On Tuesday Dienstag we met up with another expat family that is selling some items (air conditioners!!), walked down to the bakery die Bäckerei for some breakfast goodies, then Ty and I went back to Ikea. We thought of a few more things that we need, including a big bed Bett for Lily’s room/guests (the Shearer Inn is now accepting reservations). Ty is a great navigator, second opinion, voice of reason, and shopping bag carrier.

We also had to go back to the mall we went to on Saturday, and we had lunch at Chidoba, which was pretty similar to Chipotle/Qdoba. We had burritos, quesadillas, chips & guacamole, and Dr Pepper! Wasn’t bad!

Jay and Lily found another grocery store, Edeka. We will usually have to drive to that one, but the parking lot is better than the one closest to our house. Although once my granny kart arrives from Amazon, look out….I’m going to be hauling that bad boy all over. They scored on today’s hunting & gathering outing. They found taco seasoning and sour cream! They said there were a lot of international items. I am looking forward to checking that one out. Words I rarely ever say…. “I am excited to go to the grocery store.”

Speaking of Amazon, I am expecting a thank you card from Jeff Bezos, maybe even an invite to his VIP Customer party. I apologize in advance to the Amazon delivery drivers that cannot drive directly to our home (Pedestrian Mall) and have to carry a small warehouse of packages to our home over the coming days.

Lily and I walked down to Müllers, which is kind of like a Walgreens. It has a little bit of everything. It is so nice to have most of what we will need on a daily basis within a half mile from our house.

Let’s talk about the weather a bit. It has been in the 40s, which hasn’t been too bad. I could probably get by with just my vest if it weren’t for the rain. Rain rain go away. It has rained every day. Maybe not all day, every day, but every day there has been just enough precipitation to make the ground wet and muddy. A common phrase is “It is raining – Es regnet.” We wear our outer North Face jacket waterproof shells all the time. There is a saying in Germany – “There is no such thing as bad weather, only bad clothing.” The rain hasn’t really stopped us from exploring outside (yet).

The sun die Sonne also rarely comes out from behind the clouds. We have seen it briefly only a few times. The sun is up against the constant clouds and the small window of time that is in the daylight window. There is currently only about 8 hours of daylight. Never fear, my sunlight lamp is on an Amazon delivery truck.

Despite the long stretch of time with no sunlight, it doesn’t seem to get super dark at night. And we don’t have bedroom curtains/blinds. This is on my shopping list but curtains have always been a scary purchase for me. Add on the fact that we have to drill into ~1900 A.D. brick walls to install curtain rods, and my blood pressure spikes. Lucky for Jay, the curtains will require another trip to…you guessed it….Ikea. This part of the story is to be continued.

Given our sketchy home internet situation (still don’t have a date for high speed to be installed), we bought a deck of cards. After Jay and Lily cooked a yummy taco dinner (with taco seasoning, sour cream, and refried beans yay!!!), we played Kings in the Corner and then taught the kids how to play Euchre. Did you know that the word Bower comes from the German word Bauer, which means farmer or peasant and is
also a word for Jack. The boys beat the girls, but Lily and I are looking forward to a redemption round tomorrow.

Good evening! Guten Abend!