14 November: Repatriating is a Real Pain & Heisse Schokolade at Deli

John stayed home again today (have I mentioned that he is a real crank when he is sick?) but we still had to go to Möhringen for our repatriation meeting at 11:30. This was the first time I had seen Susanna in the expat office since we moved to Stuttgart. She joked that we should be able to do this meeting in German now! Very funny. We met Monika, a new person from Professional Organizing, Daimler's relocation consultant (this is the third person we have had with PO, since Martina had a baby and I don’t know what happened to the last person that John saw back in July when we thought we were going back early). They went over the list of items that they will be taking care of for us – cancelling our phone and internet service, utilities, cell phone, dog registration, etc. and I gave them copies of all the necessary contracts. The only thing that I really have to do at this point is get us signed up for online banking so we can manage our German account from the States; we have to leave the account open for several months after we leave so that all of the final utility payments can be processed. We also need to get the final utility bill from the Dörrs, which usually doesn’t happen until March or April. We discussed the possibility of paying the Dörrs up front for an estimated amount so that we don’t have to wait for months to get it settled. This is important because John won’t receive his repatriation bonus until all the bills are settled with regard to the apartment. It's all a bit of a headache but hopefully everything will proceed smoothly.

I walked Cody early so I could go meet Beth at Deli this afternoon. Of course I missed my train by about 2 minutes and was late. I hadn’t told her the good news about my little zygote yet, so of course she was thrilled! I should have called and told her last night, because she spent three hours at the doctor this morning getting her glucose test, worrying that I might have lost the pregnancy. It was freezing out but wonderfully warm and cozy inside Deli, with little tea lights on every table. Darkness fell outside while we downed double hot chocolates. We finally had to drag ourselves away a little after 6:00.