Gasversorgungsvertrag

I've been in a little low-energy slump this week... not sure if it's the darkness {and coldness} of winter, the drop of adreneline {after unpacking our household goods} or still adjusting to our new life over here. Maybe a combination? Whatever it is, I'd like it to go away and give me some energy {and zip} back.

Yes, that is duck tape holding the foam on top of the pipes...

I think I finally figured out our propane bill. Translated, Gasversorgungsvertrag means Gas Supply Contract. Why they have to scrunch so many words together, I just don't understand. All nouns in German are capitalized, so I knew it meant "a gas something {noun}..." This is the Gas Supply Contract that I still have not turned in. The cultural adaptation liason officer was out of the office last week when I stopped in desperate for help. No one else in the office could speak German or help me out. I found an email address {on the contract} so I sent a very nice email to the company in my most basic English. I truly thought there would be someone in the office who would understand English and respond. It's been almost a week- no response.They probably think I'm an idiot, I'm sure. So, I've picked apart the three letters we've received and finally found where we are supposed to enter our bank payment information. I filled it in, and tasked Jim to figure out how to mail a letter to someone in Germany. Isn't that crazy? How do I mail a letter? We have a house address and also an APO {Armed Forces Europe post office box}. I figured the base post office just dealt with APO mail. Come to find out, they do it all. They'll figure out the postage and take it. Nice- I thought for a minute I was going to have to make a trip to the Deutsche Post. Should about have this one taken care of.

When we were signing for our house back in November, we noticed there was a charge for chimney sweep on the contract. It was somewhere around 15 Euro per month, maybe $21 USD per month. All other utilities are averaged and on a contract except the garbage. After raising our rent, the lady at housing {while on the phone with our landlord Rosa} got her to agree to including the chimney sweep instead of another additional charge. We went along with it, but were pretty confused since we didn't think we had a chimney. Don't you have to have a chimney to have it swept? Whatever- we let it go.


this is what the "chimney sweep" inspected... go figure?



This afternoon, a little man showed up at the door and {after some German I didn't catch} said, "I'm here for chimney sweep." He acted like he knew what he was doing- I just let him in. He went to the utilities room. I went to my room and looked up chimney sweep in my Webster's dictionary. Seriously, it says, "a person whose work is cleaning the soot from chimneys." Exactly what I thought, but apparently not the case over here since we don't have a fireplace or a chimney. As he was leaving, I asked him if he'd be back next month. Since were going to have a monthly charge for it, I figured he'd be back to routinely do whatever he did. He opened his book and showed me a paper that said, "emissions testing" and told me it was all clear. I asked again when he'd be back and he {finally understanding my German, haha} said be back in two years- February 2013. Wow- and to think we were about to paying $20 per month for service once every two years? Unbelievable. Thank goodness it's included not only for the price but also sparing me the headache of trying to figure out another utilities bill.