My laptop adventure... and some other pictures

First off, these are just some random pictures I took.
Ever seen Jungle Book? This is Kaa the snake made into a Caa Wash (that was the actual name of the car wash)
Jamie, oh-so-serious, playing with her toys
Natalie and Jamie
Natalie, as well as much of Germany, do not have dryers so this is how our clothes dry.

The Opera House
Pretty green trees and bushes.

Ok, so the following set of pictures was from my "laptop adventure". Which unfortunately ended in my laptop being sent back to my house in NM. So this is the story... Last weekend my laptop was supposed to be delivered to me. Monday AND Tuesday I sat at home and did nothing waiting for it to get here. Well when it didn´t come Tuesday I had Natalie call DHL for me and they informed her that they were delivering my package to customs in Hannover. This surprised me because the package had already gone into customs in Frankfurt so why should it be there again. Well Natalie called her mom to tell her about it and her mom said that it is probably there because I have to pay for it, like an import tax or something. She also said I should get a note in the mail saying it is at the customs office. So I was so frustrated because I just wanted to get it. The next morning I went out to check the mail and I had gotten a note from the postal service. My package was at customs and I needed to pick it up. So that afternoon with some directions from Natalie I set off on my adventure. LONG story short, after TWO days of taking 2 subways and walking what seemed like miles and miles, I didn´t have my laptop. I had to pay 19% tax which was bout 140 US dollars which is then about 87 euro. The first day when the guy told me that I ran (not literally) back to the subway to go get the rest of my money exchanged. I thought I would be getting 76 euros back and then I had about 12 so I could pay for it. Once I got to the exchange place I only got 70 euros, so I knew I wouldn´t have enough to pay for it. I was super bummed. I talked with my mom and she reminded me that it was a gift and did that make a difference. So I called and the same guy I talked to earlier at the office told me if it was a gift the tax was 13.5% which was about 62 euro, so I wasn´t as upset because I had that much. The next morning I set out again, riding two subways and walking FOREVER to get there and when I got there he told me he was mistaken and it was still 19%. Well, I was all out and around then. I was NOT going to pay the 19% after he told me it was 13.5% on the phone. Apparently, if the gift is over 375 US dollars then the tax is still 19%. So I talked with his boss, who informed me that I can´t depend on someone who works there to give me the right information. I was so upset, I asked her how was I to know that the 19% was correct then if I couldn´t depend on just word of the mouth. I guess I would have to write a letter to the main customs office of Germany to get the correct information. I was getting nowhere with this lady so I asked to talk with someone above her. A few minutes later the original guy who screwed everything up took me to an office where I met another boss who didn´t speak english very well. After a few minutes of talking with him I was so upset that I just got up, said thank you... (for nothing <-- that was in my head not out loud), and slammed the door. I then went into the main office and just told the guy to send it back because I was NOT going to pay 19% when he told me it 13.5% and I told him he better package it good. So like I said before after TWO days of taking 2 subways and walking what seemed like miles and miles(which very well could have been), I didn´t have my laptop. Hopefully my laptop gets home safely. But I took some pictures along the way. These two pictures reminded me of the movie Schindler´s List. This may be morbid and I am sorry but the tower thing looks like the place they burned the bodies and black ash came out of the top.

These are some tanks I took a picture of for my dad. He works with these back home.

They have pretty snails here, not just ugly gray ones.

Well since I didn´t get my laptop I will for sure be going home before the next term begins for school because doing school on a german laptop is way too difficult. Luckily I had a pretty lenient computer teacher because he gave me A´s in both of my classes from last term, even though I am not too sure I deserved them.