It’s amazing how much you can get done when you’re not at a festival or watching World Cup games.

I had a list of things I had to accomplish on Saturday—potential small victories or failures. Failure was not an option.

First up was buying a washer and dryer. I’ve gone a week without one so I knew time was of the essence with this task. Also knowing how slow things tend to happen here, I prayed I could get delivery this month.

Washers and dryers are rated A, B, C, etc. as a way to communicate their efficiency. An A machine costs more, but uses less energy and saves you more on your electric bill. The salesman tried to explain all this to me, along with kilowatts per hour…all in broken English.

As someone who likes to save money whenever possible, and properly budget my expenses, it’s driving me crazy that I might have to pay extra water or electricity costs at the end of the year based on my consumption. It’s all I think about! I’m praying I won’t get hit with a huge bill at the end of the year.

When I had picked out my exciting new appliances, I asked about delivery. The salesman flipped through his book, getting into mid-July. I took a chance and asked, “Is today an option?” and I added something about just moving from America and being used to same-day delivery. To my surprise, he said yes! Oh my god, could it be? Same day delivery? (note to self: take a chance and ask next time).

My next stop was the Telekom store. I visit this store almost every weekend with questions about my cell phone since the web site is all in German. There is always a line and it’s always a long wait. To my surprise, I was the only customer.

My plan allows for 750mb usage. After that, the internet slows until the next bill. For some reason, my internet had started slowing down. Having no internet at home, and now not even on my phone, I’m going crazy.

The techs explained that Spotify is causing me to use up my data. And they don’t offer unlimited plans. No unlimited plans! In the US, this would be blasphemy! What would we do without being able to have the extreme maximum of any option!

I have to cancel my Spotify subscription and then re-subscribe through their company. This can easily be done on the web site…if you speak German.

After the cell phone store, I headed over to the bank to print out my statement. They have little machines that look like ATMs where you can print out your statement. So I printed out my ten page statement in German to “read” over later (along with my paycheck…in German).

Next up: Main Train Station, praying the ticket office was open. There’s always a long line there too. Somehow, luck was on my side (maybe everyone was at a festival I didn’t know about). I bought my yearly train pass after about a half hour of back and forth and more broken explanations, canceled charges and hoping I got the right pass.

Tip of the week: Those photos I begrudgingly took the very first day I arrived in order to get my registration card have come in very handy. Thank god I have been carrying them around with me; I’ve needed them for all my many ID cards, including the train pass.

After the train station, to the market before the 4pm close, then back across town to German Home Depot.

I picked up a rolling rack for my clothes as an interim solution until I buy a closet. Visual: me walking down the street with a bag of groceries over one shoulder, a rolling rack under the other arm.

When the guys came to deliver my washer and dryer, of course there was an issue with the plug (you need a key to open the cover that is over the plug) and the water wasn’t “exactly” working right (they told me to “keep an eye on it”).

One observation I’ve had about German delivery men—they are incredibly handy. Not once was I worried that something wouldn’t work out right. The movers fixed my pull-out couch with a wire hanger. I feel like in the US, someone would just say sorry and throw up their hands. Here they work until they fix the issue, even if it wasn’t their fault.

Little by little, things are starting to come together. I keep telling myself, it won’t happen at once, but it’s so great when things work out. Although I opted out of festivals to spend Saturday getting things done, it was much needed.

I’m sharing these anecdotes because they’re demonstrative of all the little, simple things I’ve been used to in my daily life…and having to adjust. Along with the adjusting, I’m realizing trust is huge in my adapting to life here. Trust that it’s ok if you don’t understand everything. Trust that things will work out (after all, they always do).