Week 2 in the volcano city

Another week has passed.

The days are currently flowing into each other and time is somewhat blurry.

This is certainly due to the structured everyday life of working, or being present at work. We are currently conducting many 'routine inspections' in the apartments managed by Impression Real Estate (our company). It is our task to check if the furniture has been damaged or if devices like the washing machine still work. It is important to document and photograph everything that could be problematic. When I think about it, we are already working properly. :D

When tenants are present during the inspections, we sometimes encounter interesting situations. From tiny Indian women who are quite shocked when two 1.90m tall Germans want to enter their place, to others who wanted to force us to lower their rent, to a woman who showed us on Facebook the supposedly fat and ugly German boyfriend of her cousin.

Several residents have already asked Stefan and me if we are siblings. For whatever reason. I think he looks more like my crazy uncle. Almost every family has one, right?

(For those who don't know Stefan: that was a joke. Or was it? 😄)

No joke, he is an outstanding guy and a great colleague)

By now, we have become very familiar with the inspections. Do you know that feeling when you do something often and it starts to change the way you see normal things? If things go wrong, I might not be able to concentrate on the material in class anymore, but only focus on the cracks in the wall and other shortcomings of the building. In case someone from the school is reading this: Those are almost non-existent, of course. 😄

While we're at it: Gudrun, if you're reading this, I'm your biggest fan. Except when you distribute exams with solutions.

The study abroad program has definitely been worth it, because I finally know what a range hood is called in English.

That's because at Impression, I also work as a janitor now. On Thursday, a tenant called and said their range hood wasn't working. I was then instructed to check if that's true.

I even managed to get it working. So much for non-technical administrative work.

Currently, I'm hoping that my application for working from home at Impression will finally be approved. If not, I'll go on maternity leave or paternity leave.

On Saturday, we went to an outlet. My main goal was to get an All Blacks jersey. And I achieved that. I believe I'm a good and patient shopping companion and everyone was relatively successful with their purchases. I found the jersey and was happy about it. Although not as cute as Ilona was last week with hers. :)

A top that Sophia tried on but didn't want to buy looked top to me, in my opinion.

But I was strongly advised against buying something. So I let it go. Maybe it was too extreme for my wild style.

Actually, I wanted to stop with the 'driving into death' jokes. Probably only my guys from Kehl find it funny anyway.

But unfortunately, our bus driver to the outlet tried it with such intensity and only narrowly failed that I wanted to mention it after all. I've never been so close to an accident in New Zealand before and hopefully I won't be again. Ilona is probably still dreaming about the uncontrolled acceleration and sudden braking.

By the way, in Auckland it's almost unnecessary to train your legs. Since the city is built on former volcanoes, you sometimes have to climb exhausting hills. And the city is not just built on seven hills...

We often have to climb the following hill. Thanks. 😄

After Kathi supported my last post as an allegedly random fan of SVH, I would like to return the favor. If you enjoy my humorous stories, you will certainly also like Laris and her photos of New Zealand. You can check them out on her Instagram profile trvelbuddies.

If some of you follow the girls, they might treat me to a beer in Tauranga. (Or a chocolate milk, I know, I know, Robin.)

And now I will reveal the cleverly constructed suspense:

Range hood is called 'range hood' in English. You can thank me for the information when I'm back home.

Lastly, I will mention Gang Gang again, after receiving complaints. I hope you all get through your surgeries, makeup exams, escapades of your soccer team colleagues, sentimental drinking sessions in Kehl, boring internships, your 31st birthdays, and the hassle of your bachelor's thesis well. 😘

Lukas