tom yam gai {oh no!}

normally i would not bore you with a full ‘here’s what happened in my day’ post, but yesterday was quite interesting! apologies in advance for the length – it may just be the grandparents who make it to the bitter end.

About a week ago I received an outlook meeting request for ‘Team Softball’ at the sports field on campus. I ‘tentatively’ accepted, and immediately received a note back from the organizer (Tom, from the UK) who replied, ‘I’m going to assume that’s a tentative YES!’ To which I replied, ‘Absolutely!’ Meanwhile, in my head I was thinking, ‘Absolutely … NOT.’ While I consider myself to be an active person (running, etc) I haven’t played team sports since maybe 5th grade? 6th? If it requires me to catch, throw, hit, kick or shoot anything, then I’m pretty much out. That said, I kept thinking about the advice I keep hearing over and over about the transition into expat life, which is to say ‘yes’ to everything – so slowly over the past week I had decided to give it a go.  You can imagine Wen’s excitement at the thought of his wife up at bat!

Yesterday was the big day, and on the way to work Wen says, ‘Isn’t today the softball game?’ while eyeing my outfit (adidas sun dress – sort of sporty, but not quite appropriate). I was already late to work, so there was no turning back to pick up something more softball-ish. I told him it would have worked if I had leggings or something, but that I guess this was a sign that my transition to Sporty Spice wasn’t meant to be. Cue to a few hours later – I’m sitting at work and get a text from Wen that he and the girls are in the adidas parking lot with some brand new leggings from H & M for me! Cute husband – he couldn’t let this opportunity pass me by.

The good news is that my work team consists of people from all over the world, so for the non-Americans, softball is not at all a sport that they are overly familiar with. Which is to say that while I was still THE WORST PLAYER BY FAR, it wasn’t such a huge contrast to the all of others. Overall, super fun.

My text to Wen after the game: 3 base hits and I pitched 3 innings! I missed a lot of balls (need to practice!). And everyone made fun of me bc I scream when the balls come at me. But overall v fun!

His reply: this is officially the best text i’ve ever received. so proud of my little slugger!

After the softball game, our relocation consultant Barbara (who has now become a good friend), picked me up to go with me to IKEA to design the kitchen for our new apartment. Interesting tidbit about houses / apartments in Germany: kitchens are treated like furniture, so it’s not uncommon to take it with you when you move from one place to the next. Also, when an apartment is newly built (or renovated, as is the case with ours), then typically the property owner won’t install a kitchen. The plumbing and pipes and electricity and whatever else you need is there, but the actual appliances, cabinents, etc are up to the renter to provide.

Earlier this week I met a professional ‘measure guy’ from IKEA at our apartment for him to take the detailed measurments of the room, which were waiting for us when we arrived at the store.  With those in hand, Barbara and I planted ourselves at one of the computer stations in the kitchen department, and started the TEDIOUS task of entering all of the measurements into the kitchen planning tool (made considerably more difficult as the program is in German, of course!). From there, we started playing around with different configurations, picking and placing appliances, countertops, etc. Normally this would have been a DREAM afternoon pour moi – design a kitchen?! Yes, please! But as is typical with European apartments, the layout of our kitchen is a bit funky – there are little nooks and crannies and a huge heater thing in the middle of one wall that all made it a bit more complicated. In addition, another FUN aspect of german life  is that there aren’t actual laundry rooms – they simply put the washing machine wherever there is a water source – either the kitchen or the bathroom. In the case of our apartment, the bathroom is too small, so the kitchen it is! So needless to say, take a random, funky space that’s not very big and add a full kitchen, washing machine, random heater thing, and it’s not necessarily a kitchen that will be featured in Elle Decor.

So, with all that said – apologies in advance to any visitors that are coming to stay with us. You may need to turn sideways and squish yourself into the kitchen itself, as the only place to put the refrigerator sort of blocks the entrance to the room. And please ignore the dirty socks that are spinning in the washing machine right next to the stove. Oh! And hopefully you don’t mind eating off of paper plates, as we could only fit a dishwasher that is about 1/3 the size of a normal one, so we may stop using our real dishes altogether (shhh – don’t tell the Germans, they are very eco friendly and would perhaps banish me for such a statement!). But other than that, it’s going to be quite lovely!

please know what while the facts of this story are all true, my attitude is much more positive than illustrated! i’m actually super excited about our random little ‘kuche’ – it wouldn’t feel authentically european if it all fit perfectly together. all part of the adventure!

I got home from the ‘great kitchen design event’ around 8pm, and was STARVING. Wen & Stella scooted out to the local thai place to grab me some dinner, and I puttered around with Piper until they got back. Clearly everyone in Nuremberg was feeling in the mood for thai, as what normally takes about 20 minutes took over an hour. So at 9pm or so I was finally sitting down to eat a quick dinner. Stella jumped on my lap for a ‘bite! mama, bite!’ and in trying to move my Tom Yam Gai aside and out of her reach, I proceded to dump the entire carton of hot, spicy chicken soup all over her legs, the table and the floor (and my cute yellow Toms, but I will move past that as it seems the least of our concerns when Bitty’s legs are burning!). We jumped up and got Stella all clean and cooled off (thankfully no serious burns!) and then moved to the floor. What I have not yet mentioned in previous posts about the Maximilian is that most of the floor is covered in these icky, orangy carpets. I try to ignore them, and not get too germ-phobic about whatever sick substances have embedded themselves over the years. So now add to that a full carton of spicy soup – you can imagine the smell that is lingering. I think it’s my bad kharma for complaining about the neighbors who make curry EVERY FREAKING NIGHT. So needless to say, this has intensified my need to GET OUT OF THE MAX and into our new apartment asap! The countdown has begun – 7 days until move in!

And that was my Wednesday. How was yours?

Smooches from a stinky apartment in Nuremberg.

an interior designer is born! the end result a few loooooong sessions on the IKEA kitchen planning tool. Notice it's in German - will be interesting to see what I actually ordered!