White Tiger’s Lair

Life in Germany seems to run at a different pace, or maybe it is that the people I spend time with in Germany move through life at their own tempo.  Yesterday was a beautiful sunny and comparatively warm Sunday morning.  In the US this would have meant, well nothing incredibly special, the day would have been spend shopping and in front of the TV.

A few weeks ago I got some tulips to watch them bloom, and bloom and grow they did, the first few days they grew almost 4 inches a day, after 3 days we couldn’t see over them on the table.  Now their prime has past and their bloom are falling off.  So we took them to a nice sunny sport on the canal next to the house and planted them on the bank.  It took no more than 5 minutes but it was lovely to see them planted there, happy little plants.  There was a man walking by with his dog, when he realized we were planting flowers not picking them he offered to water them on his morning walks so that they get a good start.

We then went on to a leisure 3 hour brunch with a group of friends and then a lazy afternoon reading in the sun shine, normally we would have gone for a long walk, but my ankle is still in a brace and I am trying not to hobble around too much before the trip.  I love my life here!

Well it is time to take the plunge and get a German drivers license.  I had been warned that this could be a difficult procedure, (as most things that deal with government offices are).  The requirements for a license here are quite strict here and it can cost between 1,500 and 2,000 Euros for all the classes and tests.

For reasons I don’t remember, I was a good girl and when I moved from California to South Carolina for school I went in and got a South Carolina lic.  There was no test, no change in requirements, just paid $12 and got a new picture.  Well, it turns out that Germany has agreements with certain states where you don’t have to take the written or the driving or both.  South Carolina (but not California) is one of the few states that is exempt from both, thank you BMW!

So I head down to the office (the official name is about 50 letters long so I will spare you that part).  After much humming and hawing and double checking that nope, I really don’t have to go to the other office to take a test first, I am told that I need a translation of my original license.  Now I am not entirely sure what you would translate “South Carolina” and my name into, but I dutifully head to the ADAC office (think AAA except they have life flight helicopters) and shell out the 49Euro to translate my name, into my name. 

A few days later I make it back to turn in my paperwork, (as with many government offices their hours are 8am-12).  Check that paperwork again, nope still don’t have to take a test, shell out another 35Euro and whala, she says in 4 weeks I will receive a letter, at which point I can go back to the office, again, to pick up my shinny new card.  Why they can’t just put it in the envelope they are mailing to me I don’t know, but that is the deal.  The other interesting part is that in Germany you take them then picture you want on the front, so I will be looking somewhat less convict like (at least I hope so, as I used one of my CV pictures).

The only bad part it that they will keep my SC lic, so getting a new one in the US could be a bit of a pain, but I will jump off the bridge when I get to it.

I am very quickly getting accustomed to life in Augsburg.  

On Saturday night we went to a free Gregorian Choir concert in the Augsburg Dom. It was the local boys choir and they were very good.  I have been in many of the great churches in several parts of Europe, particularly in Germany, to admire the buildings and the paintings, but I have never before stayed in a church or sat in the seats.  Therefore there were a few things of note Saturday night: it snowed all day and was bloody cold in the Church.  I know it makes sense when you think about it, heating such a huge building with such tall ceilings is ridiculous (not to mention impossible as they were build in the 1300’s), I had just never thought about it before.  Secondly, the acoustics are AMAZING, every single voice reverberated just right, the building was quite literally made for this type of music and it was fantastic.  Lastly, oak benches are hard on your ass.

Many of my past posts have dealt with various aspects of live in Berlin, however, yesterday I moved to the south, to Augsburg, near Munich.  So I suppose I will need to change some of my themes.  In the short time I have been here my observations are the following: The weather is sunnier in the South.  We are close enough to the Alps to go hiking for the day and still get back in time to go to the Honkie Tonk festival that night.  A short 10 minute trip will take you out of the city, into the fields and forests for a lovely Golden October evening walk.As I prepare for my new apartment, it will be very hard to keep to my resolution to reuse as much as many items as possible, pass IKEA by, and look for the second hand shops to furnish it.  But shopping is a favorite pastime so looking my next tasks for this new city of mine is finding the second hand shops and the Turkish grocery market.