We have officially hit the 45 day mark of living in Germany. Since moving here on August 1st, we visited two other countries, took one day trip to Trier, and went to our first wine festival. The first month felt like a vacation, but once we moved into our new empty house, reality began to sink in.
On the last day of our first month here, we woke up at 4am to catch our flight out of London and back to Germany to pick up our dogs before the hundepension (dog kennel) closed for the day. We made it with 6 minutes to spare. It was quite the stressful morning. Later on that day, we picked up our keys from our landlords.
For the next twelve days we were just in this awkward limbo. We had been going on 6 weeks of living out of our 5 suitcases, which was fine when we were living in a fully furnished apartment. Our new house, however, had no furniture, no cooking supplies (read: coffee), and the big kicker: NO WIFI. Back in Atlanta that probably wouldn’t have been a big deal, but when you’re newly on a German mobile data plan and can’t figure out if the month restarted or how much data you have left, you’re a little more hesitant to scroll through Instagram all day long.
I had already read the two books I packed, and somehow my Audible had restarted and deleted the book I had downloaded. Timmer drove the rental car to work each day, so I couldn’t really drive anywhere to make friends…although how do you even make friends? It was the beginning of football season back home, the Dawgs were winning, and I was finally starting to feel homesick and really missing my friends.
I’m not asking for a pity party — I write all of this to say that it was a hard week. Moving abroad is hard, and lonely, and frustrating at times. Living in Germany has been great, but it’s also had it’s moments. And in a few months when we (hopefully) have settled in and have friends and a few more trips under our belt, I want to remember where we started.
But when life hands you lemons and a big empty house in Germany…you go to IKEA and make furniture. Truthfully, I have never loved building furniture more than the week and a half I lived without WiFi. It gave me something to do with my hands, and it gave me an opportunity to use my brain. It also made me really miss my Home Depot aprons (those would have been so useful).
And then finally, on a Wednesday, everything started to fall into place. We got our internet to work, my Rogue was available to pick up, and we got the magical email telling us our things were finally here and were going to be delivered the next day! We spent the weekend unpacking boxes, hanging things on walls, and putting things away. We still have so much to do around the house, but finally 45 days later, Germany is starting to feel like home.
Leave a Reply