I have some things on my mind about the move and things and I'm going to try to adress them in order.

So we've come back last night from our long weekend of apartment hunting. We left Thursday morning at 6am, arrived at 3pm and had an appointment at the housing coop at 4pm and then three apartments that we looked at. We liked the first one we looked at and the other two not so much. So in the evening we decided we'd go for the first one and called the current tenants, so we could make an appointment at the coop. They said they'd call us back the next day. So we looked at three more places on Friday and the 2nd one, was absolutely PERFECT.
Here's the floor plan:
Grundriss.jpg
Except in "our" place the kitchen is open to the living area only.
It's in a really nice, yet central neighbourhood, next to a huge park and it's totally affordable (less than 500€!). The only minus is that it's on the fourth floor without an elevator. But hey... we're young, right? They're also going to take the kitchen, which makes me a bit nervous because I have no idea how to build in a kitchen or where to get one from. But apparently used kitchens are not that expensive and the rest we can figure out.
So we told them right away that we're going to take it. They were also going to sell us most of their furniture (fyi: in Germany you usually rent unfurnished) for a reasonable sum, which is neat, because we don't have a lot of furniture of our own so far. We went to the coop with them on Monday and we'll find out for sure whether we're getting the place on Wednesday. That's what the coop lady said anyway.
The place would be so freaking perfect. Look, we'd have an office type of room, a bed room and a living/dining area. And a balcony. And if we can stay in Dresden (which we sort of hope to) after we both finish university, it would even be big enough for ... well you know a tiny little family in the beginning.
Keep your fingers crossed for another two days, guys, PLEASE.
We did some site seeing and visited Olek's department at uni. They have all kinds of rails and switches (I guess that's the word? the things that make trains change their route or whatever it is they do) and stuff in front of the building.

I have NO idea what's up with that, but there were SO FREAKING MANY pregnant ladies there. And I swear it's not some sort of subconscious thing that I just notice them more lately. Look, some time ago, I read that Germany has the second oldest population in the world (after Japan). I figured it made sense because I hardly ever saw pegnant women in Germany and apparently the number of new borns/births per 1000 people is ridiculously low, so it would make sense to see close to none pregnant women, because there aren't any.
I'm not so sure anymore now, because DAMN! SO MANY of them. EVERYWHERE. and so many young families.

Family is actually a good transition to the next topic.
Soooo I've posted about it before and I think I'm going to dig up the old thread and read through it again.
Here's the situation:
If we get married Olek can get premanent residency which entitles him to the same scholarship/grant-thing I get. It's based on your parents' income and it's 50/50 scholarship and interest-free loan. We did the math and seeing as Olek's mum makes about as much as mine and his dad officially makes close to nothing (~500€), he could get between €500-€600 a month, for the two years of his studies. 24*550=13,200
His mum agreed to support him, she has a second (unofficial) job that depending on the season she makes quite a lot of money off. But when she was over a few days ago and Olek told her that his programme would take two years, it was obvious that he wasn't all too happy about the prospect of supporting him for that long.
He would of course try to get a job, but... he's going to have at least 30h of classes a week, in a foreign language. So he won't be able to work a lot of hours or make a lot of money.
Even if you don't count the loan-part, then he would still be getting about 6600€ for free.
We would also only have to pay for one health insurance, which would save us 80€/month and we'd save ~18€/month on the tv licence, too.

In short: If we got married we'd get an additional 550€/month and save almost 100€ on expenses each month

Now look at that and tell me that getting married doesn't seem like a smart decision.
We wouldn't have a party (because with moving and being students, there's no way we can afford the party we want right now) and we'd still (as per Olek's wish) have a religious ceremony in a few years.
We have some time to think about it, at the very least until October. But it just seems like it would make our life a lot easier. (and also Olek's parents' lives).

That's where we are right now.
And I better start my paper on Russian war literature, because it won't write itself and if I don't hand it in, then I won't be able to live with my boyfriend and the whole apartment hunting stress was for nothing. Ugh. So on to Chechenya it is.