Meeting Our New Home in Schweinfurt, Germany.

Mr. Meena and I spent four short days in Schweinfurt, Germany, to prepare for our move there in less than a month.  It was encouraging and a bit terrifying at the same time.  A lot of people at Mr. Meena’s company have told us that most Germans speak English and are happy to practice it whenever they get a chance.  This was not what we experienced.  I understand a bit better now what foreigners that visit America for the first time are going through.  You feel a bit helpless when you struggle to order food or buy gas because of the language barrier.  We did a lot of head nodding.  Learning a lesson like that is a huge reason why we wanted the ‘look and see’ trip; now we know that we need to take learning German more seriously.  Ja.

We met with the owners of our new home.  To be honest, it’s an extended stay hotel, but we are trying to think of it as a home.  Here is a picture:

As we were touring the room I became very overwhelmed by all the facts.  It doesn’t have central heating (just a radiator) or air conditioning.  There is no dishwasher or garbage disposal and the refrigerator is maybe one third of the size that we are used to.  There’s no bathtub and the bathroom isn’t connected to the bedroom.  The washing machine and dryer are downstairs, shared by all current residents, and you have to pay to use them.  Our bedroom windows are on the main street and will probably let a lot of noise in.  I had suspected many of these things were true just by viewing the hotel website, but I am glad we saw it in person.  We were able to meet the owners of the hotel, a mother and son team, and their kindness was a balm to my fears.  We will have to overcome a lot of challenges in moving to Germany and living in a hotel for 13 months, but knowing that we will be living under the authority of such kind owners is a great comfort.  The room comes with plenty of dishes and other things we might need, but the owners also said they’d be happy to provide more items within reason.  Breakfast is served downstairs every morning, which will be a bit strange but I’m sure there are days that we will be very grateful for it.  They want to have the room cleaned once a week – which initially freaked me out to think of a maid coming into my home like that.  After thinking about it, though, I realized that most people would love to have a free cleaning service.

It feels a bit like going backwards, as if we were moving into upperclassmen dorms at a university.  This extended stay hotel will feel less like a home than our current apartment.  We probably won’t be able to alter anything or even hang photos on the walls.  It’s hard to think about waiting over a year, maybe more, to have a place that is truly our home. I’m also nervous about (temporarily) giving up most of our possessions, our cars, and our date nights to Chik-fil-A.

There are benefits to living in Germany.  We have to remember to stay positive.  In that effort, I’ve made a list of five things I love so far about Germany:

1) The beds.  We weren’t able to take photos of the place that we will live so I took a photo of the hotel we stayed in.  (Update: you can see photos of our German home here.)

Beds here tend to have this divided mattress style.  I love it.  Mr. Meena and I already have separate bedding because we can’t share and I think that we will sleep better on this kind of bed.

2) The autobahn.  This is an example of a road system that functions the way it was meant to.  It is illegal to pass on the right (and people actually follow the rule most of the time) and to tailgate.  It is more stressful than driving on the interstate in America but it’s also more rewarding, especially on the stretches where you can drive as fast as you want (We hit 110 mph, in case you were wondering).

3) The quieter pace.  You will find very few places that are open on a Sunday or that are open late on other days.  There are no 24 hour grocery stores in Schweinfurt.  People walk more slowly, relax more fully, and enjoy their time off.

4) Alcohol.  I think it’s basically common knowledge that their beers are better – Mr. Meena especially likes to have a Hefeweizen.  Germans can drink beer and wine starting at age 16 and everyone is just calmer about it.  There doesn’t seem to be a culture of young people going to bars and binge drinking into early in the morning.  We bought liquor in the grocery store instead of making a special trip.  In fact, we found alcohol in some places that we really didn’t expect it, like mini bottles in an airport checkout lane (they weren’t even locked up or behind the counter).

5) The cheap prices.  Right now a dollar only gets you 0.91 euro, but many items (mostly food and drink) are lower enough in cost that you still save money.  I was very surprised at what we could get for our money.  One big exception is the price of gas, but there are many other ways to travel cheaply.

There were more than five things that I liked about meeting Germany, but this is a start.  But there are also things that I will have a hard time adjusting to, including less than great Wi-Fi, a no ice cube culture, paying to use the bathroom, people smoking everywhere, and fewer places that accept credit cards.  I will probably struggle to keep the reason for our move at the forefront of my mind.  Mr. Meena will learn so much from his time here and take home a valuable resource to the branch of his company in America.  We will live only four blocks from his job, and about five blocks from the city center.

We are so much better prepared to move to Germany after this trip.  But I’m also exhausted from the long flights and jet lag.  It’s time to kick into action with only 22 days left until our expected arrival in Deutschland.

Have you ever moved and had a hard time adjusting?