It’s official, we have a date for our Lebenspartnerschaft! It’s Wednesday, July 29th at 11:40 a.m.

When we were trying to figure out a date, and working with which dates and times were available (apparently Fridays and Saturdays are completely booked for the next 4 months) July 29th sounded familiar. But it seems I was off by 10 days, July 19th is my parent’s wedding anniversary date. It’s not the same date, but I think July 29th will do quite nicely for me and Domi.

Now… to work out the details. What do we wear? Who do we invite? What do we do afterwards? What kind of rings will we get each other? How good will my German be in 1 month. *sigh*

I saw these at my local bank and the blonde one reminds me of Kristina, what do you think?

Kristina

Kristina

I found a bunny trail in Hannover! I’ve decided to start exploring the surrounding areas more and was pleasantly surprised to find a trail populated with cute little fluffy tailed bunnies! There was at least a dozen or more of them, from cute little baby bunnies to bigger ones. Sorry the pictures aren’t so good, it was hard getting close enough to them to take the pictures without them running away. They didn’t seem to like Xander too much either. LOL

First sign that there might be Bunnies!

Lots of Bunnies!

Getting closer to the Bunnies!

Cute Bunny!

Wow, it’s been two months already. Where does time go when you’re unemployed? LOL

A few notable updates at this time, Domi and I finally made an appointment to register our Lebenspartnerschaft. What a trial of our patience this process has been. The person he had been trying to get a hold of to make the appointment was on vacation, and when we finally reached him after he returned he asked about me and what my name was. When he looked me up in the system (yes, kind of scary that I’m in the system already) he noticed that I was the older one, and said we had to call this other person because it goes by the last name of the older person. However, he also told us that the person we had to talk to was on vacation! What is up with Germany and having only 1 person you can talk to and that person being out on vacation? He did give us the name of another colleague, but warned us that she probably wouldn’t be able to help us. He was right, all she did was book us with the other guy who’s on vacation. So… our appointment is June 30th at 11:00 a.m. We’ll get to register and turn in all our paperwork and either have to wait for them to make sure everything is in order, or they’ll give us a date or a range of dates to choose from to have our ceremony.

Speaking of paperwork, I’ve decided that I want to be do translations of documents. I had just 6 pages translated from English to German and the cost was 195 EUR. Some of the pages were pretty skimpy, like my birth certificate, so we thought the cost would be less, but it wasn’t.

We also made a trip up to Oldenburg for Domi’s nephew’s baptism, I’ll try to get some pictures posted today. The event was much bigger than I thought it’d be, and it was my first full Episcopal/Lutheran service in German.

Domi was asked by Melanie and Sebastian to be his nephew’s Godfather, which he happily accepted. We went up to Oldenburg for his Taufe (Baptism) and it was a huge family event. It was also my first German service at an Evangelische Kirche (Episcopalian/Lutheran Church). I was impressed that I was able to understand a good chunk of the readings, and most of the songs that we sang.

Linus Paul looked sharp in his little suit that Melanie got for him and we all had a really great time. After the service and Baptism, Melanie and Sebastian treated the whole family to lunch at Castello, an Italian restaurant in Oldenburg. After lunch we all went back to Melanie and Sebastian’s home for drinks and dessert and for Linus to open his presents.

Domi, Melanie, Sebastian, Linus Paul & Linus Paul’s Godmother

Domi, Melanie, Sebastian, Linus Paul & Linus Paul’s Godmother

Family photo after the Baptism

Domi with his nephew Nico

Linus Paul opening his presents from us

Domi treated me to the new Illuminati movie (Angels & Demons in English) today for my birthday, but before going we went to Lidl to buy some drinks and I saw this on our way to the checkout and had to grab a picture.

“Bad” means bath in German, and Domi doesn’t think it’s that funny, but I think it’s pretty freakin’ hilarious.

After the show, which I thought was pretty good, he also treated me to “Mexican” food at Sausalitos. I put that in quotes because his burrito tasted like an Omelet and came with french fries and my chicken Tacos were taken a little too literal — chicken meat in tacos. But still, that’s the closest to Mexican we can get here in Germany.

Bad Baby Shampoo

This one is for my friend, Liz, my first and only “Fag Hag”. Although I don’t really call her that any more, and I’m pretty sure no one else has in a pretty long time, I still chuckled when I saw this bag of coffee yesterday in the store.

Café Hag

One of the things I love about being in Germany is being able to make fun of some of their products. Especially since the Germans have a love of using English words in their advertising.

So apparently, Flakers get their own cereal here in Germany.

Box of “Flakers Choco”

Well, I’ve been here in Germany officially for 1 month now. Hard to believe, especially since it still feels like it’s only been 1 week and not 1 month.

I went to Bremen today to visit the US Consular to get my marriage affadavit (or Ledigkeitsbescheinigung as it’s known in German) so that we can finally officially apply for our Lebenspartnerschaft. Domi also went to Oldenburg today to get a copy of his birth certificate, the only document he needed for our application.

The final step before applying is to get my other documents translated into German by an official translator. We’ll hopefully get that done next week and apply here in Hannover.

Wow, hard to believe it’s May already. Time sure flies when you’re unemployed.

Last week Germany, like the rest of Europe, celebrated Labor Day (Tag der Arbeit) on May 1st. I was just doing a little research about it, and it’s interesting that Europe chose May 1st based on striking workers in Chicago in 1886, also the same year that labor movement’s demands for an 8-hour day was approved. The US and Canada are the only countries that celebrate Labor Day in September.

People have been asking me about Xander and if we found a place to take him where he can run off-leash and chase his tennis ball, his favorite past-time. As a matter of fact, yes we have. Just a few blocks away is a wooded area right next to the Mittelfeld (Middle Field) train station. I almost always have people who are waiting for the train watch Xander run and chase his tennis ball. I’ve even had a couple of people come up and talk to me about Xander. With my limited German and their little to no knowledge of English, we always seem to understand each other when it comes to the love of animals.

Xander near the Mittelfeld station

Another thing I find interesting (there’s actually quite a few things about Germany that I find interesting) is that right near the station is a condom dispensing machine. Apparently people in my neighborhood often find the need to buy condoms when returning from work. The sign reads “Don’t give AIDS a chance”.

Condoms for 3 EUR