Job x 2

Good news: Yesterday, I was offered a job at the IEA starting in June. Yay! I am really excited and happy to be (seemingly) gainfully employed. This means no lounging around in my pajamas until 11am. It also means that Molly and Stella won't be getting the 4 walks per day as promised. However, I will get to travel. There are rumors about trips to Chinese-Taipei and South Africa. Wocka-wocka, as Fozzy used to say.

On a related note, we are coming up flat in the flat department. Apparently, apartment hunting is slightly different and more complicated in Germany than in the U.S. In Germany, you "compete" with other interested renters for the privilege of renting the apartment and the owner chooses whoever he likes. This is unlike the "You want the place? You willing to pay the rent? Your credit report is relatively clean? Ok, you can move in on the first" approach that is the norm in the States. I know some condos in U.S. cities use this approach, particularly in NY, but it is rampant in Germany and apparently we are not fitting the bill for these landlords. We have a couple of other prospects and if these don't work out, we'll set up a tent in the park. You can do that in socialist countries, right? Molly and Stella sure won't mind, rest assured.

On the moving front, I chickened out and decided to go with the full service mover. The a la carte places were getting a little overwhelming and the amount of savings was nearly pathetic ($300) for a lot of uncertainty. I knew it was about time to throw in the old "do-it-yourself" towel when I found I was spending about the same amount of time trying to put this move together as I was editing my dissertation. The dissertation won out, as it always does. Ho hum.

But, this adventure is nearly ready for a chapter change. We have three weeks left until we defend. David and I are scheduled for the 9th of May. Did I mention this in an earlier post? Anyway, he is scheduled from 10-12am and I am scheduled from 12:15-2:15. We'll have just enough time to slap high-fives as he comes out of one room and I go in another. We are calling it the "double-header." Let's just hope we win, or come out relatively unscathed.