Today in Germany is Labor Day (Tag der Arbeit). It is May 1st every year-- if that happens to fall on a weekend, they just get one less holiday. Luckily, it fell on a Wednesday this year, so we slept in, went to the Eilenriede and played Fußball, went out for lunch, met some friends at a Biergarten, and took a trip down to the Maschee. Quite a fun and relaxing day!
Beautiful building, the backyard area is the Biergarten
We can't believe that it's already been a month here. Between getting used to our surroundings, establishing new routines, and getting everything set up, it has gone so fast! Kevin has been working hard, and eating a lot of cake-- every occasion calls for one to bring in cake to share with your co-workers. On your own birthday, you bring in enough cakes and goodies to share with almost 50 people. When you get a promotion, you bring in cake. Married? Bring a cake or two. Lost a soccer bet? You got it, cake. Luckily, the lifestyle here is much more active, so the Germans can eat cake all day and still manage to keep a healthy waistline.
Deanna has been busy focusing on all of the introductory necessities to living in a new country. We have our permanent residency cards, a bank account, Haftpflichtversicherung (liability insurance, but seen as a necessity for everyone here), transit cards, BahnCard25 (25% off of all train travel for our European expeditions!), and best of all, a new permanent apartment! It is just down the street from our current place, still on the pedestrian mall, Lister Meile. And most impressively, 95% of this has been accomplished speaking only German.
Deanna has been busy focusing on all of the introductory necessities to living in a new country. We have our permanent residency cards, a bank account, Haftpflichtversicherung (liability insurance, but seen as a necessity for everyone here), transit cards, BahnCard25 (25% off of all train travel for our European expeditions!), and best of all, a new permanent apartment! It is just down the street from our current place, still on the pedestrian mall, Lister Meile. And most impressively, 95% of this has been accomplished speaking only German.
New Apartment, above an Edeka (grocery store)
Aerial shot of the Eilenriede. Sehr schön!
The Eilenriede is an awesome place, and is just a minute away from our home. It is the one of the largest city forests in Europe-- so literally, a large forest in the middle of Hannover, twice the size of Central Park. There are many paths intersecting throughout the forest, so you can jog a different route every day and explore something new. So far we have found: miniature golf, a ropes course, small soccer fields, playgrounds (one with an outdoor ping pong table), dog parks, and other open areas. Today we took advantage of the nice weather and walked to one of the soccer pitches. There, Kevin got some much needed practice, since he recently joined the Hannover Re soccer team. This is difficult because the rest of the players have grown up their entire life around soccer, and Kevin only played back when he was a kid. But he is re-learning!
Bike path on the left, running path on the right, soccer pitch to the far right
Running through the Eilenriede (check out Kevin's path below) has also been great practice for our first race in Europe-- we are both participating in a 10K this weekend as part of the Hannover Marathon! The twisting, winding paths are somewhat confusing and one can be quickly disoriented as to the direction they are going. But this just leads to extra practice! The Hannover Marathon also includes an option for another "sport" which remains popular here-- inline skating. That's right, still popular, and they race the same path as the runners.
Inline skater, they are all over the place!
There has been so much to do and see in just these short few weeks that we can't wait to discover what's next. We promise to start posting more frequently once we are completely settled in and things slow down -- which will be very soon!!!
Bis dann -- tschüss!
Bis dann -- tschüss!
