Hey All! Week 2 back in Frankfurt has begun and it feels like we're headed right into fall. Things have been cool (highs in the mid 60s) and we've been seeing a lot of clouds but that's typical for Frankfurt. The temperature has been perfect for me but I would guess that Brenda doesn't share my enthusiasm for the cool temps.
Our search for a new home continues. We looked at a very nice two-room apartment in Sachsenhausen (a neighborhood in the southern part of town) a few days ago and are waiting to hear back. The location is great (it's close to the opera house) and the price is right. Keep your fingers crossed for us, or as the Germans say, press your thumbs.
Renting an apartment in Germany is different from renting a place in the US in one major way; your apartment might not come with a kitchen. It is very common, more often than not it seems, that people moving into apartments have to buy their own kitchens and have them installed. When it comes time to move out people take their kitchens with them or sell them to the next tenant, which would be the case if we moved into this place in Sachsenhausen. Just to give you an idea, a new kitchen can run you anywhere from a few thousand to more than 10 thousand euro depending on how nice it is. Brenda and I would prefer not to buy a kitchen if at all possible but, in the case of this apartment, we think it's worth it.
People looking for apartments in Frankfurt often have to go through a realtor. A realtor in Frankfurt charges almost 2.5 times a months rent as a finders fee which would, most likely, be over 2000 euro if we used one. We're trying to avoid that at all costs which is one of the reasons we are so interested in getting this apartment; it isn't being rented through a realtor.
Other than apartment hunting, things are moving along as usual. We've started watching the TV series Lost and I'm not completely sold on it yet. Also, I just finished reading a book that I loved called In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan. I highly recommend it to anyone that eats.
And one last thing, you're probably wondering what's happening to Brenda's lovely face in the pictures above. Well, Brenda had to have a mold of her face made by the opera house so they can clone her. Strange but true. On a side note, if anyone wants to go as Brenda for halloween we're going to be selling masks of her likeness in order to pay for our new kitchen.
That's about all I've got for this week. I hope you are all well and I'll talk to you next week!
2 comments:
wait wait wait...the opera house needs a clone of brenda? you tell them to get me over there. i'm real cheap, and quite agreeable. haha!
I agree. We should ask the opera to get Laura here! She would be a lot more fun than any clone they can make! And anyway it's time for her to move here...and bring Dan and Whitney with you!
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