Moving to Maxvorstadt

Hello hello! We are back from the internet-less world, finally, and can get y'all updated on what we've been up to in October.

Here's the only picture we took at Oktoberfest. :-\

We have a doorbell!

The month started with MOVING. If you've ever talked to Sarah while they were about to move/moving/just finished moving, you will know that it's her least favorite. Joseph is ambivalent but generally is not amused by the process either. We actually don't know anyone who enjoys it, but it's even less fun to do when a) you don't have a car, b) the train line you have to take is extra crowded because of multiple major events happening that day, and c) you have to put your furniture together after you finishing moving all your junk!

Thankfully, we'd only brought our 2 carry on bags and 2 checked bags each, so we didn't have a whole lot to move. We'd purchased some smaller items and had to move those as well, but 3 trips from the far end of the U6 line to the middle of the city and back later, we were all moved! It's taken us a few weeks to finally be settled in and stop having those "crap, we don't have ___" moments, but it's definitely been an experience!

Finding an apartment in Munich can take forever. The average, we read somewhere, is 6-8 months to find an apartment that meets enough of your requirements for you to commit. We'd been looking since June, and once we arrived, we spent hours, daily, looking at places online and messaging our contact information. It was nuts! Thanks to Joseph's title of "Doctor" we heard back much more quickly than most people do, and we went to tour an apartment within 2 weeks of arriving! When we got there, the apartment manager showed us two, one that was yet to be listed, and that's actually the one we ended up renting! Because the city is huge and there are so many people, the apartments are SMALL. Ours is around 40 square meters, and has just the essentials- bathroom with a tiny shower, a miniature fridge (hidden in cabinets), a sink, a 3-burner cooktop panel, and heaters in the bathroom and the main room. There are plenty of shelves and windows too! We do like the place, and it's fairly unique. It's in a part of the building that used to be doctor's offices, and then they renovated them, so they turned out a little...funky. When you walk in to our apartment, there's a row of built in cabinets on one side, and the bathroom. In those cabinets is the fridge and a cabinet that could fit, say, a microwave, with an outlet and everything. Then, you have to go through another door to get to the rest of the apartment. Even the people here in Munich think it's strange, but we like the character and funny story that goes with it. The main room has the kitchen area and windows, and then there is a small bedroom just past the windows (with it's own window, too). When we say small, we mean like, 2 meters wide (6 feet, ish)!

We're still waiting to get a table and chairs so we have somewhere to sit besides the couch, but otherwise we think we're finally finished getting things to feel settled! We got a convection oven/uber-toaster oven type thing which will suffice for cooking (and baking) needs, and we can now make coffee, tea, smoothies, and store leftovers in actual containers instead of just bowls. We've got a place for our compost contributions and recycling to go when we don't take it out every day. We've got a great couch that folds out into a full bed, and even has storage space in it for the linens! We've got our closets organized and suitcases stored- we are good to go!

Here's a glance at the moving process: our place before/putting furniture together/the end result! Enjoy!

Where we stayed when we first arrived, our "Guest apartment" aka hotel room at the Max Planck Institute. 

Tidied up a little more while we finished packing stuff. 

Lovely view of...the labs. And construction around the corner.

The "kitchen" and TV we never used (hard to watch TV when you don't understand it!)

Sarah did like the cooktop here because it was touch screen,
but she's not sad to leave it because it only had two tiny burners.

Fancy shower! 

At the new place! Assembling the couch. Shark supervising. Piles of luggage everywhere. 

Almost done! With the couch. Still piles of luggage. 

Front door and closets. The lower half of the one on the far left is the fridge :-P

Tiny Fancy shower!

View of the main room from the second door

View of the main room from the other side. Fun fact, we only have a blanket for the couch because we bought the wrong
size blanket for our bed. Worked out well, we think. 

Kitchen area, view 1

Kitchen area, view 2. We are still getting used to having to go to another room to get to the fridge while making food. 

I really had to squeeze in the corner behind the closed door to get this picture of our room. So narrow!