First off, I've updated the med school status list. My letters should get to them any day now, meaning that I can now officially be rejected or invited to an interview. I just want to get in. Once I'm in (somewhere, anywhere), I can just concentrate on school here.
As promised, here are the details of our stay at Carola's house. So, when I initially emailed the international center asking for some assistance in helping us find a place for the 3 weeks between August 11th and September 1st, they replied with an offer from an older lady. The guy at the university said it would be two rooms and come to 590,€ in all. Shortly after making contact with Carola, saying that would work, I got a reply from her saying that she was excited for us to come and that, by the way, it would actually cost 650,€. I sent her an e-mail asking her why exactly she felt it necessary to charge us 650 Euros rather than 590 for us to stay for 20 days with her in her house. I received no reply. I sent a second one asking how much it would be. No reply. Mind you I never actually agreed to the price of 650 Euros, but, in all "fairness" said we would probably have to stay there anyway, but to please inform of the source of the significant discrepancy in prices. I reminded/informed her that we wouldn't be there for more than 20 days, in case that would change the price (for reference, 650 Euros is 915 US Dollars at the current exchange rate). After a week and a half more of no replies, I finally e-mailed the university again saying that I felt it was a bit pricy for 20 days of living in a house with someone else, and to please let us know what the actual price was. A reply! Not from Carola though, because her husband had just died and rendered her unable to answer my e-mails. But she was apparantly able to call the university and tell them to e-mail us to say that, and I quote (translated from German), "although she normally charges 600 Euros/month, she decided to charge 500 Euros since you will only be there for 20 days." I was pleasantly surprised and sent her an e-mail with our condolences and figured everything was set.
We arrived and paid her 500 Euros. She didn't count the money right away because she said she trusted me, being a physicist and all (that's how she put it). It was only one room, with a bathroom, but we got it for 500 Euros, so we weren't upset. 3 days later, she started this weird conversation about how strange it was that I asked her in a later e-mail what her address was, although she had already given it to me. I told her I had deleted the first e-mail. She then went on to wonder why I was confused about the price when she had already said that it was 650 Euros. I told her it was because I had neither agreed to the price, nor received an explanation as to why we were told 590 Euros in the first place. I then asked her straight up if she wanted 650 Euros instead of 500. She said we were good. End of story? No. A few days later she, out of nowhere, said she didn't think it was fair that we only paid 500 Euros and that she would make a compromise with us and meet us halfway by only demanding an extra 75 Euros (over 100 Dollars). I said we didn't have the money at the time and would have to wait until October. She started throwing questions at us like, "well, don't you have an account at home that you can get the money from?," "didn't you bring enough money for unexpected occurences?," and "can't you get it to me earlier?" I told her we used our reserves just getting to Heidelberg and that had we known it would have been that much more to stay with her, we wouldn't have stayed/been able to stay, et cetera, then said if you really want the money, you'll just have to wait. End of story? Oh goodness, no.
So, although I wouldn't want to make light of her husband's death (he was apparently chronically ill), she just should not have brought on the added stress of having strangers in her house in her obviously emotionally fragile state. She kept telling us crap like how symbolic it was that everything in her house (like doors, cupboards, dishwasher, washing machine) was broken or breaking, considering the recent illness and death of her husband. What do you say? Oh, wow, that is profoundly symbolic, you're right. I think I'll sit and waste my time talking to you, as a stranger, about the death of your husband and the metaphorical vicissitudes you've come to appreciate as a result. Wait, I'd rather eat, send family an e-mail and go get to know the city that will be our home for the next year. Good hell.
We found out the reason she was so set on us coming to stay with her is because she has a "guy-friend" who lives in Cambridge, with whom she has a creepily close relationship (creepy because she's in her 60s and he's around 40 maybe). He came to visit her and she wanted to fly to Cambridge as well. I didn't check ticket prices, but my guess is that they're somewhere around 600 Euros for round trip fare out of Frankfurt. Anyway, our theory is (i.e. we now realize) that they're lovers, despite her being a few decades his senior, and she wanted to visit him. When she left to fly to Cambridge, she forgot her passport, came storming back at 1 in the morning (this was on the 27th of August, I think, she was leaving us alone in the house for the last few days of our stay), frantic that she couldn't get the earlier flight. She "just had to get away," and then she started crying to me and asking me if I took her seriously about the extra 75 Euros. Yes, Carola, I suppose I do. "Is there any way you can give it to me tonight?" No, damn it! OK, I didn't say it like that, but I did say, no, I've told you we won't have it until October. She cried some more and told me again how she just needed to get away. I find it all but impossible to be sympathetic to people who have burned me and my family, so I just went upstairs and went to bed. The next morning she was gone, so I guess she made her flight an everything. Again, I really to think it's terrible to have a death in the family, but why bring strangers into the mix? All in all: bad experience. But, we got to move into our apartment a few days early and we love it here.
Privacy is the key to happiness, I've decided. We have been so happy, so relaxed, and so much better off since we got out of that lady's place. Well, that's enough for now. Pictures coming with the next post.
st big trip: a day trip to Rothenburg o.d. Tauber. Rothenburg is a medieval town that was left fairly untouched in WWII and has had little changed in the downtown area in the last 700 or 800 years. Gayles iPod proved a valuable travel asset in keeping Mikah occupied. I think he watched "Wild Hogs" at least 7 or 8 times while she was here, no lie.
This tower was on the opposite side of town that we came in on.
This is the other side of that tower and gate you saw a few pictures back. I'm not sure, but I don't think this gate was quite as old as the first ("front") gate.
