Move-In Update.

I have gotten several e-mails from the masses who read this blog crying out for an update. Have we moved in? Are we well? Why the heck aren't we posting?

We have moved in. The apartment is cozy but very nice. It's great having no maintenance. We're also in a prime location for access to work and the kids school. After 2 months in the hotel, our 1100 sq ft apartment seems palatial. We like it alot.

We're doubly fortunate since the walls are solid cement. This is key since Germans like quiet neighbors and the smaller members of teamfordham are not (always) so quiet. It also helps that the family who lives directly below us is Italian. They don't have the same cultural obsession with quiet tidiness that some Germans do.

A sidenote on the cement walls. Hanging lights and pictures is a pain. Putting anything into the walls requires a hammer drill. Please cross-reference this fact with the comments in the above paragraph about quiet neighbors.

Lights have been the first priority since the previous tenants took all the lights with them. (The Swabian region of Germany is known for *thrift* so such behavior is pretty common). Between the lights and the furniture, the Ikea check-out people now know us by name.

So why no blog posts? The short answer is that we've been the unwitting victims of a conspiracy by German telecom to keep us from getting internet and telephone service. Several installation appointments have come and gone. We're now in the process of giving up on getting cable modem and settling for DSL. We hope to have a real phone number in a few weeks.

This is, of course, dependent on whether I can decipher router installation instructions when they're writtin in German.

Wish me luck.