Karin's Adventures

06/26/2006

Finally! Got my drivers license!

It took them four months to check my background (again?) and send me my learner permit. Maybe the address change inbetween, when we moved from the rented apartment to our own house, made it especially difficult to track me down.

I had to hold the learner permit for 60 days, before I could schedule a driving exam - so I scheduled that for today, 60 days long over.

I must admit I was slightly nervous,  but not as bad as for my first exam 30 years ago. The examiner was a very friendly, older guy. He told me to take a deep breath and relax.

He wanted to see my German license, even though that still isn't considered a valid document in Indiana. Then he made me drive around the block for about ten minutes, asking questions about Germany, and why I moved to Fort Wayne.

I made only two mistakes: turning left onto the right lane (must be instinct, from years of driving in Germany) instead of the left. And then, when turning left from the middle lane (which doesn't exist in Germany), I slowed down before switching lanes. Should have switched lanes at normal speed, and then slowed down after I was on the middle lane.

So, now I am legally licensed to drive cars and boats in Indiana.

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04/05/2006

Received my first *big* paycheck

Now, not having to get up in the mornings, having lots of time to get yourself organized and keep the house clean, can be fun for a while. But being able to support yourself and your family definitely is more fun than that.

So I frankly admit I'm proud to be making *real* money now. My very first paycheck from Office Team was in the mail today. I'm going to the bank tomorrow after work to deposit it. And the best thing about it? Only 15% taxes were deducted. Another 15% I will invest in health insurance for my family. Makes it 30% of deductions, not 47% like in Germany.

 

11:00 Posted in 04, New Start in Indiana | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email this

03/27/2006

My first day on a new job

I had been looking around for a while. Ads on job-offer-websites, ads in the paper, job postings on several big companies' websites...... Finally I was hired by a staffing company: Office Team. And they sent me out on my first assignment with one of their customers: Lincoln Foodservice Products.

Today was my first day at work. Full time, with a one month commitment to start with. My title is *Administrative Assistant* and I report to the General Manager of Merco Savory.

Something completely different from what I've been doing before, back in Germany. I think it will be fun, once I get a computer, a telephone, and some real work to do.

01:00 Posted in 04, New Start in Indiana | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email this

03/10/2006

The house is our's

Today was that big day: closing on our house at the title company. Boy was that exciting! This is the nicest house I've ever lived in in my life. And it's officially our's now. Even Tom dared to get excited about it after a while.

We went over there right away, invited Penny and Nancy over for some chili. Well, they brought the chili. And Tom carried me over the threshold (after I reminded him that this was supposed to be done).

It'll take a while until we get used to the idea of this huge place actually being all our's to live in.  

10:00 Posted in 04, New Start in Indiana | Permalink | Comments (1) | Email this

Work for me.... at least a little

I don't know if it's going to be like *dishwasher to millionaire* for me, but at least I got to do the dishes a little today.

I had been approved for the sub list of NWACS's food department, and today I was called in for the first time for two and a half hours.

Very exciting! Hand out 12 little fish nuggets, or *pb & j* sandwiches, or just yoghurt to about 250 kids. In between I had to help out at the dishwasher taking stuff out, flipping the trays over so they would dry, then get them out of the way fast to make room for more stuff coming out of the machine.

04:45 Posted in 04, New Start in Indiana | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email this

03/09/2006

210 minutes of power outage

One of the things you don't get very often in Germany is a power outage. Here in Indiana we get that quite frequently. Probably because all power lines are just hanging around outside, up on some posts. Not like in Germany, where most of them are burried under ground. It was around 5:00 p.m. when it happened. I thought I had just blown a fuse, like so many times before - but this time it wasn't my fault.

So we sat there with lots of candles on, having a romantic supper in the dark, just waiting for the power to come back on.

And when it finally did, I actually thought somehow it had been nicer without. No noisy TV on, nothing to do except sit there and talk. I hope we get some more of this soon.

21:00 Posted in 04, New Start in Indiana | Permalink | Comments (1) | Email this

03/04/2006

Our mortgage loan has been approved

OK !! Today we received the paperwork for our mortgage loan. Tom signed it and mailed it, now we're just waiting for an appointment with the title company. And then we'll own our new house, the one we fell in love with only three weeks ago.

17:08 Posted in 04, New Start in Indiana | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email this

02/24/2006

House inspection and appraisal

We haven't heard a decision from our lender yet, but it looks as if we'll get our mortgage loan OK. Why else would they send the appraiser to that house? We were there at that time, going thru the house inspection. Nothing mayor seems to be wrong. Just some minor electrical problems - like not being properly grounded, a few switches not working, a few cables not thick enough. And we'd need a different water softening unit.

I really hope we'll be approved for that loan, the house has everything we hoped for.

12:25 Posted in 04, New Start in Indiana | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email this

02/23/2006

Driver's licenses are hard to get

Even though I have been driving cars, including taxis, and motorcycles for over 30 years, I start on square one in Indiana. I need to hold a learner permit for 60 days before I can take the road test for an operator license. And since I am an alien, I won't even get the learner permit handed to me right away - it will be mailed to me after some office in Indianapolis does a background check on me.

Today at the license branch they told me it might be more than 60 days before I receive the *real* learner permit. If that happens, I can't do the road test yet. I would then have to go to the license branch again and get another *temporary* learner permit. Which is just a piece of paper, saying that I passed the written test and the eye test.

The written test was a piece of cake - 50 very simple questions, most of them just common sense things, and you could mess up on a maximum of 2 *signs* questions plus 5 of the other questions. I passed that, of course, failing one sign and two of the other questions.  

18:10 Posted in 04, New Start in Indiana | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email this

02/14/2006

I have a Social Security Number now

I never imagined being happy about a number some government office would assign to me.

But once I found out, that you are non-existant in the USA without that number, I really wanted to have mine. Now, I don't have the SSN card yet, but today I went to the office and they printed an official paper saying that SSN xxx-xx-xxxx had been assigned to me. No, I won't tell you what the number is! That one number is your entire life here. If it falls into the wrong hands, you're done for.

Alejandra's SSN hasn't been issued yet - I was told her's would take another two weeks.  

16:35 Posted in 04, New Start in Indiana | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email this

02/12/2006

We found our new home

We had been looking at seven different houses over the past three weeks. Friday night we saw the one that felt good instantly. Spacious four bedrooms and 2.5 bathrooms, a living room, a dining room, a family room, a 3-season room, on a finished basement. A total of 2,183 square feet of above ground  and 850 square feet below ground area. It has hot water heat too, which was one of the things I really wanted to have.

All new carpet and laminated hard floor, and even parquet in two rooms. With an extra wide two car garage and a nice size yard with a small shed. It's an older house, built in 1969, in an older addition - so no crazy rules about what you can or can't do on the outside of your property.

We made an offer on it, and that offer was accepted!

So now all we need to do is get a mortgage loan for part of the prize. Keep your fingers crossed for us. The realtor is working with his own bank, and we've already been told that we should be OK for the amount we need. 

08:05 Posted in 04, New Start in Indiana | Permalink | Comments (2) | Email this

02/11/2006

Tom had an accident... got really lucky though

I had bought our second car (small, old, cheap) on eBay. So we drove to Ohio to pick it up. A 1991 Geo Tracker with lots of miles on it - and dangerously worn tires. On the way back home Tom drove the Geo, I drove the rental car. We were already close to home when it started snowing. Thick, heavy, wet snow. It was dark and windy. And then, on I-469, near the exit to 37, Tom lost control over the car on a long, slanting, ice-covered curve.

We were going at about 40 mph at the time. I was following him when the backend of his car suddenly started turning clockwise, twisting around twice before he went over the dark edge, down a steep, muddy, 50 feet deep drop, into a creek. I thought for sure the car had rolled over several times, and so did the people behind us. They called the police, saying that they just saw a car turn over and go into the ditch. I figured Tom would be badly injured and the car would be totaled before we even had the time to get it registered.

But when I walked to the edge of the road and looked down, I saw the car standing upright. Tom had already gotten out of it and seamed OK. Nothing bad had happened. He had turned around far enough to be facing almost straight backwards downhill. So the car didn't roll, it just slid backwards into that muddy creek. No damage done. We just got our feet wet and frozen from wading thru the creek, and then waiting for the tow truck out there in the cold.

The section of the road was so icey that three more cars went off around the same curve. While we were sitting in the police car, waiting to be towed out of the creek and onto 37, we heard several more similar accident reports coming in over the radio. 

It took us almost an hour to drive the last ten miles home, going 20 mph, with the flashers on at all times. When we finally arrived, Tom was pretty stressed out - and ready for a bottle of Prosecco to celebrate his survival.

 

16:40 Posted in 04, New Start in Indiana | Permalink | Comments (1) | Email this

02/02/2006

Our container arrives

We've had a lot of luck so far, with things going smoother than expected. Our 40-foot container with all our stuff from Germany arrived today. It didn't get inspected in customs, nobody even bothered to desinfect it or x-ray it.

Good thing we have a big garage, and a spacious driveway where the long truck could easily fit in.

Three guys took about two hours to unload everything - and it looks like most of the stuff is in good shape.

We will leave it all boxed, as it is, since we will have to move it again when we find our house.

17:36 Posted in 04, New Start in Indiana | Permalink | Comments (2) | Email this

01/30/2006

We received our Green Cards

OK - I thought we'd have to wait at least a month, but it happened today:

 

 our green cards arrived in the mail!

09:50 Posted in 04, New Start in Indiana | Permalink | Comments (1) | Email this

01/24/2006

Get stuff organized

The first two weeks were a mad rush, stressed out, trying to get everything done - at least the things that needed done immediately.

We stayed at a hotel for the first five nights and had a rental car for a week. We had figured, that this would be enough time to get things sorted out, but then nothing really goes exactly as you plan it.

We wanted to rent furniture for our apartment - but once we saw the prices, we decided otherwise. Buying stuff out of the  *Peddler's Post* is fun, and you get really good deals, but you need a big car to haul home whatever you buy. So our first purchase was a 2000 Ford Windstar Van, cost us around 4800 €, big enough for beds, desks, dressers and all kinds of odds and ends. We had a bed for everybody, plus a table and four chairs, and dishes, silverware, towels, bedsheets, by the day we had to sleep in our rented home.

The next big problem we ran into was our internet connection. Tom had signed up for DSL a month ago, we were supposed to have that working by January 23rd. But then Verizon said they ran out of lines, and actually we had found out at Tom's sister's house that Verizon DSL doesn't work for his VPN client connection. So we had to sign up for Comcast cable. The kids like that better anyways, because now we have more channels on TV.

 

And there are some other things we got organized along the way:

• apply for social security numbers for my daughter and me
• sign the entire family up for the Spiece fitness center
• get renter's insurance for personal property and liability
• sign up for a family cellphone plan for the four of us
• register my daughter in highschool - she's a junior
• start looking at houses to find one we'll buy

  

13:10 Posted in 04, New Start in Indiana | Permalink | Comments (2) | Email this

01/12/2006

German products at Meijer's

I was a little worried about being able to find some of the foods I *need*. Then we went grocery shopping for the first time at a local Meijer. And there it was! A section with German food items, about 10 feet wide.

They carry:

• Dallmayr und Tchibo Kaffee
• Dr. Oetker Backmischungen
• Knorr Gulaschfix
• Pfanni Knödel
• Puddingpulvertütchen
• Ritter Sport Schokolade, verschiedene Sorten
• Schwartau Extra Konfitüre
• Winsenia Nuss-Nougat-Brotaufstrich
• verschiedene Heringsfilets in Soßen (Dosenfutter)
• 6 Sorten Feldkamp Vollkornbrot
• Sauerkraut
• Blaukraut
• Spätzle und andere Nudeln
• Altmeister Essig
• Gerolsteiner und Appolinaris Mineralwasser
• Essiggurken von Hengstenberg
• und noch einige andere Kleinigkeiten

So far it looks like I will only need Müsli, which I will order from GermanDeli.

14:35 Posted in 04, New Start in Indiana | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email this

12/31/2005

Tom works freelance now

The biggest worry on our minds had been that neither of us has a job yet when we move. Of course there's the money I got from selling the apartment, but we want to spend that on our new home in Indiana, not on living expenses.

Well, the job problem is solved!

Thanks to the internet (our best friend from the start) Tom will be working freelance for the same company he has been with for the past years in Germany. He will connect to their mainframe computer network from our DSL at home, using a smartcard and VPN to send/receive data encrypted and secured.

05:40 Posted in 04, New Start in Indiana | Permalink | Comments (1) | Email this

12/23/2005

Sign up for phone and DSL

Tom got us signed up for phone service and high bandwidth DSL services with Verizon.

Was a little tough to get past their automatic call-center robot, and talk to a real person. And then that person managed to mess up on the DSL part of the transaction. Tom got a confirmation e-mail with a totally different last name on it ?? And he had to talk to that old robot again, then to three different people, to finally get his own last name on file with them.

Our first big savings, compared to the cost of this in Germany: we'll pay around $55 a month for phone and DSL, as opposed to over €110.

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10/21/2005

Rent a Townhouse in Huntertown

It's not easy to find a place to live, even just temporarily, without being in the area. Things get even more complicated, when you are 5,000 miles away and in a different time zone, 6 hours ahead. And then the place has to be within a certain school district, it needs to be available for rent, it has to be big enough for four people.

Thanks to the internet, which helped Tom and me find each other, we were able to locate the perfect townhouse for rent in Huntertown. We wired money from my German bank account to Tom's US bank account, to cover the deposit and the first two months of rent. Then we emailed an application form to the landlord. We were aproved! Starting December 1st 2005 we have an address in the USA, even though we won't be living there until January 10th 2006.

Tom's mom cut a check, Scott took it to the office. We are very lucky to have people in the area, to help us with these details. Otherwise Tom would have had to leave early, to organize the USA part of our move - and I would have to organize all the Germany part of the move alone in Germany.   

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