Running, sleeping, shopping...

I went for a run today - there's a little lake near our apartment so I went on a mission to find it.  I haven't actually been running in a while, so I made sure to bring my heart rate monitor so I didn't overdo myself.  I kept it in the 150-160s and did my whole 2.8 miles in about 35 minutes. (don't laugh! I've always been a slow runner!)  There were quite a few runners out there, but certainly no Southern smiles or "heys" like I generally have gotten in Charlotte.  These German runners are on a mission - though I did manage to pass the old ladies walking their dogs - but they weren't friendly today either.

 I got back and had an angry shouting match with the shower drain.  It was the worst so far - up until now, it was only making me take a short shower, but this time it took a good 3 minutes with the water off to drain.  Mission #1 today: find drain-o.  I did find some for €3, though it was pretty heavy carrying around in my bag all day.  Also on the list today, laundry baskets and contact lens solution - the latter I managed to find at the Pharmacy, of all places.  They don't sell it in grocery stores here.. go figure.

Upon returning, I thought I'd play with my new Adobe Photoshop/Illustrator/InDesign CS5 (I had CS2 before) and draw a floorplan of our apartment.  Getting in the front door is quite an adventure complete with three keys: (1) to get in the main door at the street, (2) to unlock the deadbolt on our door, shown in bottom right of the drawing, and (3) a gigantic Alice in Wonderland looking key to actually turn the handle/open the door.  The apartment has a long hallway off which the rooms are found: bedroom with two twin beds, an armoire stuffed with our six suitcases, and a shelf, stuffed with our clothes.   The kitchen has a small table with two chairs, a microwave, a tiny refrigerator below two range top burners, and a washing machine.  The living room has a really nice coffee table, a sofa, a desk by the window(top of the floorplan), a lounge chair, really tall cabinets(on the right side in the floorplan), and another desk/cabinet with a TV on top.  The bathroom is pretty normal - though I have had to alter my face washing habits to avoid spilling water all over the floor. You can see the door to the landlady's (Friedegund's) apartment on the bottom left, which she pretty much leaves unlocked so we can use her oven or reset the wireless router or whatever. (Ps. You can just click on images in the blog to see them larger in a new window.) 

I took a nap again - had a headache from carrying all the stuff around this afternoon- so I took a nap for an hour or so until Brian came back from work at 7pm with a bike!!  His boss, Christian, had just gotten a new bike, so he brought his old one for us to use this summer.  Angela is supposed to bring me an old one of hers later this week.  We ate at a sushi place for dinner that is just down the street - Miso soup, california rolls, avocado rolls, chicken teryaki kebabs and rice.  Brian is obsessed with orange Fanta and I had some really tasty apple juice.

We returned to the apartment and set up Skype calling to the US on an unlimited plan to landlines and mobile phones for $8/month. I called my dad at work, and he gave some advice about the shower situation.  I also called my mom, who sounded surprised to be hearing from me on her cell phone when we weren't sure exactly how and if we could do that.  She was in Pennsylvania with her cousin Sue just finishing a late lunch.  I was a little jealous since I know that she's going to get to see my kitty this weekend.  Dante is staying with [my new future sister-in-law!!!] Sara in Pittsburgh while we are gone this summer, and from the awesome photos Sara has sent me and what she's told me on the phone, it seems that he is loving their new townhome, with its two flights of stairs and window perches.  He is even getting along well with Sydney, Jason's cat - one will chase the other up the stairs, then pause, and the other will chase the first back down again.  I'm so happy they are getting along and thankful that Sara and Jason were willing to be Dante's summer home.

We are running the washer for the first time with Brian's clothes at the moment.  We don't have a dryer (my German friend Alena tells me dryers are not common in Germany) so we have a metal thing-y to hang stuff on.  Hopefully there will be no issues or user-errors with this appliance!