Guess the city

jumping through hoops

i found a flat i rather like in the downtown area, close to the main train station, only 15 minutes by car from the office. now i'm in the process of providing one billion pieces of paper in order to rent it for 6 months.

i must say, on this point, it was much easier in germany.
1. my work colleagues and i scoured the local paper based on my requirements (not on ground floor, lots of sun, including kitchen)
2. found a few interesting ones
3. called, visited, said i'd take it
4. signed the papers
5. put down a deposit, and away we go.

in the uk...
1. saw a handful of flats, liked one of them.
2. researched a little...realized i wouldn't be able to pass a uk credit check as i have no credit history here, so
3. had to offer to pay all six months in advance. negotiated the price down slightly based on paying six months in advance.
4. had to provide copies of my passport and work visa.
5. had to provide copies of utility bills in germany, to prove that i lived where i said i did.
6. had to provide contact details of my german speaking landlord, that they can cough up someone who speaks basic german to check a reference.

and now, just waiting....

oh really.

Big US Accountant company which did my taxes while I was an expat for company J: Dear H, our German partners would like for you to release your US 2003 W-2 to them. Due to data privacy, we need your consent.

H: Dear US Accountancy, why would this be? My 2003 taxes were done and closed years ago and your German partners did not do my 2007 German taxes, someone else did. (and your German partners are useless)

USAcct: The German government has decided to audit you for 2003. Our German partners will review and respond on your behalf, don't worry, this is standard from the German gov't.

H: Send me the German correspondance for my records, please. I am now curious as to why they would choose to audit me for 2003 at this time and would like to review it before I release data to them.

It's a little too coincedental that I de-registered on Feb 12th and now Germany chooses to audit me for the same year in which I arrived, 5 years ago.

(I loathe Tuesdays. I try to keep my head down and don't tempt fate, because usually anything bad will occur on a Tuesday.)

My Monday

was extremely productive, i...
-received a new office pc, with all the stuff moved over from the old one and the new one is totally up and running.
-found the new office building, including the coffee machine and the bathroom.
-was placed in a desk next to a window.
-looked at my empty desk (which does not yet include a phone) and was rather pleased with the simplistic look.
-received a new company J car. it's no polo, disappointingly, but something larger which cost me 47 pounds sterling to fill up.
-opened a bank account, so benevelont company J can pay me to look at the empty desk and out the window.
-applied for a flat which i fell in love with. let's see if they can manage to take my reference in german so that i can be approved for said flat.

catching up and starting over

In the rush of the past few weeks, I may have missed a few key points if you're following along:

So what happened on the job front, H?
Benevolent company J came up with an offer which appeases me for the moment, so I stayed with them and received a UK contract.

Why the bitter melancholy?
In moving to the UK I had wanted a London location, or another major city like Edinburgh or Dublin. Company J has locations throughout England only; all were open options to me, excluding the central London office, due to space constraints. So while it's nice to have a well-paying job where they showed flexibility for allowing me to transfer, a small part of me recognizes that it's not the complete dream.

So where are you then H?
Somewhere in Essex county. Specifically, I'm in a commutable town into London, and company J has one of their larger offices here. There is a regional train into London and this town is 30 minutes or so from Stansted.

So what do you think so far?
It's a little quiet out here and not very diverse, but the people seem polite enough and the area seems safe.

So will you keep the blogging as is on this site?
Yeah, for now. Officially the title can remain the same (not sure if that's due to my forward thinking or abject lazyness!). Now, instead of whining about Germany I can whine about the UK instead. :-)

memo to self

Bratislava in the winter is too cold. -6 is not a happy place for heather.

Coldness aside, I've had a nice time in Bratislava, although most of it was spent in the office or with work colleagues in the evenings. I did manage to take a few photos, all of them containing snow, as it snowed each day this week and it didn't melt. I had a great time with work colleagues; most were from the Eastern Europe countries surrounding here and all were a pleasure to meet.

Am back to the airport tomorrow morning, then back at Stansted around lunchtime.

So German was useful after all

I called the Taxi's number in Bratislava, company J's recommended company, who supposedly speak English.

Taxi Guy: (bla bla Taxi!)
H: Hi, do you speak English?
TG: Uuuh. (pause) Germanish?
H: Ah supi....(proceeds to ask for the Taxi pick-up in German).
TG: (answers me enthusiastically in German, understanding and confirming).

So one of the most useful applications of my German skills is to be able to order a taxi in Bratislava. Well there is a justification for the last 5,5 years of my life.

24 hours

I left Germany at 3 PM on Sunday. Most interestingly, balloons and confetti did not fall from the ceiling upon the presentation of my passport with the brand new UK sticker, which is now date stamped with my arrival.

I drove a left-handed manual car for the first time. I'm sure the car rental people at the airport were wondering why I was circling the car park. I thought it would behoove me to get some familiarity before getting on the highway where I have no directional clue.

So far, 22 hours later, I've only whacked my right hand on the door 10 times when attempting to shift gears. :-)

I called to get a National Insurance number. Because of the type of work permit I have, and because I'm from the USA, I may fall under their 'mail NI scheme', meaning they will mail me the paperwork rather than forcing me to come in for an interview. The phone person said I would either receive a post or hear back from them in a week if I need to come in. I'm a big fan of the mail-in idea.

Am back on the road in an hour, back to the airport, then on to Bratislava for the week.
Limited posting for a few days....

Reminder: Koeln Deutz on Saturday night

No valentine? No worries, I'll be wearing black. Stop by for a Koelsch, J will be here too. :-)

Location: Koeln Deutz (comment or send me an email-->phillygirl06@ NOT coldmail.com and I'll give you the exact location. ;-) It's a small, local, friendly place.

Time: 19.30ish, until 22ish or whenever people go home. Feel free to stop by for one beer if you're only passing through en route. Will even buy you a beer if you prove that you read me on a semi-regular basis. ;-)

See you Saturday night!

The rules! Snow clearing

I ran into my whistling downstairs neighbor tonight. He reminded me that I promised to stop by to say goodbye tomorrow, and they are looking forward to it. He was outside with a shovel and then proceeded into a diatribe of why.

'You remember Frau Nice Neighbor downstairs, the one who moved out in December? Well she got a call at 3 AM because Herr Replacement Neighbor didn't clear the back steps in a timely manner, and someone didn't have the new tenant's number. Frau Nice Neighbor called Herr Replacement who then called Whistler's Daughter (who is the Hausmeister) as he was out of town....in the 3 AM hour.' So Whister's Daughter needed to do his shovel duty, grumble grumble, grumble.

There is a complix algorithm of outside step cleaning. We pay a little extra for a cleaning service to do the inside steps and hallways (one of the reasons I liked this flat), but the outside clearing is shared among the 3 flats which have grass: Herr Replacement, Whistler's Daughter and the other nice couple. There are 3 flats, but only 2 walkways, so they do some kind of rotation, or two of them often are out together.

'This was after Herr Replacement used the wrong salt on the front steps. The front steps are not poured concrete but a different stone which is not supposed to be salted. Now the steps will need replacing soon, because the salt will eat them away and make them not safe.'

So now, Whistler's Daughter needs to do the back steps again multiple times, because it was snowing again off and on for the past few hours here in the Bergisches Land. 'But, because Herr R didn't do his step clearing in a timely manner, the snow today fell on top and froze over. So now he needs to crack the ice and scrape. it's too slick, like glass.' grumble, grumble, grumble.

To his credit, Whister's Daughter is dutifully out there keeping our steps safe whenever it snows. If it starts snowing in the evening, he'll be out there at 11 PM, and then again, usually at 5 AM he's at it again. When I drove back from Belgium he was out there at 8 PM, clearing the path to the trash bins as it was 3 inches and falling.

To the credit of the Germans, there is a shared responsibility, with rules to back it up, and as long as everyone follows the rules, efficiency reigns. The only reason I'm actually noticing this is because the system is broken. Someone is not following the rules!

One if by land, two if by sea

On Thursday night I arrived at the Hook of Holland ferry terminal just before 20.00 for the 22.00 ferry. I had never driven this route before, so I left plenty of time to allow for traffic and getting lost. From the Cologne area, it's actually quite easy, mappy sends you up the A3, then over to Venlo, and onward to Tilburg/Breda, then to the Rotterdam Ring road. The tiny town of B is slightly north of Cologne, and door to door my trip time was 3 hrs 15 minutes. I was taking it easy as Mr. Polo was fully loaded and not going much above the speed limit. I imagine you could do it faster if you tried.

Upon arriving, the terminal seemed very empty. Check-in is from 18.45-21.15. When bringing along a car, assuming you already have your ticket purchased and printed out, you drive immediately up to the check-in booth. There were no cars in front of me, and two lanes to choose from which shared a middle booth. (So if you were driving a UK car you could choose the lane which put the booth window on the right, while in my German car I choose the opposite.)

Upon driving up, I saw the clerk look at something and then greet me in Dutch, so I think there was a little camera showing the number plate. I responded with a general 'Hallo'. She continued in Dutch and asked me for my passport. Once I handed it to her she switched to English and was very friendly.

So I'm driving a car with a German license plate which is packed to the gills.
My passport is American.
I purchased my ticket on the Irish version of the Stena ship site (as opposed to the UK version) because I wanted to pay in Euros to avoid a conversion fee.

After she gave me a room key and a little map 'and remember, once you pass my gate, you are on UK time!' and the next step was to proceed up to the next booth, passport controls.

At passport controls, there was a man in a safety vest standing in the middle of the lane. Why they do not invest in more durable gate controls rather than humans, I am curious. He also started with Dutch and then switched to English upon receiving my passport.
Passport guy: Are you travelling alone tonight?
Heather: (slightly confused look, as Mr Polo was visibly packed up, including my tent and backpack on the front seat). Yes.
PG: (now noticing the full car). Moving?
Heather: yes, moving flat to the UK, from Germany.
PG: I need to take this inside to stamp it, just a moment.
Heather: Sure, no problem.

I can see him in my mirror, he's showing my passport to the other guy operating the other window. After about 5 minutes, he comes back out.

PG: I've never seen this before. (waving my passport)
Heather: You've never seen an American passport before??? (realizing how incredulous I sounded after it came out of my mouth. I realize this isn't a common travel route for tourists, but really, now.)
PG: No, these pages with letters. I've only seen numbers before.
Heather: (relieved) Oh! That's the extra pages, when you get them added later.
PG: Hmm. When did you enter the Schengen area?
Heather: Umm. Christmas time? I arrived in Holland tonight from Germany. I am a permanent resident in Germany; I live and work in Germany.
PG: So then you're moving to the UK then you come back to Germany to return the rental car?
Heather: I return from the UK by ferry on Monday, then I return to Germany. But it's my company car, not a rental.
PG: I need to ask my chief about these letters. Can you drive over here, I show you where.
Heather: (drives into the detention zone and opens a pack of crackers.)

Blue Immigration Police car zips up near me. I draft an SMS to my Dutch colleagues to come rescue me from the Dutch slammer at Hook, with it one button away from sending in case I need to send it in a hurry.

Blue Police Man: (appearing at my window after another 5 minutes) Hello!
Heather: (black coat now covered in Saltine crumbs.) Hi.
BPM: (smiling) Going to the UK tonight, you will need this. (handing me my passport)
Heather: Did you give it a nice stamp?
BPM: Yes of course! Sorry about that, my guy, he had never seen the letter pages before.
Heather: No problem. Better safe than sorry. (Wondering if that phrase is fully understood by Dutch speakers, or too colloquial. Also wondering if they have an information source where they look up standards like the letter pages or do they have a special hotline to a US government person who would answer such questions on the fly? Or would the chief be expected to know all such variations?)
BPM: (thumbs up and smiley): Have a safe trip!
Heather: (Dumbfounded, zipping away toward the boat, slowly realizing, this was the anti-German passport experience--someone just apologized to me rather than blaming me for their lack of knowledge and was friendly.)

Memo to self: If the UK doesn't work out, perhaps I need to think about working in the Netherlands...

Aboard the ferry from Hook of Holland to Harwich

On the road to the Hook of Holland

I was briefly stuck in traffic behind a dressed up potato from Munich:

Why the postal clerk needed a drink on Tuesday night

The tiny town of B has a small post office counter inside a store, standard protocol in small towns. I know all of the clerks, and they're used to me. They don't get so many foreigners in the post office as most expats working at benevolent company J live elsewhere, so anyone in B is usually married to a German or somehow has a modicum of German. That being said, they deal reasonably well with my random oddball requests in bad German, which always require them to look on their magic price lists because they are not so normal for B (a registered letter to the UK, for example.)

I had stacked up a variety of tasks, and unfortunately, the clerk working on Tuesday night is the least experienced postal clerk who gets flustered by the Germans, let alone the non-correctly speaking foreigners. I had the following tasks:

-drop off a dhl paeckchen, already prepaid online
-5 cards to the US, of varying sizes
-1 postcard to the US
-one letter within Germany
-inquire about mail forwarding

to add to the fun, I had gathered all the random little stamps I had left in various increments, so that I could use them up for this mixture of cards.

I started with the pre-paid package, no problem, although I had to point out where it says 'pre-paid'. "You paid this online?"
The 5 cards she needs to weigh and then look up, as two of them fell into the 2,20 range. Then the postcard needed to be looked up. "I'm not so familiar with postcards to USA as no one is usually sending those from here." Then the adding and subtracting of numbers to apply the existing stamps and 'did you bring this one or is it from me?' in the discombobulated stamp applying.
On the mail forwarding, she had never done it, and by then there were 5 people backed up in the line so I said I'd look into that one online. "Good idea."

I don't think she'll miss me once I leave.

Most interesting response

From the Germans I have known since arriving here, probably the ones who know me the best...upon hearing that I will be moving to the UK, the initial reaction has been a 3 sentence standard, consistent from each:

(thoughtful pause, staring into space) Yes....yes, I think that will be good for you.
(quickly followed by) Not that we want you to leave Germany of course, H!
(and a return to philosophical seriousness) But I think this move will definitely be good for you.

As do I.

How to maximize your decluttering efforts - by moving

1. Move early and often.

2. Don't fork out cash for movers--do it yourself so that every item you are taking elsewhere, you will literally feel the weight.

3. Set a limit on space alotted for such a move.

4. Move in the winter time.

So where am I at?
1. I moved from the US to the UK in 2003, with two suitcases. I moved from the UK to town #1 Germany in 2003. I moved from town #1 to Cologne in 2005. I moved from Cologne to the tiny town of B in 2006. Now, I move to the UK in 2009. If I would not have had those three moves since 2003 I'd probably be much worse off.

2. As I knew I wouldn't be in Germany long term, most of my furniture was of a 'dent and scratch', 'trash-picked' or Ikea variety. So therefore I had no problems to sell it all off or give it away. Everything else I boxed and carried to the car on my own.
-Small Heather-sized boxes are my secret. Easier on the back as well as more convenient for the best Tetris-like arrangement of boxes in a small space.

3. My limit at this point in my life is whatever fits inside a VW Polo.

4. Not sure how it happens, but I seem to feel the need to make major like changes that somehow pan out with a January or February move. Knowing that it's cold and wet outside, I keep things moving and anything that I'm 50/50 on taking is easily decided.

I'm off to the UK for a long weekend. I'll leave a few more posts for you while I'm gone.

shopping on a theme

In Germany the low-cost chains such as Aldi, Lidl and Plus run weekly adverts around a theme: cleaning week, house improvement week, moving week, baby week, auto cleaning week, etc. Then, you can buy lots of things which relate to that theme, for that week and that week only. If you want to buy auto cleaning products in a different week, you're out of luck and must go to a regular, full-price store.

For the food section they offer a similar method to keep things fresh and moving out the door, by offering foods related to a particular topic such as:
American week
Indian week
and a variety of other cuisine weeks: Chinese, French, Italian, British, Mexican and Spanish come to mind. Speaking only for the American week, their offerings tend to be a German take on the particular cuisine--so popcorn from America, but sweet instead of salty for the German tastes or 'American' sauces: barbecue (of course) and currywurst (huh?). But, for a few items, if you find one which you like, you can stock up at a great price for something not usually easily available here at a good price--a colleague mentioned buying enough tortillas at Mexican week to last until Mexican week again appears in a few months.

I don't shop every week so I don't always watch the adverts, but I think this may be the first time that our friends to the North get their own week:
Scandinavian week at Lidl. (OK, so the three countries are sharing this dubious distinction.) Considering the chilly temps we've had over the past few weeks, we may as well be in Scandinavia.