not a total bust of a day

Today was my "big" errand day. I had to pick up a train ticket at the main station for my friend Caroline (saved her 25 euros), then go and try to get a part for the bed we currently sleep on because apparently we broke it (although I suspect it was broken before...otherwise this will be the second bed we have broken in europe this year, and please don't think dirty thoughts because you shouldn't be), and then deposit our rent at our landlady's bank because to transfer money from a french bank to a german bank, we have to get mailed to us a special code (which meant that the special code got mailed to our Strasbourg apt) and pay 10 euros for the special transaction.

Another thing to note is that because we haven't established residence in Germany, we can't get a german bank account, so we have to stick with BNP in France, so we can take out cash for free at Deutsche Bank. Don't let the name fool you, because it's not the bank of Deutschland. There is only ONE Deutsche Bank downtown, ONE near our house and ONE in another area that is relatively in the vicinity that we hang out in. The other banks seem to have a hold on every other convenient location for banks and ATMs, so there have been times when Axel and I have been left in the lurch and have had to go home to get money, rather than pay 10 euros at another ATM. Yeah, TEN EUROS!!! Our Spanish roommate had the same problem we have, but for her, there was no sister bank she could go to, so she had to pay 8 euros for ever 100 euros she took out. I don't really understand how the EU could have organized 1 set of currency for the continent without setting up the banking system to do the same. And this is where France surpasses Germany - because in France, all of the ATMs are free with your french account. In Germany, it's not the same.

OK, back to my day. What I haven't mentioned yet is that Germany, like France and I am suspecting the rest of europe, has special hours of operation. What is unlike France where places are closed anywhere from 11h30 - 14h30, is that in Germany, some places are open all through the day, some are closed from 11-12, others 12-13 and still others 13-14. Today was a bust because I got to the bed store at 12h20 and it was closed from 12-13. Because I am a frequent pee-er now that Pickles has proclaimed my bladder his/her kingdom, I knew I couldn't wait for 40 minutes without access to a washroom. So I decided to get to our landlady's bank since I would be able to get there by 1 for the opening...except it closed from 1-2 so I missed both places. So I headed home, ate lunch and peed lots, and headed out again at 4. And then I missed the bank hours because it's open until 6 pm EXCEPT mondays (which was an asterisk and small writing exception...I will read this more carefully next time). And then when I went to the bed place, they told me that it was during assembly that the bed probably started to fall apart because someone torqued it too much and we needed to buy glue.

OK, so why isn't this a total bust? Well, we just found out that we rented our place in Strasbourg for July!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Relief! Now we don't have to worry about paying double rent, AND we can pay our medical insurance for the trimester!! Oh yeah, life is good.