In celebration of our one month anniversary with our new home, we....finally attached our toilet seat. Not kidding. When Germans leave an apartment, they take EVERY SINGLE THING with them. In the case of the former tenants at Hobrechtstrasse 22, they even took the pegs that attach the toilet seat. Or else they lived here for who knows how long without attaching it. I'm not sure which one is the more satisfactory answer for me.
In any case, Erin, Tomi and I spent an hour in Bauhaus (think German Home Depot) looking for various odds and ends that we needed to tie up our settling in process. We emerged victorious with a toilet paper holder, towel racks, some art for our living room walls and the infamous toilet seat cover attacher things. One step closer to feeling like we actually can live her long term.
In other news, Amanda and I went to the grocery store in the basement of Karstadt in search of tortilla chips and discovered and entire aisle dedicated to American and Mexican food items. Apparently they have determined that those can't-live-without-it items for Americans include: Pop Tarts, Marshmallow Fluff, RecOreos, microwave popcorn, Swiss Miss hot chocolate, Betty Crocker cake and brownie mix, canned frosting, marshmallows, Hershey's syrup, and canned pumpkin. Too bad nothing on that list cost less than 5 Euros (which is about $7 at the current exchange rate). Just depends on how much you reallllllly want that American-style pumpkin pie.