My German Farm House

I arrived in Überlingen after dark. My first impressions of the Moserhöf were limited to the smells of the farm and the sound of a language that I still don't understand, being spoken in an even thicker accent then I had heard before. Gerhard was able to translate for Frau Moser and me.

I now understand how the German garbage and recycling system works:

• One bucket for "biomail" or food scraps
• One bucket for plastics and really every thing recyclable besides paper
• One bucket for everything unrecyclable or "restmeil"
• One bucket or just a pile for paper

I also understand that there are towels and bedding and extra blankets. I learned where the light switches are and that if I had a small child there is crib that it could sleep in. The other thing Gerhard was able to explain to me was that there was no washing machine.

Ja, no laundry.

Lisa, a Portlander working in the office since last winter, had warned me that I would need to find an apartment with laundry options because Überlingen has no laundromat in town. There is one in the town over, but really not an ideal situation to be in. Well, of course I agreed with her. I would like to have a washing machine. A dryer I knew was unlikely but at least a washing machine. The thing is, I had the help of a coworker, Jeff, to find this place and he had lived here for a time before and not only that but I understood that another coworker lived in a flat here as well, so I just assumed that the laundry was possible.

It turns out that the other coworker had not asked about the laundry before moving and had only been living there for three weeks. I am wondering if Jeff only stayed in the Moserhöf for a short time too.

This is really the only unexpected situation that I have found at the Moserhöf. What was expected was that there would be no Internet or phone available.

I can hear my Mom, Auntie Fran, and probably Auntie Kath and Auntie Karen and a few others even asking, "HOW ARE YOU GOING TO DO YOUR LAUNDRY"!?

So I had better answer them. By hand of course. Well, no not completely, but I actually brought some laundry detergent for washing some smaller items by hand if I needed to. And a colleague offered to do some laundry for me this week. So I will make it for another two weeks. By then I hope to make a trip to a friend's house or another town. I will be sure it is a friend or a town with a washing machine. Finally I am moving from the apartment before I come home for Christmas. The apartment that is available then has a washing machine. So, not to worry. But I know you will any way.

Even though it doesn't have laundry facilities there are many other things that the Moserhöf does have:


A Wohnzimmer




A Gästebett in the Whonzimmer




a Schlafzimmer with a crib and wardrobe

Informational signs about in the Badzimmer about how it is best to sit while you pee "Please! sit..."






and a kitchen or Küche

So this is what I knew about Überlingen in my first few hours there. I was tired so I went to bed hoping that in the morning Überlingen would also be able to tell me who my new president elect was going to be. Luckily The cable television had CNN in English!

I woke up at 3:00 again and almost fell back to sleep until I remembered that it was early evening in the states. I lept out of bed and turned CNN on. For 2 hours I waited for the final predictions, shocked that they waited until the polls actually closed on the west coast and at the same time as every one I knew in the states, I learned that Obama was our President Elect.

And so I find that I am the most proud that I have ever been to be an American. Guess I should have become an expat a while ago.