We’ve only been in Tübingen two weeks, but we’ve managed to make quite a dent in the usual startup stuff that’s required when you move to a new city and/or a new country.  I think in large part we’re getting through stuff quicker because we wisely made the decision to give ourselves time to settle in before Chris’ job starts in October; we’ve never managed to schedule ourselves to get to a place ahead of time before. Feels almost like vacation to have the luxury of this much time to run around to do all the paperwork that has to be done. 😉

As people here have said, in Germany there’s a form to fill out for every little thing. Of course, that was pretty much true in Italy, too, and there they also had tons of stamps and signatures that were necessary to also acquire. That type of “stamp” system doesn’t seem to be required here, though, at least not yet, at any rate.

Anyway, so far we’ve completed two of the three required steps to register our “stay” with city hall, steps that will unfortunately need to be repeated in October when we move and change our address. But at least we know where to go now for all that. We also have the health insurance coverage set up, too, plus all the university stuff for Chris for his new job is done. Plus, we’ve found an apartment and have arranged for the electric, phone and internet services all to be turned on in our name. In addition to setting up a bank account, we’ve also figure out how to set up the automatic payments for all of the utilities and rent as well. Chris also has gotten a German cell phone, which means we now have cell phones from 3 different countries to manage.

On the food side, we’ve found a good Greek and Italian deli, a decent Ethiopian restaurant and several small grocery stores. There are also numerous bakeries, and it’s been a tough assignment to make sure we diligently try different ones, in order to conduct research-through-taste-tasting at least once per day. Yes, it’s a tough job, but we are dedicated to the task.

The other fun food thing is that on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday mornings there is an outdoor market, with fresh produce, fish, meats, cheeses, etc. It’s kind of like the Piazza Erbe market in Bolzano, except there the stalls were permanent structures, and that market was open every day but Sunday. Here, the market is only open until 1pm, so it occurs to me that because of the time difference, many of you on the East Coast won’t ever see it. So, I did a screen capture Wed morning of the photo on the webcam to show you the view of the market:

Market in the Rathaus square plaza, September 14, 2011 (Market is held every MWF)

Those funny pointed white tents on one side are the ones that Dovie mentioned the other day in her comment; those tents are part of a special yearly “Provençal & Umbrian” market that is happening this weekend. The other stalls you see in the photo are part of the regular MWF market. At the regular market on Wednesday, we bought some fish, plus some Sicilian sun-dried tomato spread, plus some bread from an Italian city, Alta Mura, that’s famous for its bread (we visited the town last year). This market is definitely a bit more international than we would have thought — what a great find. We’re hoping that the people who say it’s year-round, and not just seasonal, are correct. 🙂

BTW, the curious thing about the webcam is that it doesn’t show you what to me is the best part of that plaza. The webcam sits in a window on the Rathaus (city hall) building, where of course it has to be in order to get the internet connection from the city. But it’s actually the Rathaus itself that is the most interesting building in that square, IMHO:

The webcam is on that painted building, the Rathaus (city hall)

I’ll write a more complete description of the clocks and paintings on that building soon, once I get back to take more photos. I took that photo on our first day in Tübingen, while were having lunch at a cafe on the plaza. Chris is actually in the center of the photo, standing to the right of the person in a dark shirt who is walking across the square. Chris is in a light-colored shirt and tan pants, with his back to the camera, talking on a cell phone with his father.

Little did Chris know then, after two hours in Tübingen, just how much we’d be able to accomplish in the next two weeks. 😉