A very good week...and a half

Well, it's been a while, but I have great news: I have an apartment! I looked at it last Tuesday, and it has many of the things other apartments have lacked. While it's in the center of the city, it's on a side street that's not so busy, and it's within a short walk of three different streetcar lines. It has 2 and a half rooms (Germans count all rooms besides kitchens and bathrooms, so that's basically 1 bedroom, 1 living room, and a half room that could be used as an office or dining room), and the bathroom and kitchen have been renovated in the past couple of years. And...the kitchen has the Einbauküche I was so desparately seeking! Tomorrow morning (er, later this morning, as I just looked at the clock!) I'll meet with the owner's daughter to sign the rental contract. Since the owner's daughter takes care of renting the apartment, there are no realtor fees to pay, which saves quite a bit of money for everyone. Except the realtors, of course. :-)

Since this apartment isn't furnished, for the past couple of days I've been on a quest for furniture. Today Karen, Katarina, and I went to IKEA and easily spent more than 5 hours there. If you've never been to an IKEA, it's quite an experience. They literally have anything you could need for your home, from couches and wood flooring to silverware and watering cans. And, the best part is that their products are of good quality for good prices. They display their products in mock rooms so you can see how they look when assembled and how you might use them in your room. I got lots of good ideas there today. I've also been to several used furniture stores, and today Karen and I went to one that has lots of furniture in great condition for very low prices, so I think I might have to go back again in the next couple of days. Several people from church have offered me furniture that they no longer need, so I'm also trying to look at that to see what I might be able to use.

It's all so overwhelming. I've never had to start from scratch in furnishing and filling a place to live. I went to college and had to buy things like towels and sheets for my dorm room, but I didn't have to get furniture. When I moved into my apartment in Searcy, I only had to get bedroom furniture because my roommate, Katharine, already had the furniture for the living room and kitchen. So now I'm starting with nothing but my clothes and a few odds and ends like measuring spoons and oven mitts I managed to squeeze into my suitcases. I have trouble knowing where to begin. How do you go about getting EVERYTHING for your apartment? Something tells me that a bed would be a good place to start, but what about light fixtures? Most apartments here come with only the wires hanging from the wall or ceiling, so if I want to be able to see I'm going to have to get some lights. Unless, of course, I get some candles. But then does that mean I should get those before a bed? ACK! At least I won't have much to move out of Ingrid's. Oh! Except for my vacuum cleaner! The bank here gives you a gift if you refer a new customer, and Karen went with me as my referrer (I think that's a word. My English skills have declined a bit as my brain has tried to adjust to German!) when I opened my account. When they asked her to choose a gift, she told me to pick what I wanted because I need everything and she and Mark already have most of what they need. So, I chose a vacuum cleaner. Seemed practical and quite a bargain. Thus, I have a box to move with my suitcases.

In other news, overall life here is going well. I have to admit, I experienced a bad case of homesickness in my first week, but as I've settled in a bit, that's gotten better. I'm adjusting to hearing German all the time and am doing better about forcing myself to speak it. I've even had several Germans tell me my German is very good, but I know I need to review the more complex grammar structures and build my vocabulary. I never seem to have all the right words for what I want to say.

Church is still really difficult just because it's several hours of concentrated Biblical German, which I of course did not learn in school. I'm still trying to learn the books of the Bible in German. Some are easy, like "Markus" and "Lukas." Even "Rut" is fairly self-explanatory. But how is an English-speaker supposed to get "James" from "Jakobus"? That one always throws me. Or what about "Offenbarung?" My mind can't seem to connect this with "Revelation," even though that's exactly what the German word means. And I always have to count Genesis through Deuteronomy to decide if the one I'm looking for is 1., 2., 3., 4., or 5. Mose since German assigns each of them a number as a book written by Moses. I'm thinking that I should try to get a German Bible other than the Luther translation I have now because the books of the Bible are in a different order, and I'm continually getting confused. Hebrews (or should I say "Hebräer") always seems to be hiding from me.

I've been able to do a bit of traveling each of the past two weekends. On Sunday, November 5th, I went with Mark, Karen, Stefanie, and Karsten to Braunschweig to worship with the congregation there. After morning services in Bremen, we boarded a train and made the roughly 2 and a half hour trip, only to miss our connection in Hannover because of construction on the tracks. We finally arrived an hour late but still were able to spend the evening with the 7 adults and 2 children that make up this congregation. Jim usually preaches for them on the first Sunday of each month, but since he was in the U.S. with Elsa, Karsten agreed to take his place, and he did a great job. We also shared Abendbrot ("evening bread") with them, and this is something I'm still getting used to. Germans generally don't eat a meal for dinner but instead have rolls with butter and some sort of meat or salad (like egg or potato, not lettuce and carrots) on them. When I ate one part of my roll with only butter, several women looked at me with concern and asked if I had seen the meat farther down the table. I received an even stranger look when I ate bread with nothing on it. I wonder how long my strange behavior will be excused by the fact that I "just arrived in Germany?"

Last Saturday Karen, Ingrid, and I accompanied Stefanie to Hildesheim where she had been invited to speak at a Frauenfrühstück ("women's breakfast"). Stefanie did a wonderful job despite her jitters, and it was good getting to meet some of the women in the Hildesheim congregation. Two of them are Americans, and they invited me and Karen to celebrate Thanksgiving with them. They and the Americans at the congregation in Peine alternate years as hosts, and this year's meal will be in Hildesheim. I don't know yet if we will go, but it was wonderful to receive the invitation from other Americans who are away from friends and family during the holidays.

Another big event of the past week was my appointment at the Ausländeramt to apply for my residency visa. No one was available to go with me, so I was without company for this big adventure. I made my way through the building and to the room where I thought I should go and found myself surrounded by people from what seemed like at least 17 different countries speaking just as many different languages. I noticed a crowd around a desk with a woman behind it, so I followed suit and showed the woman my appointment ticket and was told to have a seat. A few minutes later my number was called to go upstairs to a different room, where I again showed my number and was told to sit down and wait. My number was finally called again, but this time I was to go to a numbered room in a certain hallway. Now, this hallway is no ordinary hallway. You have to press a certain button to enter it, and as you walk down it, all the doors are closed and there is absolutely no sound, making you feel like you're in some sort of horror movie in which something dreadful is about to jump out at you. I finally found Room 152 and cautiously opened the door to be greeted by a rather friendly woman who said, "Hallo, Frau Adams." I sat at her desk, handed her my passport, and she proceeded to cheerfully enter my name into her computer. And that's where her perky demeanor ended. She became rather irritated and tried to tell me something about the Bürger Service-Center and kept repeating the word anmelden. I knew I had seen and heard this word but could not for the life of me figure out its meaning. She spoke very quickly, and even when I asked her to slow down she seemed to think that if she just continued talking I would finally come to understand her. I finally decided that anmelden must mean "to register" (which it does) and that I was supposed to have registered at the service center before coming for my appointment. She also explained that I needed to bring 2 photos of myself (similar to the ones you have to have when you apply for a passport), as well as several other documents I did not have with me at the time. How I was supposed to know these things is beyond me. No one told me when I went to make my appointment that I had to bring these things with me when I came back. And now this woman was upset with me for not having taken care of these things. I finally thanked the woman and left her office feeling rather drained. It was the most frustrating and overwhelming experience I have had here so far. And now, I have to go back at least one more time to take the things I did not have the first time. I can be in the country for 3 months as a tourist with only my passport, so I still have some time, but it was still an all-around frustrating and embarassing experience. As Mark says, though, everything here is a learning experience, and at least now I know what needs to be done and can save Mark and Karen the trouble of going through the same hassle.

There is much more to tell of my experiences so far, but they will have to wait for tomorrow (or rather, later today!) because it is well past my bedtime and I have the meeting for the apartment in, well, about 7 hours. So, I need some sleep. Please know that I appreciate each of you for your love and support. Thanks so much for wading through my blog and my detail-oriented tendencies! I really will try to post more often so the posts aren't so long. I have learned so much so far. Each day teaches me more about the language and culture and about how God is working in my life and in the city of Bremen. Sometimes I'm still surprised to realize that I'm actually here. I want to share all of my experiences with you so you can not only keep up with my life and work here but can also perhaps learn a little about the German culture. I'll try to post some pictures of Bremen as well so you can get a glimpse of the city. Tschüs for now!