Monday, January 24, 2011
My new love- Italy
Last weekend since Nathan had a long weekend so we went to Venice, Italy. What a wonderful city! It is unlike any other city in the world. The city has no roads, there is one road leading in and a parking garage at the end of the road, the rest of the time you make your way either on foot, a gondola (which are incredibly expensive), or the city bus system (large boats). The city was greatly influenced by its artists, so there is more art to see in the city than anyone could imagine, it was magnificent. We also visited a couple of palaces, the glass making island of Murano right beside the city, ate some incredible food, visited some awesome markets, took in the traditional venetian carnival masks, etc. There was so much to do, yet in 2 days we felt like we knocked out the city. The city itself is really not very big making it very easy to do lots in 1 day. If you plan your trip to Venice correctly I would say plan on not more than 2 days there, then move to the mainland and explore the rest of Italy, which is on my list to do.
Thursday, January 13, 2011
Do I have the strength?
The question that has been finding itself in my head repeatedly lately is do I have the strength to make it through this deployment? Do I have the strength to continue everyday for a year knowing Nathan is in a war zone? Do I have the strength to go weeks without being able to talk to him? Do I have the strength to make through this year without being close to my family and friends? With the deployment coming up very soon we have been attending all of the mandatory pre-deployment sessions and I sit there during these sessions about where the guys are going to live, what their mission is, etc. asking all of these questions of myself.
I went to my first batallion coffee last night, kind of exciting, only certain people (basically you husband has to be ranking high enough) are invited. During the coffee we made deployment notebooks, its just a basic composition notebook that we decorated. The idea is that I would write something in it, mail it to Nathan, he writes something in it, mails it to me, etc. As we were decorating I was listening to some of the senior spouses talk about previous deployments, it made me wonder do I have the strength that they do to endure deployment after deployment? I admire them for their strength, courage, and resiliency. I can only hope that I am half the military spouse that they are.
So as I face this deployment I keep reminding myself that our love is Army Strong. I have a network of the greatest women (Army wives) to rely on, I truly mean this. I have loving and supporting family and friends at home that I know I can always call if I need to. I know that when Nathan returns our love will be stronger than ever. I know that I will gain more from this experience than I could ever imagine. I know my pride in Nathan will be overabundant!
I went to my first batallion coffee last night, kind of exciting, only certain people (basically you husband has to be ranking high enough) are invited. During the coffee we made deployment notebooks, its just a basic composition notebook that we decorated. The idea is that I would write something in it, mail it to Nathan, he writes something in it, mails it to me, etc. As we were decorating I was listening to some of the senior spouses talk about previous deployments, it made me wonder do I have the strength that they do to endure deployment after deployment? I admire them for their strength, courage, and resiliency. I can only hope that I am half the military spouse that they are.
So as I face this deployment I keep reminding myself that our love is Army Strong. I have a network of the greatest women (Army wives) to rely on, I truly mean this. I have loving and supporting family and friends at home that I know I can always call if I need to. I know that when Nathan returns our love will be stronger than ever. I know that I will gain more from this experience than I could ever imagine. I know my pride in Nathan will be overabundant!
Sunday, January 9, 2011
Homesick or what?
I do not know if it is the upcoming deployment, the recent holidays, my finishing practically every class I can take and finding no new ones to take, or a combination of all of the combined but I have found myself not enjoying Germany that much lately. Don't get me wrong I love being here with Nathan, I love the traveling and trying new foods, but there is a part of me that says its been long enough, lets go back to the states. What I do not enjoy is not feeling like my life has a meaning, the continuing struggle to find a job (tired of all these promising interviews, if you say that you are interested then just hire me already, but the economy is effecting everything here as well). I miss being a nurse, I miss having a purpose everyday in getting up and going to work. How many people can say that about their jobs? I love being a nurse, there is nothing that I wouldn't give up right now to get up, put my scrubs on and go save some lives. I miss being near my family, I am not saying that I have to live in the same state, but not an ocean away. It has been a tough year on my family and especially not being home for the holidays has been hard for me. I have a whole list of things, while little things they all add up, that annoy me right now about being here; paying to have to pee at a public location, not being able to find the foods that I wish to purchase at the commissary, the ever changing exchange rate (it is getting better the last couple of weeks), etc.
I will not lie, I am frightened about being here by myself during the deployment, I have considered going home but then I realized that by being out of Germany more than 90 days I lose my command sponsorship and visa allowing me to be here, so I will stay knowing that being with Nathan post deployment will be worth it. But perhaps I will be making a couple of visits home during the deployment, and maybe even have some visitors here, hint hint! So I am not really sure that I am homesick but more trying to find my place and purpose here in Germany.
I will not lie, I am frightened about being here by myself during the deployment, I have considered going home but then I realized that by being out of Germany more than 90 days I lose my command sponsorship and visa allowing me to be here, so I will stay knowing that being with Nathan post deployment will be worth it. But perhaps I will be making a couple of visits home during the deployment, and maybe even have some visitors here, hint hint! So I am not really sure that I am homesick but more trying to find my place and purpose here in Germany.
Thursday, January 6, 2011
The holidays
We celebrated Christmas Eve with our potato salad and weiners just as planned, they were quite yummy. I will make some for any family or friends that come to visit! The rest of the day we spent time together and calling our families. Due to the massive amount of snow that we had the week prior we weren't able to go anywhere. On Christmas day we had planned on going to see the new Harry Potter movie at the movie theater, but due to the snow the truck was unable to deliver the movie. The movie theaters on all of the Army and Air Force bases in Europe share movies, so your theater may have a movie for 2 days then it is sent to the next base in line, but it should cycle back around in a couple of weeks. Anyways we made it all the way to the movie theater before we found out that they didn't have it, that was fine we just came home watched our own movies and called more family.
I wish I could say that we traveled more during the holidays, but we were unable to partly due to the snow, and partly due to trying to get all paperwork, etc. completed so that we can move at the end of the month to a hopefully safer house. We also had to spend another full two days waiting for an electrician to come fix our latest electrical issue here, I am getting tired of having to give up days upon days for electricians to only have a bandaid fix, forget fixing the bigger problem.
We were able to go to Heidelberg this time to explore the castle the city, we were there for a Christmas market in Dec. I have pics but since I am having a little bit of computer trouble I will post them later. On New Year's Eve we traveled to Baden-Baden which literally means Bath-Bath. The city is a little over 2 hours away from us, really close to the French border, we actually weaved in and out of France on one of the roads we had to take. We went to one of the many spas and enjoyed a day of relaxing in the hot mineral springs pools, brine saunas, aroma sauna rooms, hot tubs, etc. It was truly a very relaxing day for both of us. A couple of days later we headed for Trier, again we were there in Dec. for a Christmas market, this time we checked out all of the Roman ruins, city history and then headed for some wine tasting from the local vineyards. Trier boasts to be the oldest city in Germany, you can still see the old Roman city walls, the gate to enter the city, the Roman baths, and the amphitheater. The city sits right on the Mosel river and near the Saar river, so it is a great area for growing grapes. Most wines produced in the area are white wines. We found one place that will let you sample 120 of the local wines, we only tried 6 but if anybody comes to visit we will try all 120 with you!
With deployment quickly approaching we have been focused on what we want/need to do before Nathan leaves. We have made our lists, starting working on checking things off. I also have a list of things to do while he is gone; a letter a week, a package a month, etc. Because we did not get to spend as much time traveling as we were hoping over the holidays we are going to try to do so between now and when he leaves, so this weekend the plan is to go to Belgium, next weekend Italy, then 3 weeks of Girl Scout cookie sales (if you wish to purchase any for troops in Iraq or Afghanistan let me know, we can ship to them for free through the military mail system), then hopefully a couple last weeks of travel before Nathan leaves.
I wish I could say that we traveled more during the holidays, but we were unable to partly due to the snow, and partly due to trying to get all paperwork, etc. completed so that we can move at the end of the month to a hopefully safer house. We also had to spend another full two days waiting for an electrician to come fix our latest electrical issue here, I am getting tired of having to give up days upon days for electricians to only have a bandaid fix, forget fixing the bigger problem.
We were able to go to Heidelberg this time to explore the castle the city, we were there for a Christmas market in Dec. I have pics but since I am having a little bit of computer trouble I will post them later. On New Year's Eve we traveled to Baden-Baden which literally means Bath-Bath. The city is a little over 2 hours away from us, really close to the French border, we actually weaved in and out of France on one of the roads we had to take. We went to one of the many spas and enjoyed a day of relaxing in the hot mineral springs pools, brine saunas, aroma sauna rooms, hot tubs, etc. It was truly a very relaxing day for both of us. A couple of days later we headed for Trier, again we were there in Dec. for a Christmas market, this time we checked out all of the Roman ruins, city history and then headed for some wine tasting from the local vineyards. Trier boasts to be the oldest city in Germany, you can still see the old Roman city walls, the gate to enter the city, the Roman baths, and the amphitheater. The city sits right on the Mosel river and near the Saar river, so it is a great area for growing grapes. Most wines produced in the area are white wines. We found one place that will let you sample 120 of the local wines, we only tried 6 but if anybody comes to visit we will try all 120 with you!
With deployment quickly approaching we have been focused on what we want/need to do before Nathan leaves. We have made our lists, starting working on checking things off. I also have a list of things to do while he is gone; a letter a week, a package a month, etc. Because we did not get to spend as much time traveling as we were hoping over the holidays we are going to try to do so between now and when he leaves, so this weekend the plan is to go to Belgium, next weekend Italy, then 3 weeks of Girl Scout cookie sales (if you wish to purchase any for troops in Iraq or Afghanistan let me know, we can ship to them for free through the military mail system), then hopefully a couple last weeks of travel before Nathan leaves.
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