But let's begin earlier:
After all our stuff was packed and put into a container in Mannheim, we had nothing more than 4 bags, a stroller and a baby car seat but still a week to live in Germany. So we left our apartment and moved to relatives of Marlene in Darmstadt for that week. I worked for another 1 or 2 days, we had 2 "goodbye-parties" (one with our friends, one with around a hundred colleagues at SAP) and we managed everything else that needs to be managed if you are leaving the country for a while.
A day before our flight we got informed that we will have to move into another apartment here in the US as originally planned and when we left Darmstadt we still had not received any information on how to get into that apartment. In the end we just went to the leasing office of that apartment and asked for it. So, that was not a problem after all.
The flight was pretty good: Charlotte slept during take-off and landing and she didn't cry a lot in between. Nevertheless she was tired the most when we arrived here. For her it was obviously in the middle of the night, even if the sun was still shining brightly. Her feeling also didn't change for the next 3-5 days:
For us the jetlag was not too bad: We could have been in the new time zone already after 2 or 3 days. But because Charlotte wasn't we were also not allowed to. So we went to bed when Charlotte did and we got up when she did. Everyday we tried to push her for another 30 minutes and by this we managed her jetlag pretty good as well.
Just one more story about this: The first morning Charlotte was awake at 2AM and after a little bit of playing with her, having breakfast etc., it was still just 5AM. So we went to the supermarket at 5AM, something that we couldn't do in Germany as the supermarket is not open 24/7 there. We were the only people there and we had a close look at everything we didn't know yet or were missing from Germany. Some things we haven't found until now yet.
Now, what else did we manage beside the jetlag? The most important thing: We found a house to lease in Sunnyvale! It's bigger than expected and - after the first 4 houses we saw - also cheaper than expected. Now we are only waiting for our furniture and then we can move in beginning of June. By the way: If you want to you can track our furniture online.
Just search for the name of the ship "London Express" on this website:
http://www.sailwx.info/shiptrack/search.phtml
Currently it's in the middle of the carribean sea.
Secondly we opened a bank account here in the US. This is normally not so easy as a non-US-resident because we don't have any credit history, nor do we have a social security number so far. But as an SAP employee, some things are easier.
Last but not least we had our appointment at the social security administration yesterday to apply for a social security number. There were no problems at all and next Tuesday I can go there and ask for it already.
For all those who don't know in detail yet: The social security number is so important because only with that we will be able to get a credit card and my monthly salary. Or to put it in other words: You won't get any money without this number.
The next thing will therefore be to get our credit cards, then a car and afterwards the driver's license.
One funny thing about that: If you enter the US as non-tourist (as we did) you need to get your driver's license within 10 days after arrival. But you need a social security number for it. But because the transfer of the immigration data to the social security administration takes a few days, you are not allowed to ask for your number within the first 10 days. So, how to deal with that? Any ideas?
As a highlight at the end of this post I publish 3 pictures:
The first one shows the container in Mannheim, fully packed:
The second one of the car we leased on the first day to get all our luggage from the airport to the apartment:
And the last one shows our future home (but not our car):
