Corporate Housing!

We arrived in Munich safe and sound!

We knew we were permanent fixtures in our Haidhausen neighborhood with our name on our buzzer, but our acclimation was made easier with many of Jeff's co-workers who were coming into town for business trips over the next weeks. Our second official night in Germany, we were excited to show our great friend (and Jeff's co-worker at BMW) Jeff Ota our empty apartment and sample a neighborhood restaurant together!

We received our keys on our first day in town which happened to be the last day of school for Munich kiddos. Summer vacation, also known as holiday, lasts from August 1-September 15th. We knew many families traveled at this time, but we were soon to learn the city really did come to a screeching halt for these 6 weeks. Calls don't get returned, people aren't in their offices, etc. all because they are on "holiday". And when the Europeans holiday, they do it right! They're gone for weeks at a time! Exciting for them, frustrating for two Zabels who just arrived and want to get settled ASAP! Oh well! Germany holiday season and corporate housing just forced us to relax a little, which was nice after our busy July.

Highlights of life in corporate housing:
- Google translating every word on the washer and dryer in order to do laundry
- Getting creative cooking with only a bread knife, industrial size ladle, and wooden spoon
- Laughing at the silly Americans (us) thinking they could park their X3 in the 2-story parking space assigned to them for corporate housing (We never used the space. Just had to park our car on the street for 2 weeks!)
- Trying to work on our apartment at night after Jeff was home from work. Sarah held the flashlight while he navigated German electrical wiring in order to install all the ceiling lamps in our place. We soon abandoned this nighttime effort and figured we had the rest of the month to work on it . . . or so we thought!
- Hosting Crazy Uncle Pete as he blew through town for 22 hours (as only pilots can!). He witnessed my christening to the German post delivery (apparently I CAN sign for anyone's package in the building, just like my neighbors signed for mine!) and helped us assemble the first of many IKEA pieces of furniture. We gratefully repaid him with schnitzel and beer!
- A Saturday afternoon at Starnberg Lake that unfortunately turned to a rainy day the minute we set foot out of the car. We just enjoyed a giant ice cream sundae indoors and worked on choosing a name for our sweet, sweet, baby!
- Going to the fireworks at Olympic Park -- They were so close and so cool! Lots of the sparks and shrapnel fell into the crowd. Crazy! Never in America!
- Taking a 6 and a half hour first aid class as step number 2 (#1 was having out eyes tested at on Optik) toward earning our German driver's licenses. All right, that wasn't a highlight, but meeting our first official new friends Lauren and Lawrence, expats from the east coast, was!