The Cost of Things

Laundry: €6 for a wash and dry
Expensive!

Cell phone plans: I get 200 minutes, 200 text messages and 1 GB of internet data transfer €14.80/30 days - all taxes and fees included and no contract!
Cheap!

Train: Round-trip ticket (as mentioned in previous post) for work €15.40
Expensive!

Cable, Internet, Phone package: Basic cable channels, all-inclusive internet, and all of Germany phone calls: €35/month
Cheap!

Real Estate Agents: This is why it's so difficult to find an apartment. Owners hire real estate agents to rent their apartments and the agents charge 2.38 months of rent + 19% VAT (tax) commission to the renter
EXPENSIVE!

Flights: Round-trip tickets to England for Christmas, €127 with all taxes and fees included. The flight is only 1 hour 15 minutes, but you couldn't find a flight from Chicago to Miami for that unless you took a trip back to the year 2002.

CHEAP!

Used furniture: Special days during the month are allocated for people to put their unwanted goods on the curb with a sign for others to take (for free).
CHEAP!
This was our first free piece of furniture:

This was our recent find - a TV!:

ChocoArt

The old town of Tubingen, our new neighborhood, turned into a carnival-like experience as their famous chocolate festival began. 

Here are some pictures from our town during the festival:

Enjoying the second round (of many) of fruit covered chocolate skewers:

It was hard to pull Damian away from this tent:

The buildings were lite with decorative artwork.

We stopped in a local church because we heard beautiful music and found a small, professional choir preparing for an evening concert.

Moving!

It has been very long since I last posted!
A lot has happened since then so there will be several blog posts this week.

One of the biggest and best events was moving. Well, the physical act of moving was AWFUL, but being in our new place is wonderful. Here is what the weekend looked like in photos...

Saturday - spending the day mesmerized at IKEA:

 A map of the 1st floor (yes, you need a map!)

The play areas for children

The children's movie theater

The warehouse to pick up your goods.

The men's bathroom (Damian took this photo, not me) where there is a baby changing station.

Disposable measuring tape, pencils, paper all for your convenience while shopping.

Damian enjoying the first of our two meals at the store. 

Sunday we moved three loads from an apartment on a hill to an apartment that the U.S.would call a 4th floor (3rd floor in most other countries). Here is a picture of Damian driving the rental van.

My legs were still sore three days after the move. I could barely walk up the stairs from the train station on Monday!