A “Circle of Trust”
I don’t know about you but I am a big time “nester”. I truly love all the aspects of a home including the memories, who you share it with, the laughter, the little details…I really could go on and on! Today I am starting a “Nesting Series” that I am beyond excited for. We have learned a lot this time around about moving into a new place, because “expat moving” has truly been on a whole other level. It’s been equal parts challenging and confusing. However, we are so glad to be settled in Germany and moving into our new home really helped in this process. Our new home has easily made our top five favorites about life in Hamburg so far, and I am excited to finally share it with you!(And don’t worry mom and dad, it’s not THAT kind of nesting…yet.)
First, I wanted to give you a quick rewind to four weeks ago when we were not so sure about the moving process…
Picture this: two young, newly minted expats who are unsure of how life works in their new home country. They know maybe two words in German. Unfortunately none of these words will help them find (or get) an apartment in the very populated city of Hamburg, BUT they feel this must be the first step. In fact, they are pretty positive that they desperately NEED to find an apartment and obtain a lease contract or else they will forever be stuck on the outside of what they have deemed the German “Circle of Trust” (expat version)! What is this never-ending “Circle of Trust” you ask? Well, it looks a little like this:
Let me explain: Our top priority in moving to Hamburg is getting a Residence Permit. This allows us to legally stay for a specified period of time, and must be obtained within the first three months upon arrival. However, in order to apply for a Residence Permit you first have to have a German bank account. In order to get a German bank account, you have to obtain a permanent address so that the said bank can send all the sensitive bank information, cards, etc. to you. But in order to get a permanent address you have to (obviously) have a rental agreement. And that, my friends, is what encompasses this “Circle of Trust”. Simple yet a little confusing, right? As you might imagine, being let into this circle was not easy. Our main mission was getting one of the these elements to budge. Through trial and error we realized that our best bet was to first get a rental agreement. We were to somehow prove to the Landlords that among ALL the other potential tenants, that we, the Americans, were their best option. Thankfully, after 15+ open houses toured and applications sent in to ea, we eventually proved ourselves worthy…but only to one! Our saving grace came in the form of a new and upcoming area of Hamburg called HafenCity.
Click here for more facts about HafenCity.
Now, I have something to admit…I wasn’t completely in love with our place the first time I saw it. It has a hallway that would be better suited for a bowling alley or shuffleboard tournaments…(which I do admit would be really fun- but essentially it is hard to furnish?). Not to mention this apartment had the oddest outlet placements. For example, there is only one in the bathroom. It happens to be on the farthest wall from the sink right next to the…toilet. Like I mentioned, this was around our 15th open house we attended, but it was the first in the HafenCity area. Needless to say my heart was pretty set on a different, more established neighborhood. One that included those quaint coffee houses, unique shops, and charming older apartments that I fell in love with. But well, this is a redemption story friends! And to be honest, we are now living in our HafenCity apartment and could not imagine being anywhere else. In fact, I am completely in love with our new place, and could not be happier with its location. It is just a five minute walk to the city center! There is also plenty of shops, cafes, and charm to go around. The layout is still weird and the electrical outlet placements haven’t changed, but now these are only fun challenges for us to work with. Plus, an added bonus is that I get to sit on my bum in the bathroom and do my hair! ; )
…shuffleboard, bowling, slip-n-slide, relay races…
Can you spot the outlets??
Our balcony is an extension of the living room. The accordion windows open up to make it a true balcony.
Would you like to hear the coolest part of this story?? Our meeting at the Rathaus where we turned in our Visa and Resident Permit applications was scheduled (in early January) for Thursday, January 23, 2014 at 11.00am. Up until Monday, January 20th, we hadn’t yet been accepted by any apartments and didn’t have a rental agreement in hand, which we needed for both applications. We decided to give ourselves until mid-day on that Wednesday, to come up with an agreement before we called to reschedule our meeting. It wasn’t ideal for us to reschedule this meeting as they typically were scheduled two weeks out and we needed to have this step completed in order to be further settled in Germany. And as luck would have it, on Wednesday morning we heard from the leasing company from the place in HafenCity informing us that they had in fact accepted us!! We broke into the circle!!
In a crazy turn of events, on Thursday January 23rd at 9.00am we signed our rental agreement for our new apartment in HafenCity. At 10.00am we set up a bank account. By our 11.00am meeting at the Rathaus we had a rental agreement, a permanent address, and a bank account…EVERYTHING we needed for our Visa and Residence Permit applications.
BOOM.
God is good. The end.
*****
What oddities do you love about your new home? Do you have any foreign housing stories of your own? Let’s hear it!
Now that we are in our place we have had even more adventures in furnishing it! Making memories over here has been our thang lately, and we have had some very fun and hilarious ones while making this place our home. Looking forward to sharing more stories and pictures soon!
XO, Lauren
The Simple Haven 