Sonntag im Deutschland

Good afternoon, everyone. Today is Sunday, the proverbial "day of rest". Here, this is actually taken seriously, and the whole town is quiet. Some people are out taking walks or bike rides, but most seem to be at home spending time with family. Almost every store is closed, in an effort to curb any urges to be productive on this restful day.

Deciding to do as the Romans do, Andy and I went on a long walk this morning from Vaihingen to Büsnau. (Vaihingen is near our temporary apartment and is where most of the nearby stores are. Büsnau is the location of the lab, and is the town we'll be living in starting tomorrow.) We figured it would be a good idea to try to figure out the roads between the two places since we'll need to go between them frequently. The trek took about an hour; the first half was walking through neighborhoods, and the second half was on some lovely trails through the woods. So much of the land here is protected, it's really nice. I think Stuttgart is 2/3 forest. Not too shabby for a city of 600,000.

Our big adventure this weekend was trying to get a cell phone yesterday. There's a current package deal where you get a cell phone, home phone, and DSL for one low price. Being the nerds that we are, we spent a considerable amount of time trying to pick the perfect phone, then after literally hours of being at the T-mobil store, decided to sign up for our plan. (Click here to check out our new phone. Sweeeeeeeet.) However, our excitement was short-lived, because we soon found out that T-mobil wants nothing to do with us until we get our resident permits. Gotta love red tape. So, we'll have to come back late next week, after our paperwork goes through. For now, we're content to be wandering nomads, getting lost in the woods. :)

Tschuss,
Blythe