living stateside

Ja, ich lebe noch…

Lena living stateside 0 Comment
Ja, ich lebe noch…

Ja, ich weiß, es ist ruhig gewesen hier. Seid unbesorgt, mir geht es gut. Die letzten Wochen waren nur sehr ereignisreich und anstrengend, daher die Funkstille.

Ich versuche mal, eine kurze Zusammenfassung zu geben:

Zu Weihnachten habe ich 69 Stunden in Deutschland verbracht. Die wenige Zeit die ich hatte, habe ich mit meiner Familie verbracht und es war sehr schön! Wir haben gut gegessen, waren bowlen und hatten eine schöne Zeit miteinander.

Zwischen Weihnachten und Silvester habe ich gearbeitet, bei so wenigen Urlaubstagen ist man ja doch eher sparsam… 😉

Silvester habe ich in New Jersey mit Freunden aus Deutschland verbracht. Ich bin an Silvester mit dem Mietwagen hoch gefahren und quasi vom Auto in die Party gestolpert. Wir waren bei den Nachbarn zuhause und so hatte ich quasi mein erstes authentisch-amerikanisches Silvester. Zugegeben, ich hatte eigentlich zwei Silvester weil ich natürlich um 18 Uhr Freunden und Familie in Deutschland ein frohes neues Jahr gewünscht habe, aber das zählen wir mal nicht. Folgende Erkenntnisse habe ich also über Silvester in Amerika erlangt:

  1. Grillen ist immer gut, das Wetter ist dabei nebensächlich.
  2. Es gibt viel Essen, was aber eine universelle Wahrheit für Partys jeglicher Art zu sein scheint. Außer vielleicht auf einer Party mit Models. Aber an einer solchen Party werde ich wohl niemals teilnehmen, insofern kann ich da keinerlei Auskunft zu geben.
  3. Es gibt viel Alkohol, auch hier gilt s.o.
  4. In der Küche stehen ist hier genauso angesagt wie in Deutschland.
  5. Partyspiele sind der Hit.
  6. Lustige Dekorationen sind der noch größere Hit.
  7. Um 0 Uhr stehen alle vor dem riesigen Fernseher und gucken zu, wie in NYC ein Ball fallen gelassen wird. Privates Feuerwerk gibt es nicht. Nada.
  8. Um 0:10 Uhr hat jeder jedem ein frohes neues Jahr gewünscht und die Party geht weiter wie zuvor. Man muss nicht 3 Stunden lang in der Kälte stehen um auch noch den letzten Böller abzufeuern. Es gibt einfach keine Böller.

Fazit: Silvester hier ist Silvester 2.0 für jeden, der privates Feuerwerk kacke findet. Ansonsten ist es genau dasselbe wie in Deutschland. Ich bin Fan!

Ebenfalls am Silvestertag habe ich mein Auto gekauft. Händler sind sehr entgegenkommend wenn es darauf hinausläuft, dass die einen Verkauf noch ins laufende Geschäftsjahr buchen können. Ich bin nun also stolze Besitzerin eines Hyundai Elantra GT mit AWD in Volcanic Red.

… Ja, gebraucht.

… 2013

… 25.000 Meilen

… Ne, beim Händler wegen der Vorteile bei Garantie etc.

… Quasi Vollausstattung, Panorama-Glasdach, Klimaautomatik, Bluetooth, Navi, Sitzheizung, etc.

… Ja, fährt gut!

… Nein, er hat noch keinen Namen.

Ich hoffe damit sind die meisten Fragen beantwortet 😉

 

Auch noch am Silvestertag war ich bei der Führerscheinstelle um meinen amerikanischen Führerschein zu bekommen. Abgesehen davon dass ich die wohl unfreundlichste Mitarbeiterin in dem gesamten Laden erwischt habe, lief alles gut. Mehr zu dem Prozess gibt es in einem separaten Post, aber so viel sei schon mal gesagt: Ihre Motivation spiegelt sich (wortwörtlich) in meinem Foto wieder…

 

 

 

 

Die folgenden Wochen waren gefüllt mit Arbeit und dem Versuch mich einzuleben.

 

 

Zu letzterem gehörten unter anderem ein Ausflug zu verschiedenen Winzern in Virginia inkl. Hähnchen von einem BBQ Zelt am Straßenrand, ein Ausflug nach New Jersey um Möbel bei der Mutter einer meiner Mitbewohner abzuholen, das Suchen und Finden eines neuen Friseurs und Nagelstudios, ein Besuch bei der Washington Auto Show, das Erkunden der lokalen Supermärkte und nicht zuletzt der Super Bowl.

Nebenbei habe ich wieder angefangen mein eigenes Brot zu backen (das Zeug hier kann man echt vergessen) und ein paar deutsche Gerichte für meine Mitbewohner gekocht.

Und damit verabschiede ich mich für heute, ich wollte nur kurz ein Lebenszeichen geben. Von nun an könnt ihr wieder wöchentliche Posts von mir erwarten, versprochen. 😉

The Big Move

Lena living stateside 0 Comment
The Big Move

The Big Move

This weekend I finally moved into my new – permanent – accommodations. Now you might wonder: Finally? Why finally, you’ve only been there for three weeks. And accommodations? Why not say apartment or house or whatever? Well, it’s “finally” because it is hard to really feel at home and start your new life if you know you’ll have to up and leave again in a few weeks. So yes, finally! And I’m not sure what to call my new living arrangements because I don’t rent something on my own. I moved into a beautiful house, which I am now sharing with two roommates. Each of us has our own rooms and bathrooms and we share the rest of the house. I guess especially the not having shared bathrooms will be a big factor in all of us getting along ;-).

Moving Day

I moved into the house on Saturday. A nice coworker offered to drive me and my – supposedly meager – belongings to the house, since he lives in the same apartment complex I had my temporary apartment in. The plan was for us to leave around 9am, so I would have ample time to assemble my new sofa and get set up. Unfortunately, Saturday greeted Virginia with freezing rain and icy roads. Since snow tires are not a thing around here, driving in this weather wouldn’t have been a very good idea so we postponed until 1pm because it was supposed to warm up by then. Guess what: It didn’t. We still decided to get going and in the end made it fine. I’m still glad he was so kind to offer, because my first plan of just calling an Uber turned out to not be an option after I finally finished packing on Friday night. For some unknown reason, I experienced a weird change of the time and space continuum. Well, mostly the space part… I arrived here with two moderately filled suitcases and one carry-on… When I left my temporary apartment I somehow had two bursting suitcases, one carry-on that was packed to the point that it would tip over if I didn’t hold onto it, 3 medium-sized boxes and 15 hangers with clothes on them waiting to be taken with me. I’m still not sure how this happened, but apparently it did. Regardless of the sudden increase in worldly possessions, we managed to get everything to the house in one trip.

Upon our arrival everyone chipped in and helped me get my stuff upstairs into my loft. Little did they know, but there was a sofa, coffee table, TV and other random stuff already sitting in the garage, waiting to be taken upstairs as well… This was thanks to another friendly coworker who kindly let me borrow his car so I could go to IKEA and get my stuff before actually moving in.

Interlude: IKEA is IKEA is IKEA

Right from the start I can tell you one thing: IKEA in the US is exactly the same as it is in Germany. I went with my shopping list all printed out and ready to go and ended up spending over an hour there. Everything went well, I even managed to bypass the decorations and candles section without buying anything. Until I realized that the sofa I wanted is one of the few articles you can’t just grab from the shelves, but that needs to be picked by an IKEA employee. So I put in my order with a sales clerk, paid, and went to the pick-up counter. And waited. And waited. And waited. When my sofa was finally brought out, it came on its own cart. Which would’ve been nice if it wasn’t for the fact that I already had a cart that held my coffee table and other random stuff. So now I had two carts, one of them heavy as hell and one extremely uncooperative in that it went in exactly the opposite direction from where I wanted it to go. Halfway to the parking garage I already had aching shins because I kept bumping them on one cart or another when a friendly IKEA employee saw my peril and offered help. We got both carts down to the loading zone in the garage and he even offered to wait until I got the car and help me load everything. For some reason I told him that I could take it from here. Which I sorely regretted that moment as I tried lifting the sofa frame into the car. It weighed 80lbs. I knew that. I somehow completely misjudged the effect that weight has when it comes in a shape you can’t really grab… In the end I got everything loaded up and dropped off at the house. Let’s keep it at that.

I returned the car in the same condition it was in when I got it and even drew a nice map so my coworker had any hope of ever finding it again in our office’s garage. The next morning he asked me if I didn’t like the radio station he had playing when he gave me the car. So I had to admit that I accidently changed it when I wanted to turn down the volume and was unable to get it back. He also asked whether I used the cruise control because I didn’t turn it off again. This lead to me admitting that this was by accident as well, because while still looking for the volume controls I randomly pushed buttons on the steering wheel and somehow managed to turn on the steering wheel heater. After almost burning my hands because I couldn’t figure out how to turn it off again I didn’t touch another button. For some reason he thought that this was hilarious and told me that I was welcome to borrow his car again anytime as long as I promised to keep providing funny stories upon returning it…

Getting settled

After my roommates graciously lugged all of my stuff upstairs I started unpacking and assembling everything. After rearranging my dressers thrice and carrying some things up and down the stairs of my loft multiple times because I couldn’t decide where they would take up residence, I was done (and done for) by 6pm. The day ended in my roommate and I grabbing dinner at a Mexican place around the corner and me then proceeding to fall asleep on the sofa around 9pm. At least I can now attest to the fact that it is indeed a comfortable option for guests to spend the night on.

 

Ich bin tatsächlich hier!!!

Lena living stateside 3 Comments
Ich bin tatsächlich hier!!!

Gestern Abend war unsere Office Christmas Party im Capital Hilton in Washington D.C. und als ich so im Uber auf dem Weg dahin saß, ist mir was aufgefallen: Ich lebe jetzt hier! Ich! So richtig und in echt!

Ja, typisch ich dass mir das erst jetzt auffällt, ich weiß. Aber bisher hat sich das eher wie eine richtig stressige Dienstreise angefühlt, nicht wie ein tatsächlicher Umzug. Es gab so viel zu tun und zu lernen, so viel Neues. Ich bin in mein temporäres Apartment gezogen, habe eine feste Wohnung für danach gesucht, habe meine Sozialversicherungskarte beantragt, mich darum gekümmert dass mein deutscher Führerschein umgeschrieben wird, ein Bankkonto eröffnet. Dazu ein neuer Job, wo ich eine Krankenversicherung und ein commuter benefit program wählen und komplett undurchsichtige und verwirrende Steuerformulare ausfüllen musste, neue Kollegen kennengelernt und Aufgaben bekommen habe. Ich hatte zwar Freizeit, aber irgendwie nie so richtig Ruhe. Es gab, und gibt noch immer, so viel zu erledigen und zu klären.

Aber als ich gestern im Taxi saß und auf dem Weg nach D.C. am Thomas Jefferson Memorial, dem Washington Monument, dem Weißen Haus und der Washington Post vorbeigefahren bin, ist es endlich durchgesickert. Ich lebe jetzt hier. Das ist kein Urlaub, keine Dienstreise oder Austauschprogramm. Für die absehbare Zukunft wird hier mein Leben stattfinden. Ich lerne neue Leute kennen, mache neue Freunde und vermisse meine Familie und meine alten Freunde. Ich habe einen neuen Job und neue Kollegen und alles ist anders. Und wisst ihr was? Ich bin glücklich! 🙂

How to find a place to live in the D.C. metro area

Lena living stateside, starting stateside 0 Comment
How to find a place to live in the D.C. metro area

Living in the D.C. metro area, not to be confused with the DMV (D.C., Maryland, Virginia) area (again, not to be confused with the Deparment of Motor Vehicles), is expensive! There’s no two ways about it, if you want to live close to the capital of the United States, you’re going to have to pay for it. Here’s an overview of options and things to consider, especially if you’re planning on working and living in Arlington or Alexandria. Be warned: Some of what you’ll read here might seem a bit (or a lot) weird to Germans…

To consider:

1. How much can you afford to spend on rent?

The usual rule of thumb is that you shouldn’t spend more than 30% of your take-home pay on rent. Depending on what is or isn’t included in your rent you can exceed that amount. Still, you should manage to cover your fixed costs with 50% of your take-home pay.

2. When do you want to move in?

Especially for people from Germany it is a bit frustrating finding a place to live here. Most everything is for right now or max. 2 weeks’ time. So forget looking for a place three months in advance as you might do in Germany.

3. For how long do you want to live there?

It’s common here to sign a lease for a fixed period, like 12 months. Usually prices go down the longer you are willing to commit, but 14 months is often the maximum. Breaking a lease before that time is up often racks up a lot of fees. After the initial time is up, the lease might move to a 30-day agreement, meaning both sides can terminate it with a 30 days’ notice period.

4. Prepare to be checked out

Usually, landlords will run both a background and credit check on you, the fees for which you’ll have to cover yourself. Fees are somewhere between $30 and $45.

5. Where do you want to live?

Make sure to check out the area you’re going to move into. Walk around, familiarize yourself with it and make sure it’s what you want. Also, check crime rates for the area!

6. Your commute

Where are you going to work? Make sure to check travel times both by car and public transport. Just because your new place is only five miles from your workplace doesn’t mean you can get there easily. Factor in rush hour if you’re commuting by car and check public transport if that’s your choice. Public transport might easily take 50 minutes or more within a five mile radius, depending on where you’re living.

7. Utilities

Make sure to read the small print carefully. It’s hard to compare rental options, because some might include all the utilities in your rent, while others only include certain things or none of them.

8. Fixed costs other than utilities

This is where you should think about internet, cable TV, a landline or even parking. Some places have ample street parking, others might have one or two parking spaces included in the rent, or you might have to pay extra for a place to park your car. Again, read the small print!

In general, I found it helpful to keep an Excel table open where I could sum up all apartments I was interested in. This way I could keep track on what was included in the rent for which place and whether or not I was still within my limits.

9. Prepare to change your room count

Apartment sizes here are measured in bed- and bathrooms. You have the kitchen and living/dining room and every additional room is either a bed- or bathroom. So if you see an add that says 2BR/1BA it means you’re going to get a kitchen, most likely a combined living/dining room, 2 extra rooms and 1 bathroom. If they add a den, that’s usually a separate living room.

10. Renter’s insurance

Most places will make you pick up renter’s insurance. This insurance will cover damage you do to the place you’re renting, as well as damages to your own property and cover medical bills for people getting injured at your place. Premiums start at $10 per month, depending on how high your coverage is. 

11. How do you like to do your laundry?

This is something I never considered before moving to the States, since having a washer and/or dryer is your own business in Germany. In the States it’s common for an apartment to come with a kitchen as well as appliances. If there is no washer in your apartment, there usually is a common laundry room. Now you might think “That’s fine, I’ll just buy my own washer/dryer!” (it was my first thought). BUT: There won’t be any room for you to hook it up! If it’s not already in the apartment, you’re out of luck.

12. Got any pets?

Make sure to check whether or not pets are allowed and if they are, whether there are breed/size/weight restrictions in place! You often have to pay an additional deposit upfront for pets, as well as additional rent.

13. Want a balcony/patio?

A balcony or patio is not the norm around here, there’s usually a common outdoor area you are free to use. But if you prefer a private outdoor space, make sure to look for it.

Your options:

1. Rent an apartment on your own
a. Renting in a newly developed apartment complex 

So, this is a very common option around here. There’s a lot of new apartment complexes that offer all kinds of amenities like pools, fitness and business centers, game rooms and concierge service. Especially the newer complexes usually have washers and dryers in each apartment. They’re usually pretty swanky and have a lot to offer, but they also have restrictions and a ton of extra cost:

There often is a move-in fee, which can range from $150 to $600 just for you to move in. It’s not a charge for them helping you move or provide any assistance, but just for you to actually start living there.

Prior to the move-in fee, you often have to cover an application fee. This fee is non-refundable and only pays for the landlord running background- and credit checks on you and just generally considering you as a tenant. They can range from anywhere between $30 and $150, as usual, the sky’s the limit.

There usually are no utilities included in the rent, so you’ll have to factor them into your budget.

Many of the newer places are 100% smoke-free, meaning tenants can’t even smoke on their own balconies. I’m not sure about how strict they enforce this rule, but if you have the desire to grab a smoke, prepare to take a walk. Depending on what floor you’re living on, this might take a while…

Prices here usually start at $1,500 for a studio apartment, so be prepared to pay through the nose.

b. Renting in an older apartment complex

These older complexes usually don’t offer the same amenities as the newer ones, especially not the in-unit washer/dryer. Balconies are very hard to find, but they usually don’t have the crazy move-in fees. They also often include at least part of the utilities, like sewer or trash as well as a parking spot (usually one per bedroom).

Prices for those start around $1,300 for a one bedroom.

c. Renting privately

There’s a lot of people around who have condos and rent them our privately. A condo (or condominium) is an apartment, but it’s privately owned, not rented. You might get a better deal with this option, but the basics above still mostly apply, depending on the complex the condo is in.

2. Find a roommate

Having a roommate is very common around here, not only for students but for everyone. There are websites that help you find roommates or look for other people looking for a roommate.

As is the case in Germany, prices per square foot go down the bigger the place, so you can save a lot of money by renting a bigger place and finding a roommate. This is especially nice if you’re new to the area and don’t know anyone around here, because you’ll always have the option of company.

Offers for renting a room vary wildly, so make sure to read the add carefully and feel free to ask whatever needs clarification. I honestly saw adds where people were looking to share their studio!!! With both roommates living there on a permanent basis…

It’s also very important to meet the people you’ll be living with upfront. There’s nothing worse than not getting along with the people you’re living with or being otherwise incompatible. Be yourself when you meet them, tell them the stuff that’s most likely to upset them. I told everyone I met that I love to cook every day and use a lot of garlic in my cooking. Even if I only cook half as much as I said, they won’t be surprised by it. Some even told me that they prefer I not use the kitchen at all, so I knew right away we would never work together as roommates.

What to do until you find a place?

Well, the good news is that since everything is very fast paced arounf here, it probably won’t take you long to find a place. In the meantime I can recommend renting via AirBnb, because it gives you the opportunity to get to know the area as if you were living there as well as make connections that might help you find a room. Especially in smaller neighborhoods, a lot is done on word of mouth basis, so properties might not even go up on a platform because they’re gone so fast just because someone knew someone who knew someone.

I hope this might give you an idea on how to go about finding a place to live here, even after the initial shock of seeing rent prices around here.