Getting Settled

I’ve been in Kaiserslautern for a few weeks now, and it would be easy to simply write it off as a small German town to skip over. But it’s basically the perfect place for a nice quiet summer. The town is adorable, the outdoors are everywhere, and it is so close to many other places of interest. I’ll describe it as “but enough to have everything you might need but small enough to be cute.”

Because of its size, the public transportation can be a little bit strange. Often it will be a situation where the bus ride would be 45 minutes, or it takes 50 minutes to walk, or only a 20 minute bike ride. Naturally, I got a bike. I got a magnificent €40 bike that will most assuredly get its own post in the near future.

Since I will be in Germany for quite a few more than 90 days total, I have to take a few extra bureaucratic measures. First, I had to register with the town hall so that they knew I was living in Kaiserslautern. You must do this within 2 weeks of arrival. I ended up having to go twice because the first time I arrived, it was terribly busy. After waiting in line for some time, I finally got to the receptionist, who sent me away and said to come back tomorrow. It was a very American-like experience, which caught me off guard considering how polite and timely people talk about Germans. I came back that morning and had a totally different experience, one that lined up with my expectation. After a short 10 minute wait, I got to speak to an office worker who got me registered and issued me my official papers declaring I do indeed live in Kaiserslautern. In July, I have an appointment with the Foreign Office to get my visa squared away. As long as that goes smoothly, I have all of my paperwork in order :)

The house at Rostocker Strasse is owned by MPI and has a flat on each of its 3 floors. It is basically the intern house, although sometimes PhD students live there temporarily until they find other living arrangements. When I first moved in, none of my flatmates were there. Then after a few days, it was just me and my Croatian flatmate. A few days later, our next flat mate arrived. He’s from Pakistan but studied in Freiburg prior to coming to MPI for his PhD. And finally about a week later, our last flatmate arrived from Greece. I think it’s a good mix of people- we all seem pretty easy going and there’s a good mix of socializing and not.

After living here for a while, I still think it’s a nice flat. My room is great, and the desk has a wonderful view to sit and work. The kitchen table is also a great place to sit and work if I’m the only one there. The only things that I might really say are “missing” are a microwave and a ceiling fan in my room. Germany doesn’t typically have air conditioning, which means we rely on it not being too hot outside (typically fine) and that we can open the windows to keep it fresh inside (also typically fine). But still I think a fan is great for particularly hot days, and even more critical at night to keep the temperature down. I had debated roughing it out for the summer, but I found an ok fan so I got it. Let me say, it’s been arguably the best purchase I’ve made in a long while.

It’s really nice to be more or less settled down for the summer. Cooking my own meals, no matter how simple or not so great they turn out, is always a comfort. One day I’ll even figure out to properly work the oven (it has no words, only strange pictures and a Celsius temperature knob). I’ve adjusted to the Celsius air temperatures but cooking is a different ballgame. The good news is, I have the whole rest of the summer to figure it out. Wish me luck!

PS- leave it to a prestigious software lab to finally develop some solid methodology on dishwasher usage