Day 85: Quiet but productive.

I knew I would not be going to the apartment today because I had company work to do. It was cold and rained off and on. At nine am, my landlady knocked at the door and informed me that the chimney sweep (who by the way brings good luck to German homes) was coming to clean the chimney and he would need access to the attic from my apartment. She said he would be coming between 11am and 1pm. I had no objection.

I was thankful that I cleaned and put away laundry before she knocked at the door. Ted and I were curious about the German tax structure so I asked her if the 19% sales tax was the only tax they paid or if they paid federal and state taxes as well. It turns out they pay not only the 19% sales tax but they are taxed on their income from about 10k Euro and the percentages can range anywhere from 10% to 35% depending on how much the income is. I was astounded! They are taxed more than we are!

During the time I was waiting to do company work, Ted and I finally got the customs paperwork corrected and we just needed to get our shipment.

At 11:30, there was knock on the door and there was my landlady and the chimney sweep. He was dressed in tails and a top hat with smudges on his face. I took a photo but my camera’s batteries were dying so the photo did not come out at and I'm quite upset about it since he was quite interesting to say the least!

The rest of the day was spent on company work. When Ted got home, we had dinner and we looked online for a car. We needed to find one really quickly as our three months was coming up and it would cost us if we didn’t find a car.

We found a series 5 Beamer station wagon. It was so clean looking that Ted left a message for the agency selling it and was waiting for him to call him back. Bill at the agency called back and told Ted to put a deposit on the car to hold it. So we did. Now we have to go test drive it and see if it’s really what we want. It’s used, of course, but looks to be in great shape. The agency will even assist us in getting the registration.

I look forward to getting our lives in order and settled. It seems like it’s been forever since we were settled.


Monday 06/15/09