One month later...

Hello Everyone!

Well we are finally starting to settle in here in our apartment. Our container with all of our stuff arrived last thursday and we also had our cable internet hooked up on that day so we finally have internet access. Yea! We are really starting to create a little home and can finally start to communicate with people again with our internet.

Our new place is just great! We have easy access to a tram that takes you straight into the heart of Berlin within 20-30 min depending where you want to go. Rene takes this tram everyday to work. We also have easy access to smaller grocery stores and the groceries here a cheap! But the bigger grocery stores are like a combat zones! Like christmas time at the mall! But that is for another Blog entry. :o) Also with a little walking from our apartment you can reach several restaurants, cafes, and even an independant movie theater.

We are also starting to get to know the personality of the little area we live in which is also very interesting. Around the corner and 8 floors below us there is a small but frequently visited pub. We have not personally had a chance to check it out but we are already starting to recognize a few regulars just from walking past it. Also we live directly across from an auto wash center and have a great view of the German car enthusiasts as they care for their treasures. It's actually very entertaining coming from a person who's old car only got washed everytime it rained! The place has over 30 spots to clean out your car and it is often packed. Sometimes their is a line outside the place waiting for it to open in the morning! Many Germans are notorious for loving cars and this is a great place to catch a glimpse. The longest we have seen is someone vacuuming their car out for over an hour! Then of course their are those who drive up with outfits that match their cars for example head to toe violet and a matching car hue. Hey who needs a TV?!

They only neighborhood hazards by our place so far are the wide variety of doggie doo on the side walks and the occasional noisy conversations from the neighborhood senior citizen gang that likes to hang out by the cut through and drink beers together. They are also fairly entertaining and often seem like characters out of a German version of the Simpsons with a scene from Moe's bar.

Rene started his job on Aug 1rst and is in the orientation phase at the moment. Although the workload promises to be heavy he is optimistic about his new job and seems to like it so far. I have also been settling into my new job as full time mom and "house manager". :o) Big change of pace but also very fun and also makes me a little crazy at times. I am also in the process of trying to find a spot in one of the German language/culture integration classes that are offered to spouses here.

Lukie is doing great! He is growing like crazy. He has about 7 teeth now. He is walking (almost running most of the time) all over the place. He says a few words but I think because of the huge change in environmental exposure to the German language he is not very wordy. He says mostly the same words he said about 1 month ago. Mostly, num-num= food, da da= dad or anthing he is currently pointing at, up= up, and off= meaning off or maybe it's auf in German I haven't quite figured that one out. He also gives high fives now upon request and learned the German equivalent of "Listen!" complete with the index finger pointed in the air to get your attention and the slight head turn saying " Horch!" Actually it sounds more like Horsh! It's pretty funny. :o)

Well when we have more time we will post pics. Hope all is going well by everyone!
And next time you take your car to the car wash think of us! :o)
Take care! We miss you all!
Love, Steph, Rene, and Lukie