August 29, 2012

August 29, 2012

After the girls left on their school trip, I set out for the house in order to continue unpacking.  I spent two hours trying to get the wireless router to work.  I had to go to the mall to talk to the people at the cable company because calling (my lack of German) does not work.  I got a telephone number from the cable man for the wireless router company -- he assured me that the person answering the phone would speak English.  I called the wirelesss router company and used my favorite line -- Sprechen Sie Englisch?  She gave me another number to call for tech support.  She said someone would come on and when I heard the voice I should press 1 (of course she had to tell me what to do because the recording is in -- you guessed it -- German).  I was eventually successful.  Of course it could have been so easy if startup CD the company gives you worked on a Mac.

After taking a look at the wardrobe, furniture situation, I headed to IKEA.  I had never been to an IKEA.  Wow, that is an experience.  I spent several hours at the store and purchased seat cushions for the dining room chairs and bins for paper/glass/plastic.  (Let's just say the garbage bin is small and only gets picked up once a week.  We will have to become serious recyclers!)  I looked at and measured a  number of items, but I needed a second opinion.  So, after spending a good part of my day at IKEA, I came home with only a few small things.  The kicker in all of this is that I paid at the automated machine (language in German).  I succeeded, but I got so stressed as I was checking out (took me a little longer than the average person), I paid for a large bin and two small bins, but I only took the two small bins. I had taken the large bin out of my cart as I paid and left it there.  I realized it when I got home.  Oh well!  It is definitely time to sign up for German lessons!