Adventures of NaDave: Dave Germany: 5-8 (first weekend)

I certainly slept hard on Thursday night. And my body responded with not being hungry for breakfast or lunch (maybe a little hungover :) ). But on Friday I continued to look for housing and setup my first visit for that evening. I also met with Paul (my boss), and he wanted to help with my lack of adidas shoes to wear at work. So he surprised me with a pair of adidas Boost shoes! Alright! My first perk of the job.

Friday closed in the office, and I headed to see my first apartment. It was in a new part of town, so I wandered a bit, but found the place. It was a nice adidas couple from India, and it was a nice apartment. But it was my first visit, so I said 'thank you', and walked back home. It was spitting rain, but I saw a rainbow! I felt good, the week was over, and I was ready to punch out.

When I get back, I looked in my kitchen, and I was out of food. So I grabbed my pack, and finally headed to the grocery store. By the time I got there it was 815pm...and the parking lots were empty...and sure enough, the stores closed at 8pm. #%@! Sigh, gotta find some dinner. I wanted take out & minimal interaction with people, and wouldn't you know it, the only thing I could find, was a pizza shop. HA! When I went to order, I figured I should just guarantee myself food, so I got the XL size again. And again, I walked back with a massive cardboard box. I made it back, shut the door, and finally relaxed. I didn't set an alarm, and just let me body sleep.

First thing Saturday, I headed to the grocery store. Three were 3 right near each other, so I did lap through each, before determining which was best for what I needed. I headed into a discount grocery called Lidl & embarked on my next adventure, reading German labels! Then it was the checkout counter...after ringing up my stuff, the lady spoke jibberish, but I saw the amount on the readout, so I just handed her money. Oh man, so many language interactions! I walked out with the essentials, food, bathroom items, and of course, some beer! It was only 0.39 for 0.5 liters, I couldn't resist.

After that, I saw that it was the last day for the Bergkirchweih beer fest in Erlangen, and I hadn't gotten the chance to get a souvenir, nor see the 'non-beer' part of the festival. So I kept true to my opportunist self, and hopped a bus to Erlangen. I wandered around the city a bit, finding a nice park in the city center, before heading to the fest. Man, it was packed! But I found a small souvenir mug & a patch. Also, the personal time and wandering around was nice.

On Sunday, I had a couple more firsts. I completed my first loads of laundry (without causing any problems) and also cooked for the first time. I even went for an exploratory run around town, and found the Puma downtown building. Life was starting to feel normal again! I turned on the TV to see what was on, and of course, it all was in German. I found soccer on a channel & hit mute. The next time I looked up, there were fans & security on the field, and a burning flare thrown by a spectator. HA, some real European soccer craziness!

On Monday, I saw my 2nd apartment in Herzo, but it was too expensive. And more email replies kept coming back saying "the apartment is rented". I talked to a young engineer in the office, and his advice was "if you find a place, you should jump on it. Housing here is scarce, so if you wait, it'll disappear". And sure enough, he was right. I spoke with Nadine for advice, and we agreed that the place on Friday was good enough, so go ahead and take it. But when I contacted the guy, he said it had been taken since Friday. Hmm, not good.

I was starting to feel a pinch, especially since I needed to move out of my current apartment by next Sunday. 2 weeks should be enough time to find a place, but days just kept flying by, and I didn't have any options! Argh, again!

I also learned that Thursday was a local Holiday & lots of people take off Friday and leave town to make it a 4 day weekend. So basically with only Tuesday & Wednesday ahead of me, I needed some luck. Or just some place to pop up in my price range in the next 48 hrs.