Cross your fingers...

In what can only be defined as a ridiculously short amount of time, we've hopefully found an apartment! We've signed a lease, but haven't made our deposit or gotten the keys so we're still crossing our fingers (you just never know). We'll pick up the keys in 2 weeks, so the countdown is on. So there's a quick update on that, hopefully a proper update will follow, with pictures of the place and documentation of our impending Ikea trip (YESSS!) to furnish the place, but for now, we are just waiting.

We've also (maybe) solved the bank crisis, although we're still waiting on the finalization of funds to transfer. Waiting on that too! Also waiting on my phone to unlock. I can hear so many relatives' voices right now all saying "Well, patience is a virtue" in unison...

In the meantime, Joe's putting in full days at the lab, getting training done and lab set up started. His office is currently undergoing renovation, which apparently is true of pretty much everything here. Kind of like at William and Mary, where there was ALWAYS construction happening that impacted your day, or in Chapel Hill/Carrboro, where there was constantly road improvement projects to ruin your "quick drive" to wherever. On the plus side, we are used to it! During the day I hear construction equipment and noise from around 8 to 4. Yesterday I had the pleasure of having a loader truck (but smaller, like a Bobcat) pull up right next to our window and just hang out there (running loudly, of course) for about an hour. It was fun (sarcasm). Needless to say we will be glad to move to our apartment once that's all finalized.

It turns out that a German BBQ means grilling literally everything except for couscous salad and potato salad. It also means that you don't just grill a few things, you have 5 different types of meat and every vegetable imaginable available for grilling. And that you take 4-5 trips back to get food. It's quite a social scene and we had a good time.

Up next? Well, Oktoberfest starts on Saturday so we are trying to decide when we will go and what events to attend. There are parades, carnival rides and games, concerts and performances, and of course the beer tents. We've learned that the 2nd week is "the Italian week" and that we will absolutely notice the influx of Italians. It will be an entertaining and unique experience for sure!  We'll also have to take our Ikea trip to buy some things that will hopefully be able to be delivered  the day we get to move in (so cross your fingers for that too!) and getting the requisite residence permits and registration completed in the next few weeks. We'll also be joining a group from the University nearby in a monthly event, starting in October, and hopefully finding some people to play soccer with, or at least hang out with. That's the plan for now, at least!