Week 2 (good title, yea?)

Well my second week in Germany is nearly over so it's time for another update for both my loyal readers.

The highlight of this week has probably been... beaureacracy! Maybe that should be beaureacrazy (ha!). I don't want to bore you with the details, but let's just say that there are about a dozen different people spread across 3-4 organisations that all want to get the right paperwork in the right order, and then they are meant to pass it on to the next right person in the right order. Not as seemless as I was lead to believe it was meant to be in Germany! They've changed their mind 3 times already about who is going to actually employ me, too. But I'm making progress, I should be able to sort everything out next week. I did manage to open a bank account with very little drama - thank God the banker could speak English!

The search for somewhere to live is going good, I've found one place that would do, but I'm going to keep looking for a bit to see what else there is out there, I've got a few more to have a squiz at this weekend, but I don't think I'll be homeless when I get kicked out of the guesthouse.

In other news, I went for a half-day of "sailing" on the Havel. There was not a huge amount of wind, though. I'm told that the wind in Potsdam starts work at about 10, takes lunch from 11 to 2 and knocks off by 4. I think it may have called in sick this day. The boat was a beautiful 40 year old, mahogony 8m day sailer. The trip was very scenic, and I was amazed how many little castles/ruins/old buildings you could see.

I have managed to get into Potsdam and properly explore the city. It's got a really nice atmosphere, with no cars allowed in the middle of town, so there are heaps of little food stalls and souvenir shops covering the streets. There are also McDonalds (where McChickens come with sweet chilli sauce, not mayonaise) and Subways (where they earnestly recomend the best sauce match to your sandwich) and all those kind of shops. Whereas Berlin is full of foreign tourists, Potsdam is full of German tourists which must mean it's good, eh.

Hope you find this vaguely interesting - let me know what you want to hear about, and let me know what's up back home!!! My cell phone over here is +49 175 4419568 (it'll only cost you 30c if you're on prepay, 20c on a plan).