basically wallowed around for the rest of the evening, before leaving for the flight check-in. After one return to Mom G.'s to pick up the forgotten flight tickets, we were off. God sent us our first angel at the check-in counter, and things went pretty well. Turns out we were 80 lbs. over weight (we're not talking about my paunch) - we actually expected this - not to mention the blind eye the check-in lady turned to having about 3 too many carry-ons (which each had about 200 lbs of kid's books and toys. Oh yeah, and the desktop computer. And monitor.) She was a pretty nice gal. It was also really nice to have my parents watching the kids during check-in. So, 350 CDN later for the 80 extra lbs and we were off to play in the family area for about an hour with the kids. After that, we went to security, and you can imagine how easy it was to go through that with two kids and 1000 lbs of carry-on (mostly books). Can you bend over please sir? A little further? I don't get it, everytime I go through security, they have to strip me down. Hmmm. Anyway, Jodi blubbered good-bye (a common theme in the past couple of days, just Jodi, of course not me) to my parents, and we went to the boarding gate to wait for an hour. The kids actually did surprisingly well for being up 3 hours past their usual bedtime (it was 11 pm by this point). Onto the plane we go, after a generous shot of Motrin for Reese (he's teething...). The first little bit wasn't so bad, but it got really bad at about the four hour mark. This is when AirTransat decided to finally turn the lights out. Or so Jodi tells me. The entire flight for me is a blur. After waking our kids up repeatedly for the last three hours, with 'Can I get you this?', or 'Can I get you that?', we finally got some peace (although not quiet, Reese made sure of that). The original plan was for him to sleep on me because I thought I could take his weight for 9 hours, but he had to have mommy. I do remember at one point, Erika was sleeping on me, and Reese was sleeping on Erika's seat between me and Jodi with his head hanging off the side. I think me and Jodi both woke up as he started to roll off (Jodi's one and only hour of sleep). Quality parenting. The meal at the end was kind of fun, and watching France appear beyond the ocean. The flight ended with the best of all of Erika's comments, in a very chipper voice, as we touched down: "That was a quick trip Mom". Everyone in earshot giggled. Needless to say, they left their kids at home. Stay tuned for more updates, next is our travel to Freiburg, and the fiasco at Frankfurt airport.

Jodi and Jeff