I look forward to exploring this quaint little town. The bells of the Cathedral, visible in the distance, ring at 6pm every night. I have forgotten how comforting that is! The town is called Filderstadt and it's outside of Stuttgart. There's a farm less than a block away from where we live and there's a stand where you can buy fresh vegetables. It's on the honor system and they have a little box where you deposit your money and then take your vegetables. I haven't seen anything like that since I was a little girl growing up in Ohio!!
Today was interesting, though. My hosts, Mr. and Mrs. Wiemann, came up stairs to check on us and to tell me that they would be doing some loud construction work tomorrow. I thought that was very nice of them to let me know. I think they were advising me because they know I work from home.
They seem like very kind people. They introduced me to their son who lives in the apartment next door to ours. I asked lots of questions and wanted to know about everything in the village. They were pleased to give me the information. I even translated their "House Rules" into English and told them I would leave them a copy of it for future use.
At any rate, I found out that most of the stores close at 12:30pm and don't open up again until about 3pm. Some markets are open throughout the day until 10pm (I was surprised about that), the key is to know which ones they are! It so reminds me of the time I spent in Italy all those years ago. Ah! The memories! I look forward to making new memories here in Germany.
Mrs. Weimann also let me know that she would be laundering our towels (kitchen and bath) and our linens. I was so happy to hear that! Since I don't have laundering facilities, I was very grateful for it. She also said she would scrub the floors...but I couldn't let her do that!! So I will wash them in the morning and then go to work at the kitchen table where it's warmer than at the desk!! Hopefully, there will be a little sunshine so I can walk down the road to visit the vegetable stand.
Tonight I made our first full meal. It was challenging to say the least because the kitchen is so small. But, I'm grateful for having a kitchen at all. I had imagined we would be eating out every day and night and that does get old after awhile.
Doing dishes was also a challenge. We don't truly know how blessed we are until we live in a foreign country without the amenities we're used to...microwave, dishwasher, tea kettle or disposal. I know my own household goods are on their way and this is just a stopping place until we find permanent digs. I'm humbled by this temporary housing but am happy to be here. I'd forgotten that Europeans do their dishes in a way that conserves water and energy. So I went back to my roots when I was in Italy many, many years ago and remembered how to do them to conserve that precious hot water!
I look forward to the weekend to spend time with my husband who is settling in at work very nicely! He's already working on a project and enjoying it. He had the opportunity to have lunch in a German deli in Stuttgart today. He went by himself. When I asked him how he managed to order, he said he pointed! Isn't THAT humbling? Time to get back to learning our German!!
This weekend we will be exploring. I haven't worked up an itinerary yet but will do so, sometime tomorrow. We also have to make sure we find time over the weekend to do laundry. Kelly Base, which is not far from our apartment, has a laundry that's opened 24 hours so we can do it early or late depending on what else we have planned. And while it's a pain to have to drag dirty laundry around, but the flip side of that is that there will be a multitude of washers and dryers at our disposal so it shouldn't take long when you wash everything at once and then dry everything at once. For me, it's the silver lining because laundry is the one chore I don't like so having four washers and four dryers to get it done in an hour or two is great! ;)
Today was also the first day that I haven't felt jet lagged. Thankfully, I didn't nap at all and now I'm ready to go to sleep.
So, I am embracing my new surroundings and looking forward to sharing everything with you!
Stay tuned for more!