I was bitter, quite bitter when we first arrived. House hunting is a little stressful here {putting it gently}. Because of the wait list on base- everyone is looking for a house. Given orders out of cycle, there is even less available. Most moves are in the summer- makes sense with kids out of school. We decided we wanted to find something in the Ramstein school district and as close as we could get to base. Add four kids plus a dog and it was quite the undertaking. There is a Web site set up with available houses along with phone numbers to call landlords and set up appointments. German- speaking landlords. I had to gear myself up for each phone call not knowing what I would end up with on the other end of the line. "Sprechen Sie Englisch?" was always a good place to start. With Johannes, there was no English spoken which forced me to pull the German out of my head from high school twenty years ago. Not good. The big boys don't understand how I took four years of German and can't remember it all. I tell them- don't use it, you lose it. Somehow, we ended up setting our appointment up for the next morning at 8am. I let him know we had four boys and a dog. "No problem, no problem" was his response. Once we walked through and decided it would work, we followed him back to his house to meet Rosa- his wife. Rosa decided to raise our rent price from the listing price {about $150 more per month- this is where the bitterness comes in} and unfortunately, housing allowed them to do it. She also said we had to sign the contract the next day {and pay the rest of November- about $400} or no contract. All we wanted was to move in December 1st when knew we would have temporary stuff to use. We signed and decided to be done with it. We then found out they are Russians who have been in Germany 20 years. Maybe a double whammy? Here, {some} landlords take advantage of the Americans because they can- they have the cards in their hand. Welcome to Germany.
I'm not one to hold a grudge too long, but this one has been tough. I'm starting to come around- especially as I get to see Johannes just about every day. Yesterday, he replaced a door so I got a chance to talk to him a little bit. With his complete lack of English, we converse in my broken German with a little sign language mixed in. I found out he was bitten by a dog when he was little which is why he's so terribly afraid of Lady. Also, I asked if I could hang pictures on the walls. He explained something to me... not sure what, but said, "tap, tap, tap..." so I'm assuming it's all good. Oh well, they're going up.
As someone who really likes to communicate- a language barrier is rough. It's a helpless feeling not being able to explain myself or even worse the lack of understanding.
In our three plex {that they own}, he has our small yards fenced off. Behind our little yard on the rest of his property he has chickens, yard and his work space. Rain, snow or shine he's out there working-same routine every single day without fail. He shows up early, leaves for quiet hours between 1-3 and is back for a couple hours before dinner. Most of his time is spent pulling nails out of his old wood pile or chopping wood. He feeds his chickens and collects the eggs. I don't quite understand it. He has a fire going the whole time he's out there- so it's kind of a wash, right? Chopping wood just to burn it? Just something do to- his place out of the house and away from Rosa, maybe? The more I watch him I see an active, peaceful older man just doing his own thing singing as he goes along. How can I not like him?
1 comment:
Reminds me of Pa!
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