The weather report (well, one of the weather reports; they don’t all agree) says it’s going to be unseasonably warm tomorrow, and I don’t think I should believe it.  The weather has been hovering pretty close to 0C, sometimes just above it and sometimes just below it.  It’s been cold and wet and foggy and just generally not sunny for most of the time I’ve been here.

Here, to illustrate my point, is an Ikea. No, really, there’s an entire Ikea store in this picture!  A giant enormous Ikea!  Just up the hill there:

That picture was taken on my first Monday here.  I have since seen the building a little bit more clearly, but never with the sun shining on it. The sun shone a little bit my first Saturday, and a lot on my first Sunday, and then only once since then.  It’s just been misty and foggy and generally gloomy.

When I’m taking the bus into work in the morning, I rarely have a good distance view of the countryside.  The basketball hoop pictured to the right?  I’m not entirely certain that there’s not an entire high school basketball team back there, hidden just out of view in the fog.

The days here are incredibly short right now, and I find myself looking forward to a month from now, when the planet turns just slightly and the days start to get just a little bit longer, day by day.

But first, and more importantly, I badly need to find an apartment.  I’ve been looking since I got here, but it’s been difficult.  For one thing, I don’t speak enough German (yet) to navigate this without help.  I’ve been relying pretty heavily on the people in my office to help me make sense of everything.  They’ve been helping me by finding listings, making phone calls for me, and even going with me to look at flats when I can arrange to meet the Immobilien (basically a realtor for those of you back home.)  I’m approaching the end of my second week in the hotel, and I’m starting to get a little stir crazy.  Eating out every night is only fun when it’s a choice and not a necessity.   I want my pasta boat, damn it.