8 weeks !

Whew!  Made it through the very busy holiday season and finally completing my online landscape designing coursework and now I find myself looking at eight weeks to get this house in shape and myself and three kids packed for our five months absence.

There hasn't been much to do or blog about the past two months as the whole process of communicating and doing business with the folks at Leuphansa University has been agonizingly slow.  First was the long wait for the official acceptance and contract which came at the end of November.  Now we are working through them to find housing.  It seems to take about a week between emails, which means  they send us a bit of information about a particular flat they have located;  we take a look at it and either  get back to them with questions or request for another option; several days later we get a reply, often explaining that someone had been out of the office on a holiday or conference or that they are going to be out for the next week.  And now it is the Christmas holiday.  Noone, except perhaps shopkeepers, bakers, and clergy, works on the Christmas holiday in Germany.

We have had a couple potential locations, but one was too small (two bedroom) and the other had a third bedroom that was accessed from the outside!  Both were furnished, but now we have moved on to looking for unfurnished.  And by unfurnished, that could possibly mean NOTHING - no furniture, no appliances, and no light fixtures!

Just before Christmas, we were sent a listing of several rentals.  We managed to figure out where they were in relation to the University and the girls' school -we would rather be near the school, so the girls won't have to manage public transportation on their own each day.  We narrowed it down to about three listings and are really hoping that our first choice is still available:  it is ideally located, is not too small, includes appliances, and does not have an outrageous "finder's fee".  Each of them is listed as a "terrace" flat, which we haven't been able to figure out.  A friend of mine thought it had something to do with the number of floors.

Well, tomorrow is the first "business" day after New Years.  Do I dare hope that there will be some answers to our questions soon?