Do bin ich

And then there was wifi - finally. It has been a bit over two months since we moved to Berlin and so much has happened already. Although at first sight, everything seems the same. We moved into a brand new apartment in a brand new building in Charlottenburg, called Carré Charlotte. 

Everything was so brand new that it wasn't even finished by the time we showed up here: the entrance area was unpaved, the mail boxes were inside the building (and quite out of reach for the post man), the door bell was working but buzzed in someone else's apartment when pushed and the elevator wasn't running (which was a nuisance for our helping hands, for we live on the third floor). Inside the apartment there were a lot of uncovered cable outlets, the balconies were quite unfinished and there was no telephone and internet connection. 

And that was where the real trouble started. Our quest to get the digital world up and running proved to be long and tedious. The fact that the Dutch and German languages are strongly related does not mean that communication is any easier than in a different foreign language. Sometimes you think you understand someone, but a slight difference in the interpretation of the single word Festnetzanschluss lead to a confusion of tongues of biblical proportions...  It suffices to say that after 6 weeks we finally reached a stage in which we actually understood each other and then it was a piece of cake. It was one of those 'one day it's all over and then we can laugh about it'-things. Although we had to wait for another two weeks before all the equipment arrived in a box that was almost too big to carry home from the post office - for of course, our door bell was still buzzing in someone else's apartment. 

Anyway, as you can see, from the constructional side of things nothing much happened: there is sunshine and somewhat less snow, but inside the cable outlets are still uncovered and the balconies are still unfinished - though I was promised today that the balconies will be dealt with tomorrow. We will see...