Shopping Adventures

I went to the Media Markt today to get a headset so that I could talk on Skype without feedback. This is a store that advertises that its prices are "pig cheap" (Sau billig) and uses a pig in its advertising. Somehow I don't think that would be as effective in the US. This is not just a store for "media". I discovered that they sell everything from computers to stoves, including a large selection of espresso machines, which I never though of as media.

I also went to the Fliesenmarkt (tile market) and picked out a gray tile that looked absolutely neutral and had a very high non-slip rating. This whole process of getting the floor replaced is complicated because of the number of people involved: 1) the former owner, who very kindly is managing most of the work, 2) the insurance people, 3) the building management (who have also been exceptionally helpful), 4) the company doing the clean-up (who have not been either helpful or efficient), and 5) three other firms who are making bids on what it would cost to replace the parquet (for the insurance) and what it would cost to install the tile (for us).

I also went to the supermarket, which is considerably bigger than the one in the Friedrichstrasse railroad station. I looked at the meat counter, which has a very different mix than the usual US meat selection. Sausage in great variety was much in evidence: bratwurst, weisswurst, cold cuts, Nürnberger sausages, and more cold cuts. Beef appeared in only a few varieties. No big roasts. Even pork was limited to a few chops. Fresh chicken breasts for making Puten (chicken) schnitzel. The fish was all either marinated (herring, for example) or frozen, but the cheese selection was large and various. There are of course specialty stores for all of these things.

Storm and Mess

For 10 days I lived in the University Guest House again while the water was off in part of the apartment waiting for the insurance people to come to decide on the damage. Happily they agreed to pay, and I moved back the day before leaving for ALA in Seattle.

Getting to Seattle was a challenge in itself, because a storm named Kryll struck Europe just as I was about to leave Berlin for Schipol airport in Amsterdam. I sat in the plane in Berlin from 10:30 am until 1:30 pm. When I reached Amsterdam I saw that my flight to Michigan had not yet left, and dashed through the airport to the gate. It looked as if the loading was complete and I thought I was too late. In fact they had not yet started, and I was told the flight might be cancelled. Then Northwest decided to go after all. Then we were told it might be cancelled because the wind was too strong to let the workers take the baggage off the plane and put ours on. Then the wind abated enough to let the bags be handled and the plane fueled. As they started loading us into the plane, we were told that the crew had passed its legal work time limit. Fortunately (?) they had another crew that could get us as far as Boston, which would add at least 4 hours to the flight. But we didn't take off. After trying to get an instrument to work (they thought the wind was causing the trouble), they had a mechanic replace it. That cost 3 hours. On the plane they told us we would have to go through customs in Boston, but in Boston just as we were about to deplane, the authorities decided we should go through customs in Seattle, which saved time reloading us. Eventually we reached Seattle at about 2:30 am. My bag didn't make it -- the winds prevented offloading the bags from the plane from Berlin. It was well after 3:00 am when I reached the hotel. The bag arrived 23 hours later. ... All things considered, it was amazing that Northwest got us to Seattle with only a 12 hour delay. Over 20 people lost their lives in the storm, and a large number of flights were cancelled.

Coming back was easy, but the apartment was a mess. I had running water in the kitchen again (in the sink, not running onto the floor), and the former owner had removed his furniture, But the parquet had not been removed, nor the linoleum that had been under the carpet. A worker was there when I arrived fresh from the airport and he told me in genuine Berlin dialect that I could just barely comprehend how much trouble he was having getting the base under the parquet off. One day later the base is still there. The company is waiting for a machine that should make it easier. Some of the linoleum is now gone and no water seems to have been underneath. At this time of year with radiators blazing, I don't think additional dryers will be needed.

Precisely when the new tiles can be put down is unclear. Joan and I discuss colors almost daily and I will probably go to the market to make a final choice on Saturday. We incline toward a gray that is not too light with no pink or orange overtones, no cute patterns, and no bathroom-like shine. The tile market in Berlin has a rating for stone tiles that includes durability and slipperiness. Opinions?

Water water everywhere...

I have not updated this blog for some weeks. For most of that time I was in the US for Christmas and New Year. Then two days after I moved into the apartment that we are in the process of purchasing, I was awakened at 3:30 am by a strange man in my bedroom!

It was the Hausmeister (the building maintenance person) who had had to break in to wake me up. He sloshed in water half an inch deep as he walked. Exactly what happen is unclear. It may have involved a new pipe that somehow become unstuck. Or perhaps something broke. In any case the flood began between 11:00 when I went to bed in a completely dry apartment and 3:30 in the morning when Noah would have felt right at home (preferably inside his ark).

The Hausmeister shut off the flow, but we had to try to get rid of the standing water. He brought a water vacuum, while the current owner (an extremely nice man) and I bailed with waste baskets and dustpans (the waste basket was more effective). None of us thought about the danger of electrocuting ourselves by standing in water while turning on lights and pulling plugs from things that might be endangered. We should be amazed to be alive. It is a tribute to Apple Computers that the transformer for my laptop was lying in water, plugged in, and kept working without interruption.

By 6:00 the place was relatively free of water, at least by the standard of two hours before. The Hausmeister and the owner went back to their apartments and I went back to bed, which seemed like the only sensible thing to do since the bed was dry and since I had to teach later that day.

When I reached the office, I asked my secretary to find whether I could move back to the university guest house temporarily. This caused some unintended panic at the guest hause, because my secretary thought I was still living there and that I just wanted a different apartment there because of the water problem in one of their apartments.

There was also a small panic about insurance. Happily the current owner found his policy. And the damage to apartments below seems (I am told) to have been surprisingly modest.

All the carpets had to be thrown out and the lovely and relatively new parquet floor is starting to come up -- a total loss. Hopefully the insurance money will pay to replace everything. We are thinking of stone or ceramic tile everywhere (with rugs over much of it of course). That would be in keeping with the Bauhaus style of the building and would be easier than wood to maintain. Several other apartments in the building have done something similar and what I have seen looks good.