Our new apartment!

I'm sorry that I haven't been posting more often, but I've been pretty busy moving over the past week. I don't have internet at home yet either, so the only time I can do it is at work, and sometimes I like to actually do work there instead.

But now, the moment you've all been waiting for, pictures of our beautiful and incredibly empty new apartment! These are some pictures I took on Sunday when Calin and Susanne were over with a table and chairs and some bedding that they're lending me until I'm a bit more settled. Here's the view from the door to the stairwell. The rooms are (from left to right) our bedroom, the living room (with Calin's head), the spare room/TV room, the bathroom (with Susanne's head) and the kitchen. The bedroom and living room face east, the other rooms have windows facing west.
To be orderly, I'll show all the rooms in the same order given above. So starting with the bedroom, here you can see it furnished only with herbs and seedlings of tomatoes, nasturtiums, and marigolds. I've transplanted about half of my tomato seedlings into yogurt containers, as can be seen here, lined up in the box in which my fiddle was shipped.
Next comes the living room, which is really where I'm living for now. Pretty well everything here is on loan for the next couple of weeks from Calin and Susanne until their apartment is ready (hopefully by May 1st for their sake!).
My bed is a foam mat that they had, and the crate that can be seen in the corner is filled with towels and sheets. It's actually a pretty comfortable bed, but I'm not exactly a fussy sleeper.
The balcony is also off the living room, and it's a pretty good size. Here you can see Susanne and Calin taking a break in the partial shade. The past 5 days or so have been like summer here, more than 25 degrees and really sunny. The magnolias are dropping off and the lilacs are about to burst (for those of you who tell time with flowers). And speaking of flowers, if you look carefully you can see built-in flower box holders along the railing of the balcony. I can't wait to find boxes to fit there.
Next is the spare room, which is a bit long and skinny. I'm thinking of turning it into a TV room when we don't have guests. If you want to see more of this room, you should come and visit! (But please give me a couple weeks notice if you're actually expecting a bed when you arrive.)
And next up is our huge luxury bathroom. I'm sure it won't look so huge once there's a washing machine in it, but for now I feel like I'm at a posh hotel (without curtains) every time I go in there. So far everything works well, though the toilet is a bit lower than usual.
And it has not only a bathtub with shower head, but also a stall shower too, which is what I've been using thus far. This way the bath is really just for baths, and I don't need to worry about shower curtains or anything.
And finally this leaves the kitchen. Firstly I'll show the built in part, which has the (incredibly small) fridge and oven and stovetop, along with the small dishwasher that I didn't notice the first time I was here (hooray!). The window would be just to the right, but it didn't make it into this picture. Also, on the counter you can see the housewarming gifts from Calin and Susanne - a pyrex baking dish and a bamboo cutting board (on top of the box of dishes from IKEA), and an empty bottle of Freixinet on the stove.
I was trying to take a picture that would show the rough shape of the kitchen, and give an idea of the amount of room there, which looks to be enough for an eating table, but it was a bit tricky. This picture is taken to the right of the aforementioned window, and shows a little the L-shaped part of the room. I think I might put extra cupboards or a trolly or something on the part by the window, and then try to put the dining room table in the other little nook. It'll definitely seat 4-6 comfortably, but for larger groups (assuming that I have and expandable table) we might have to relocate to the living room, which wouldn't be too bad. But this is all really speculation, as it depends greatly on the table that I find... But more on that in another post!
And for those of you who want to send us fabulous letters and presents, our new address is:

Sophienstr. 27
07743 Jena

I've already put both our names on the mailbox, so things should be able to find us now. (And our names are on the buzzer now too, so people should be able to find us as well.)