Productive Saturday

Let's start with the fantastic news that John got his work permit finally! Woo hoo!

We got a lot accomplished yesterday! We went to the Tevi Market in Nürnberg to pick out a washer and dryer with Barbara. We are now working with a second woman named Barbara because the first one went on holiday, but I actually really prefer Barbara #2. She explains/translates a lot more for us and she is very organized. We were debating between the Siemens washer/dryer and the Elextrolux AEG set and we decided on the Electrolux. One feature we really liked was the time display that tells how much drying time is left. The model at the hotel does not have that feature, so it's hard to time it correctly and know when to go back downstairs to get the dry clothes. We made our decision and then Barbara proceeded to negotiate the price for us, so they knocked off a couple hundred Euros. Nice! We scheduled for a delivery on September 17th.

After that we went to our apartment to take some measurements so that we can pick out the wardrobes and some other furniture. We hit up Ikea, and let's just say that Ikea on a Saturday night=CRAZINESS. Not to get sidetracked but there were so many screaming children in that store in addition to children running around the displays like it was a playground that I thought I was going to go NUTS!

We were able to select our wardrobes and make choices about the elements that we will put inside. We chose the PAX kind and basically you can customize the inside any way you like. There are wooden drawers that slide out, plastic drawers, wire baskets, hanging bars, jewelry organizers, shoe organizers....tons of different options! It seems like we will have plenty of space. There are no closets at all in the apartment (which is typical in Germany) so we have to purchase these massive wardrobes in order to have a place to organize/hang our clothes.

We also picked out a desk for my office/our guest room and some other pieces that we liked. We did not order anything yet though because the turnaround time at this point is too quick for us as we will not get the keys to our place until the 15th or 16th of Sept. Barbara came with us to Ikea too and was very helpful in explaining the shipping/assembly prices. They charge a delivery fee of 89 Euros for any purchase over 450 Euros. We didn't think that was so bad, but they also charge a fee of 79 Euros plus 10% of the total price for assembly. Considering we have a lot of items and the wardrobes are large and surely complicated to put together, we are definitely willing to take the hit and pay the assembly fees.

We found out that the kitchen will not be installed until mid-end of October which is kind of disappointing because the "temporary kitchen" will only include a sink and two hot plates. We are contemplating staying a little longer in the hotel because at least here we have a nice free buffet breakfast daily and we have a few pots/pans/utensils to use for cooking. Once we move to our place, we have none of that because all our kitchen supplies are in the container. Thank goodness I found the exact rice cooker I was looking for because that will be useful when we are in our place without a kitchen. It is pretty much the exact same one we had in Portland that died. I looked at Crate and Barrel for another one and they no longer carried it, so I was thrilled to find it here in Germany. It doubles as a rice cooker and vegetable steamer. My old one also had a slow cooking function, but I don't think this one does. Regardless, I am very excited to try some different things to eat besides pasta and happy that the rice cooker is pretty easy to use and doesn't require any other pots or pans.

We got a lot done yesterday and ended the day by enjoying some beer and pretzels at the Steinback Brau in Erlangen with a few guys that work with John at adidas. Now it's time for another lazy Sunday.