Goethestrasse 5

Well, we signed our lease today! Hurrah! We still have a few bureaucratic hoops to jump through- but we should be able to move in (with loaner furniture) next week. It will still be 3-4 more weeks before our furniture and other belongings arrive via slowboat. We hope the baby comes after the crib- but it's gonna be close! Here is the grand tour---

Rob & Charlotte in front of Goethestrasse #5. There is a kindergarten around the corner- Germans begin at age 3, so our landlady is looking into registration info for me. It is only for 3 hours a day, and I'm guessing Charlotte would love that next year! Oh, speaking of the landlord/landlady- they treated us to a very nice lunch today and already adore Charlotte. Their daughter (who lives next door with her 2 children) is named Julia-Charlotte. lol

Let's start at the top floor. Charlotte has claimed this little cubby space for a playhouse. The closets for this room are right next to her.

This is part of the upper floor as well. It has been semi-divided into 2 rooms- you can see the space at the top of the wall here. I think Charlotte will be in the one half and the baby in the other half- once he moves into the crib in a few months.

This is the view from Charlotte's soon-to-be-room. :)

One of the things that we really like about this house compared to most German homes is that 2 of the 3 stairwells have closed risers. It makes it a lot less scary for little kids. This stairwell is original to the house-- it was built in the 1920s! (Most of the house has been drastically updated since then.)

The next floor coming down has the master bedroom and guest room which are divided by these 2 big doors. You can see the closed rolladen on the door to the balcony behind Charlotte.

This is the view from the guest room out the balcony... your room is waiting for you!!

Also on this floor is the master bathroom. Yay, I get my own sink! ;)

Charlotte and I are both really stoked about this tub! I bet Rob is too come to think of it. There's also a separate shower stall and of course a toilet.

Coming down another floor to the main level... this is the "terrace." It's basically a nice big deck area off the living/dining room. The bell tower behind Rob chimes very loudly and LONG I think 2-3 times a day. That will take some getting used to.

This is the living/dining room area with the blinds closed. Apparently we can set the blinds on a timer- to go up and down at certain times of the day. Sounds tricky. Thankfully, they can also be done manually. The windows wrap around the front and side of the house on this corner and this is where we access the terrace as well.

Finally, this is the kitchen. I can't wait to have a kitchen again! This one is much larger than many that we have seen and has TONS of cupboard space. It also has a dishwasher and fairly sizable European style fridge (they are quite a bit smaller than their US counterparts.)

One more look at the kitchen, just because it makes me smile. :)

There's also a bathroom on this floor. And there is an "unfinished" basement where we will be able to have an American style washer and dryer- hurrah! And also some storage space.

Anyway, we are very much looking forward to our new home. :) We're going to start making that guest room comfy as soon as possible- so get your passports ready! ;)

Having a baby in Germany: part 1

Today I saw my German OB for the first time! Since we've arrived here, I've been a bit anxious about this visit, and I am glad it is over. I've been trying to learn everything that I could about having a baby here and how it differs from the US, so I'm going to blog about my experiences so that others can have more info too. If you don't want to know- then just skip this post! :)

Rob had the morning off so that we could do paperwork for our house leasing here and I am SOOO glad that I didn't have to handle Charlotte as well as this visit- it was more than 90 minutes long!

The doctor and office staff were very nice, and all spoke at least some English. (This practice was recommended to me by other Americans partially for that reason.) I met with the doctor who reviewed my charts and issued me my Mutterpass. This is a little blue book that I am to take everywhere with me throughout the rest of my pregnancy. It has all of my pertinent medical info in it. Then she (the doctor) did an exam and an ultrasound. Contrary to what I'd been told to expect, there was a little curtained off area for me to get undressed- but it seemed kinda silly since then I had to walk across the room to the exam table. Whatever.

After the ultrasound I got re-dressed and was seen by the nurse/receptionist who took my weight, blood pressure, and urine sample. All very standard stuff. After that, I was taken to another room for a non-stress test. They didn't call it that, but I had a few toward the end of my pregnancy with Charlotte and it was the same thing. They put monitors on my belly for the baby's heart rate and any uterine contractions and I had to lie there for awhile. After that I met with the doctor AGAIN so that she could review the whole appointment with me.

All went well. :) The baby currently weighs about 3.4 kg or 7 1/2 lbs. He is head down, but hasn't "dropped" yet. I think this was the most thorough examination I have ever had! I see the doctor again in 2 weeks. In the meantime, we should be moving in to our home here and hopefully this weekend we'll be able to tour the hospital. I've heard they offer options such as birthing chairs and water births as well as epidurals and pitocin. I guess I have a lot of options to consider. ;)

Burg Frankenstein

Today we had our first "touristy" outing since we've been in Germany. :) We took a scenic drive to Burg Frankenstein- which is really not far from where we are at all. The castle was built before 1250, and has been added to and neglected in turns over the years. The results are some pretty cool ruins and grounds to explore. There is a theory that Mary Shelley was inspired here to write her Frankenstein story- but that is probably just good for encouraging tourists such as us to make the trip there. ;)

This is what you see as you walk up toward the castle.

Rob and Charlotte exploring the pathways beyond the gate... I think these trails through the Odenwald could actually be walked to from the house that we will be living in in a few more weeks. That would be a really long hike though.

These are some of the ruins beyond the entrance walls.

Charlotte and I looking out over Darmstadt- 36 weeks pregnant "belly picture."

This is a view of the previously mentioned Odenwald. Looks a bit like Pennsylvania, huh?

After our outing and a little rest at the Ho-Tel, we went to dinner at a VERY nice Greek restaurant down the street. Charlotte had a "kinder schnitzel" (I'm starting to think there isn't a restaurant in Germany that doesn't serve schnitzel!) And Rob and I shared a "festival of meat." That's what I'm calling it anyway. It had gyro (lamb,) steak, chicken, and pork, and seasoned potatoes. I don't even like lamb, and I thought it was awesome! In case we hadn't consumed enough decadent foods, we stopped in an eiscafe on the walk back to the Ho-Tel for some schockolade ice cream cones.

It was really fun to get out and have a special day exploring! Oh, and next week we should have pictures of the house to post- so be sure to check back. :)

making some progress

Well, we've been in Germany for about 10 days now and we are beginning to find our way around. Charlotte and I go to one spielplatz (playground) or another each day and usually take a walk to our local grocery store (Toom) as well. The German playgrounds are really different. Check out this swing-

Charlotte really likes it. The middle part is made of little rubber pieces linked together- so it's like a giant basket. We have to get some video of Rob and Charlotte on this crazy zip line near the hotel as well. Children's safety is clearly not as much of a concern here. ;)

Here is Rob showing off the BMW that we bought on Friday. Hurrah we have a car!! It is a '92 525i with European specs and very low mileage. We are enjoying exploring and getting out to church on our own and stuff like that. Oh, and Rob drove 100 mph on the autobahn yesterday- just to say he had.

We've also made some progress house hunting. We found a 4 bedroom, 2 bath house that we really like in Darmstadt. It would be a short commute for Rob and is near the Odenwald- a really cool national forest area with trails and such. There are some gorgeous views out the windows and a very large modern kitchen. It even has some crazy features like programmable rolladen (all the German houses have these metal or wooden shades on the windows that can be rolled down to block out all of the light,) closets (super rare in German homes,) a heated kitchen floor, woodstove, garden terrace... anyway, you get the idea. :D Hopefully all will go well and we will be able to sign a lease and move in September. Everything takes time.

Finally, I have made progress getting ready for baby boy to be born. :) I am going to see the doctor either this Wednesday or next Wednesday (there was some confusion while scheduling the appointment over the phone- so I'm just going to show up this Weds. in case.) This practice has been recommended to me by several American women. And I plan to deliver at Marienhospital in Darmstadt... less than a mile from the house that we will hopefully be living in. I should be able to schedule a tour of their facilities at my doctor's visit. From what I understand, having a baby here is quite different, but should be a good experience. I'm more nervous about being moved in and hopefully having our furniture arrive before the baby does than I am about actually having the baby. :)

Wie gehts?

How's it going? Sorry for the looong time since our last post. Our lives have been very, very hectic, and this post is probably going to be pretty scattered, but here we go!

We are now living in Germany!! We arrived on Friday- 08-08-08 and have been spending the last several days getting adjusted to the new time zone, surroundings, language, etc. The weeks before we got here were filled with making preparations and saying goodbyes to as many of our friends and family as we could. Unfortunately, my mom passed away rather unexpectedly about 4 weeks ago... of course we will miss her, but we are confident that she is in a better place now and no longer has all of the struggles that she has been living with in recent years.


Anyway... back to Germany. Right now we are staying in a "hotel" until we find our own place to live. It is actually the same place- and even the same ROOM that our friends the Hancocks stayed in earlier this year! Since it's raining today and I'm not sure where our camera cable is packed at the moment, I'm going to swipe a couple of pictures from their blog to show you around. ;)

This is the place!
Hopefully, we will be in more permanent housing before the baby is born.

This is the kitchen.
I hope to do very little actual cooking here.

This is the trash bin.
I think we've got it down- plastics, papers, compost-able, and other. Glass is recycled seperately into large containers on the street- green, clear, and brown.

Anyway, we are having fun, but we are still really tired. Charlotte had been sleeping well about every other night. On the others, she prefers not to sleep. (Rob and I are feeling the wear and tear bit.)

We could not be more thankful for our friends (and my fellow Pennsylvanians!) Kurt and Carrie! It would take me way to long to list everything they have done to help us so far- but we had a very nice dinner at their house last night and are going to start looking at houses and cars (with their help) later today. Woo-hoo!

We miss our friends and family- but we are really excited about this adventure. We hope you'll come visit us soon!!! :) I promise there will be more pictures coming later in the week.