What I've learned after five days in Germany

• German people are extremely nice (apart from the grumpy checkout guy in the supermarket)
• It's cold, but not as cold as I'd feared - phew!
• The pillows are 80cm x 80cm ie. huge squares. I can't get used to this at all.
• If you speak to people in halting German, they will automatically reply in English. As lovely as this is, because I get very nervous when I'm trying to speak to a native, I'm trying to learn, dammit!
• The word for kettle is wasserkucher - water cooker, makes sense - and drinking tea with milk is seen as a bit strange.

All in all, I think I'll like it here as long as I keep myself busy. There's not a whole lot of stuff to do in Vegesack itself, and I haven't had chance to explore further out yet. As I love lists, I've made one entitled "Stuff to do in January". Snazzy, huh?

• I've got some work nannying triplets (with another nanny so it's not as crazy as it sounds), but I'd like a bit more so I'm pimping my wares online and looking into admin work from home. 
• I want to start baking asap but currently there is no baking equipment in the flat. Not so much as a rolling pin or cake tin! This will be remedied over the next couple of weeks. 
• I've resolved to start Insanity next week because I'm currently the heaviest I've ever been and look like a Weeble-Wobble (although if I fall over, at least I'll bounce right back up!)
• My flatmate has a guitar which he's said I can use - wahoo! - but it's right-handed so I can double my challenge by playing the way the rest of the world does. I say 'play'. I can't 'play' anything. But I will!
• I have completed level 1 of German on the Rosetta Stone!! A few more levels to go, but I actually feel like some of it is sticking in my brain.

I feel like I'm finding my feet here. It's a nice feeling.