BFFs

Candice has always been a close friend of mine since college but even more so since the moment I moved to Seattle. She met my husband before I ever did and the three of us have been peas in a pod for the past three years. Candice wrote us a touching letter and included sticker photos of a small selection of our multitude of memories for us to read on the plane to Germany. I am so ashamed to admit that amidst all the craziness of moving, we only now rediscovered the letter at the bottom of our carry-on bag. Reading it last night made me a bit teary-eyed but after a tiresome couple of weeks it was so pleasant to have a brief touch of home. Thank you so much Candice and I will openly receive any care packages inclusive of mac'n'cheese!

Love,

K+B

Doors, doors, doors!

Germans love doors apparently. I'm writing this as I thought about how absurd it was that I walked through 5 doors to get to the toilet at work. Of course some of these are obvious, but I walked through the door of my work room, then through a threshold (maybe a fire door?), through the bathroom door, then through the women's bathroom door, then the stall door. Is that all necessary?  More strange than that are the typical apartment floor plans. We've been apartment hunting lately and that whole open concept only exists in brand new construction here (sometimes).  We just saw a beautiful 1890's building flat last night, yes I've taken to the European terminology. Besides all of the amazing details like ornate crown molding and 20 foot ceilings, every single room had a door.  You enter the flat to a hallway and there is a door to the living room, a door to the bedroom, a door to the dining room, a door to the kitchen. Kitchens have doors!!! Super strange. 

Update from Hamburg

Our flight from Seattle to London was fabulous in business class. It'll be so hard going back to coach class after having lay-flat beds, four course meals, European wine selection, etc. In fact, we asked the pilot if he could take another lap because we would have been more comfy watching another movie or napping on the plane than sitting in London Heathrow for 5 hours. When we finally arrived in Hamburg, we thought we had accidentally skipped a customs check point or something because it was all too easy. The guy asked how long we were staying in the country (two years and we didn't show proof of any work permits or employment letters) and he said "Okay have fun." Then we picked up our luggage, walked through a door and got in a cab. Maybe the key to it all was to arrive on a Sunday when barely anyone is working and they just wave you through.

Since arriving we've been incredibly busy with immigration and orientation logstics. Long story short, we love it here already and can't wait to show you around when you visit. Here are a couple of observations, experiences, and notes to-date:

• Consistent with Jared's comedic view on our food habits, we have been grocery shopping three times already. We're living in temporary corporate housing while we househunt and our tiny kitchen is packed. Aside from having fun looking through the new and interesting options in the grocery store...it' just plain CHEAP! For example, we bought a ball of mozzarella for €0.59, a 2008 Bordeaux for €5, a bottle of balsamic from Modena for €0.89 and the list goes on! We've cooked several meals and can't wait for our freight to arrive so we have all of our kitchen gadets.
• Amazon Prime exists here! Our first package arrived with our first 220V appliances...a hair dryer and curling iron (for Brian of course).
• We haven't been able to use the phrase "Sie haben roten Blumen!" yet but we've put our brief Rosetta Stone lessons to good use, ordering food and coffee in German quite effectively. Everyone doesn't speak English well as we were led to believe. But that's a plus in our eyes because it'll give us more opportunitites to practice our German. EY also confirmed they will be paying for language tutors for the both of us.
• We apparently forgot our bottle of melatonin and just learned that you need a prescription in Germany to buy it. We struggled through one night and opted for benadryl since. In the meantime...we're tired as hell!

We haven't yet setup local cell phones or added international plans to our US phones, so WhatsApp and email continue to be the best way to reach us (or Kelly on Facebook Messenger). We do have Skype and can call the US for free when in our apartment and on WiFi and hope to connect with you soon.

Love,

B+K

Auf wiedersehen!

The day has come! After an exhausting series of packing, storing, moving, donating, and eating garbage fast food, we've finally made it to the airport. Our weary (and admittedly hungover) bodies were ecstatic to find that we were upgraded to business class for our long flight to London. And fear not...we stopped at the duty free store to stock up on bourbon to get us through the winter.

We'd like to thank everyone for all of the love and support. And thank you to all of the folks that made it out to our happy hour last night. Thank you, Candice, my dear friend, for organizing the event. Brian and I were so touched that so many people came out. I think it was pretty funny that we strong-armed our way into occupying the entire bar, save for that green puffy jacket dude smack in the middle of our party. Also, a big shout out to the Lockens for not only driving us to the airport with all 250 pounds of luggage but for taking care of our crappy leftover logistics. 

The adventure is about to begin and we hope that all of you who promised to Euro-trip follow through on those plans. 

Love always,

Kelly and Brian

P.S. - please download WhatsApp to communicate with us until we get all of our local contact information squared away.