Shopping!

Oct. 15th 2007

Matt started his first day of work today which went well. His deskmate coworker is about his age and lives here during the week in a hotel. So he is quite eager to get out and do stuff and we are happy to have someone show us around! Drinks are on for Thursday after they get done with work!
I started out my time in Germany with a cold which is great! But I decided to get to an internet café today to finally check my emails. That helped ease some of the home sickness. After that I walked down to the main shopping center called the Zeil. It is a pedestrian only shopping area. One side is something similar to the Watertower in Chicago and then there are sections with stores like Escada, Chanel, Gucci but there are bookstores (their version of Barnes and Noble or Borders is called Hugendubel) and a department store that I have not yet gone to. One of the biggest stores down there right now is Espirit. Which is very weird considering I haven’t seen an Espirit store in the U.S. in years. But it was croweded so they must love it. From what I could tell, their version of Best Buy is called Saturn. Imagine Best Buy on a Saturday before Christmas in half the size. That will give you an idea of how busy it is. I was very excited to find the Starbucks down there and actually be able to order something in English!
We live on Eschershiemer LandStrasse which means Eschershiemer Land Street. Our road starts at the Eschershiemer Torm which is one of 4 or 5 towers throughout the city that were left over from when the city was walled in. So we are able to find our way home pretty easily from that landmark!
Tonight we are going to try and figure out the washer and dryer!