I am sad to say that the work week of our second week in Germany was not much different from the first, continued with in-processing. But we did get to move into our apartment, what a relief. I am not sure that any of us could have made it much longer in our little hotel room. Our second day in the apartment we received temporary furniture from the Army, not too bad, I was expecting much worse. We have to return the furniture when our stuff gets to Germany, which may be longer than we originally thought, looking at end of Oct right now. We have a few items that we do not have to return including wardrobes (you will not find a single closet in Germany), a refrigerator (Army provides refrigerators about 2/3 size of an American refrigerator, about 4x the size of a German refrigerator), and a washer and dryer. We were given what is considered large European appliances. My washer fits maybe 1/2 the clothes that my one in the States fit (1/2 would be pushing it). Anyways, the washer and dryer are supposed to be these super energy efficient appliances, which equates to it taking 2 1/2 hours to wash a load and 3 hours to dry it. Don't forget to empty the water after drying after load, and emptying the 3 lint filters.
Last weekend was the old town festival in our town, equates to a street fair. We tried lots of beer, wine, and other alcoholic beverages, lots of different meat sandwiches and desserts. I also bought a scarf, trying to bring some European fashion into my wardrobe. Apparently there were some races in town during the fair, but we never saw them, we will have to try to remember them next year.
My mom passed away last weekend. We had a hard time going to the street fair while trying to cope with our loss. On Monday started our mission to try to get me home for the funeral. After talking to his Captain, Nathan was told that he was still going to go to the field for a training practice Wed. morning and I was most likely out of luck. After talking to my FRG (family readiness group) leader I found out how to start a Red Cross message. We didn't get the Red Cross message until Tues, but as soon as we had it Nathan was granted emergency leave allowing both of us to come back for the funeral. We flew back on Thur., the funeral was on Sat. The funeral was absolutely beautiful, we could not have asked for a more fitting service to honor my mom. We have been very blessed while here in that we have lots of family and friends helping us out between giving us a place to stay, a car to drive, meals, etc. We cannot thank everyone enough. We fly back tomorrow, sad but at the same time looking forward to seeing Ellie and getting settled in Germany a little more.
Due to the computer I am on at the moment I cannot post any photos, but I will add some as soon as we get internet in our apartment :)
Monday, August 30, 2010
Sunday, August 22, 2010
Saying good-bye from afar
I am not going to write about what we have been doing this week, I will do that later on this week. For this post I want to write about something that I knew was coming, just not right now. My mom passed away on Saturday night. I pray that she has found peace with God. I pray that my brother had found peace with the very difficult decision that he had to make. I know that my mom is in a better place without the pain and suffering that she endured here on earth. I pray that she has been reunited with her dad. I am sorry that I could not have been there in person to say good-bye. I love you mom.
Sunday, August 15, 2010
A couple more pics
Here in Germany
Guten Tag! We have been here for a week right now, hard to believe how much we have gotten done and yet how much we are waiting to get done.
Just want to through in a pic from the moving chaos before I start telling you about this week.
Before I start in too much on our week let me tell you about the trip here. Nathan left early in the morning with one of the cats. To get through security he had to take the cat out of the carrier, she completely flipped out. Then the cat litter was marked as suspicious so Nathan had to wait for this to be additionally tested. Then he was off. I spent the morning with my mom and then had lunch with my dad, both of whom I already miss.
Then it was my turn to head off. I landed early in Chicago, could not believe it. Colo. Springs would not check me all the way through so I had to run down to the next gate, literally on the other side of the airport and check in. Then go meet Nathan at his gate, he came in late, grab some dinner and walk straight to the gate and hop on the plane with dinner in hand. No sooner after we were finally settled and starting to pull our dinner out of the bag did I hear the kids in front of us say "look mom its a kitty". Yes the cat got out and was roaming the plane, oops! Other than that our flight was wonderful. Customs was closed in Frankfurt, making getting into the country with the animals so much less stressful than we thought it was going to be. :) We then headed straight for our new home.For now it is us, the dog and the two cats (we found out last minute that we would not be getting on post housing, which was what was keeping us from bringing the second cat) in a little hotel room.
I made it my mission to find us an apartment as soon as I could. There were over 150 soldiers and their families that arrived here with us last week, our choices for places to live were extremely slim when I went, I cannot imagine being one of the families that came a day or two after us. Our apartment is rather small, its not the prettiest place in the world, but it has a yard and is right here in town. We get to sign the lease and move in tomorrow, I cannot begin to tell you how excited I am. We found out that our household stuff is going to take longer than we thought, our express shipment may not be here until the end of September and our big shipment may not be here until mid to late October, it is going to be difficult not having this stuff but I am done with this little hotel room.
Our days have been filled with walking and taking shuttle all around post trying to get all of the in-processing procedural stuff done. We just about have it done including getting the USAEUR driver's license to be able to drive here, last week only 4 of 28 students in one class passed the test. We both passed the first time, hooah! Now that we have passed our driver's test we have been working on a car, we bought one on Saturday, now we have to wait for it to pass customs (we can buy the car tax free, we just have to wait for the paperwork to all be approved). Hopefully, this time next week we will have our car, I cannot wait! At the end of each day we have been walking with Ellie, mostly down and around the lake that is here in town, the town is not very big. Our apartment is on one side of town and Nathan's office is on the other side of town and he could very easily walk to work.
Yesterday we ventured out with our rental car and drove to Ramstein. All I can say is that we got screwed when it comes to the PX, ours is pretty pathetic and theirs is literally a mall, it was huge. That will be where we go when we start to miss home, it was almost exactly like a mall at home, lots of shops, a food court, American restaurants, etc. Today we went to a nature park about 16 kilometers, about 9.6 miles, away. We let Ellie run loose in the field as we walked the path, we only walked about 2 hours, it was sprinkling today and we were starting to get wet. We definitely want to go back at some point.
We have enjoyed the food here at the hotel and local restaurants, looking forward to eating home cooked food though. We have tried the Schnitzel (a pork dish that everyone told us to try), some chicken dishes, cold meat and cheese breakfasts, the local beer and wines. Something that I am still getting used to is the very limited customer service from the Germans, if you want something with your food, such as ketchup, you better ask for it when they bring your food, because once you have your food you won't see them until you flag them down to bring you your check.
Just want to through in a pic from the moving chaos before I start telling you about this week.
Before I start in too much on our week let me tell you about the trip here. Nathan left early in the morning with one of the cats. To get through security he had to take the cat out of the carrier, she completely flipped out. Then the cat litter was marked as suspicious so Nathan had to wait for this to be additionally tested. Then he was off. I spent the morning with my mom and then had lunch with my dad, both of whom I already miss.
Then it was my turn to head off. I landed early in Chicago, could not believe it. Colo. Springs would not check me all the way through so I had to run down to the next gate, literally on the other side of the airport and check in. Then go meet Nathan at his gate, he came in late, grab some dinner and walk straight to the gate and hop on the plane with dinner in hand. No sooner after we were finally settled and starting to pull our dinner out of the bag did I hear the kids in front of us say "look mom its a kitty". Yes the cat got out and was roaming the plane, oops! Other than that our flight was wonderful. Customs was closed in Frankfurt, making getting into the country with the animals so much less stressful than we thought it was going to be. :) We then headed straight for our new home.For now it is us, the dog and the two cats (we found out last minute that we would not be getting on post housing, which was what was keeping us from bringing the second cat) in a little hotel room.I made it my mission to find us an apartment as soon as I could. There were over 150 soldiers and their families that arrived here with us last week, our choices for places to live were extremely slim when I went, I cannot imagine being one of the families that came a day or two after us. Our apartment is rather small, its not the prettiest place in the world, but it has a yard and is right here in town. We get to sign the lease and move in tomorrow, I cannot begin to tell you how excited I am. We found out that our household stuff is going to take longer than we thought, our express shipment may not be here until the end of September and our big shipment may not be here until mid to late October, it is going to be difficult not having this stuff but I am done with this little hotel room.
Our days have been filled with walking and taking shuttle all around post trying to get all of the in-processing procedural stuff done. We just about have it done including getting the USAEUR driver's license to be able to drive here, last week only 4 of 28 students in one class passed the test. We both passed the first time, hooah! Now that we have passed our driver's test we have been working on a car, we bought one on Saturday, now we have to wait for it to pass customs (we can buy the car tax free, we just have to wait for the paperwork to all be approved). Hopefully, this time next week we will have our car, I cannot wait! At the end of each day we have been walking with Ellie, mostly down and around the lake that is here in town, the town is not very big. Our apartment is on one side of town and Nathan's office is on the other side of town and he could very easily walk to work.
Yesterday we ventured out with our rental car and drove to Ramstein. All I can say is that we got screwed when it comes to the PX, ours is pretty pathetic and theirs is literally a mall, it was huge. That will be where we go when we start to miss home, it was almost exactly like a mall at home, lots of shops, a food court, American restaurants, etc. Today we went to a nature park about 16 kilometers, about 9.6 miles, away. We let Ellie run loose in the field as we walked the path, we only walked about 2 hours, it was sprinkling today and we were starting to get wet. We definitely want to go back at some point.We have enjoyed the food here at the hotel and local restaurants, looking forward to eating home cooked food though. We have tried the Schnitzel (a pork dish that everyone told us to try), some chicken dishes, cold meat and cheese breakfasts, the local beer and wines. Something that I am still getting used to is the very limited customer service from the Germans, if you want something with your food, such as ketchup, you better ask for it when they bring your food, because once you have your food you won't see them until you flag them down to bring you your check.
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