We have now been in Münster for 4 months and I was thinking about everything we brought as well as what we have had to buy.
We have been very lucky that we have time to search and explore our now city, so we have usually found or stumbled into what we needed to find.
Finding the Flea Market was wonderful, except that the one we visited was the last one until after winter is over. It was a place where you could wander around and find things that you didn't even know you were missing.
Sometimes we find amusing shops, like the American Hot Dog Stand we found last Saturday.
By the way, the "hot dog" above is topped with cucumber slices and roasted onions plus what appears to be curry ketchup and an undetermined white sauce (mayo?).
Below is a partial list of the available hot dogs. John Wayne's Hot Dog has Iceberg lettuce, egg, bacon, tomato, fried onions and barbecue sauce.
I will write more about this place once we have had a chance to sample their offerings. But of course, hot dogs are not what we came to Germany to discover.
If I could go back to July, how would I pack differently?
As we were preparing for our year in Germany, I tried to think of things we would need that may be difficult to get here in Germany. All things considered, I think I did pretty good job of bringing what we needed. Of course hindsight is 20/20.
We had no idea what some items we use often would cost here. "What should be bring and what should be just buy when we get there?" These were questions I tried to think about while I was packing. We tried to think of this in terms of cost per pound, so we would bring something heavy only if it would cost a lot of money here. I took a fair amount of time looking up topics related to living abroad packing lists, but I really didn't find anything helpful.
Things I wish I had brought
- More Benedryl and Sudafed. I haven't had to buy these yet, but I have heard they are very expensive.
- More sweaters. The temperature swings a lot here (on the cold side of the scale), and it really helps to be able to layer.
- Boots with flat heels. Normal shoes get wet fast when it is raining, and having boots on is nice for keeping your legs warm when you ride a bike in the cold weather. I need low heels because I am already getting old! Not to mention, cobble stones suck when you are wearing heels.
- A set of wrenches. When you rely on biking as your main mode of transportation, having a set of tools is important. We had brought just the number of tools we needed to put Paton's bike together, but we ended up needing more. We ended up buying a set of wrenches here because we HAD to.
- Hot water bottle. I used a hot water bottle all of the time in Norfolk to take the edge off when it is a little chilly. I ended up getting one for Christmas, but I could have easily brought mine from home.
- Hair cutting supplies. I cut the boys' hair at home, but I only brought the scissors and apron. I left the clippers at home to save weight, but we ended up buying some hair clippers at the flea market.
- Rain Coats. (More about this in a minute.)
Things I brought, but didn't need
- American school supplies - The supplies they use in the German schools are completely different, so we ended up having to buy a new set for each of the boys - including a fountain pen.
- Sundresses (sigh), shorts (sigh again). September was lovely, and there were a few days when you could wear warm weather clothes, but those days are vorbei (over).
- Umbrellas. We brought 5 umbrellas and they are rather worse for wear because it is normally windy in Münster when it rains. Rain coats would have been a better idea.
Things I am so glad I brought
- Recipes -
- U.S. measuring cups/spoons
- thermometer for sick kids - until a boys breaks it
- hair dryer
- adapters for our electrical devices
- Two German/English dictionaries
- English language books
- Screwdrivers
- Bike helmets and locks - they are so expensive here
- Bike for Paton - He still was using a bike small enough that we could break it down into pieces. Even though it is very heavy, children's bikes are just as expensive as adult bikes. Bringing his bike meant that was one less bike we had to buy here.
- Backpacks
- Formal documents - these included copies of our marriage certificate, birth certificates for all of us and statements of financial security. We did not bring the actual documents, but took digital photos and saved them to our computer. When we needed them we just printed them up and they were accepted.
Things I wish we had (if we had money to burn)
There are some things that it would be nice to have, but we would either not be able to take them back with us, or we already have one at home anyway.
- Another computer. At home, Russell has his own computer in our bedroom that he uses for work, and the laptop is pretty much only for me. Here, we only have my laptop, and Russell uses it most of the time for work.
- Better bikes
- Our own clothes washer and dryer
- A car would be so nice when freezing rain is falling outside and we have to make a trip to the grocery store.
In the End...
For the most part I am happy with our decisions of what we wanted to bring. There were definitely some misses, but nothing to bad.
No comments:
Post a Comment