Are you or your loved one in the military and have orders to move overseas soon? Need some advice that I wish someone would have told me or not told me when we were moving here?
1. Get your paperwork started immediately to have an accompanied tour. It takes a long time for all of the paperwork to come through. It is by far easier to move all together as a couple or family than it is to move the service member and family members later.
2. Don't believe when others tell you that your American made SUV will not fit on the roads. Yes it may not fit in all of the parking garages if you have a big SUV but they do fit in the roadways and you can always find a different parking lot. I had been told a couple of absolute horror stories about SUVs not fitting, so we chose not bring my car, a cross-over SUV. We are now trying to do all of the paperwork to ship it, but I can promise you it would have been easier to do in the first place.
3. You will make an electricity mistake. Don't plug in anything to the wall until you are confident that you have figured out all the tricks of the electricity here. Hint: you can find the voltage on the plug in or bottom of almost everything you need to plug in. If it lists 120-240 V then it is dual voltage and you only need a simple adapter, however some of these things do have a switch that you will need to flip to move between the 2 voltage types. Pretty much everything else will need a transformer, make sure to match whatever you are plugging in to the appropriate size transformer. You can plug in your table lamps with a simple adapter if you change out the light bulb to a 220 light bulb.
4. If you are brining pets make sure to check with your vet about everything you need to get your pet here in plenty of time. We need to have rabies shots that had been given over 30 days before our departure but not more than a year before our departure. You will also need a health certificate, unless these are done at a military vet they need to be signed by your state, which can take a few days. Remember that these need to be not more than 10 days old at time of entrance into Germany. Also, make sure to try to avoid flying through the UK if you can, the UK has a mandatory quarantine period, even if you are only there for a layover.
5. Jobs are few and far between for family members, be prepared to have it take a long time to get a job or not be able to get a job at all in our chosen field. There are jobs, you might have to leave your field of interest though. The trick to getting a good job is to first volunteer, get your name known, and then when a position opens up they will have your name in mind.
6. It is way too easy to stay on post or around post all the time. You are living outside the US, get out there and travel. There are so many places to see and you may not be this close to all of them ever again.
Again, I will add more as I think of more. These are some of the big ones that I wish people would have told me or been honest about when we were moving here.
Sunday, November 13, 2011
Deployment advice...
So I had someone ask me for some deployment advice as she is facing her husband's first deployment soon.
1. I don't care how many deployments you have been through please don't judge me or make me feel inferior because this is my first deployment. I respect those who have gone through multiple deployments, but don't make me feel inferior because of it. For those who are going through their first deployments, everyone has had a first deployment, after this you too can be one of those seasoned wives.
2. Find something in common that you can talk about. Your loved one will most likely not be able to talk about what he/she is doing all the time. It does get old being the only one talking about what your day to day activities. Nathan and I have a Bible study that we do together and we read books together and then talk about them. We kind of have our very own book club going on.
3. Make lots of connections and use those connections to stay busy. Go to the spouse's club meetings, go to garrison events, etc. It helps you feel more connected to the unit that your loved one is deployed with. You will have more common connections to talk about.
4. Have a communication plan made before he leaves. Are you going to talk by phone, email or IM? Understand that even if your loved one says that you will get a form of communication every day some things happen, don't panic if you don't hear anything for a few days.
5. Journal. This is my saving grace some days, it gives me an outlet to express my feelings whether anger at the deployment, utter loneliness, etc.
I am sure I can come up with lots more but here is the start of my list. I will add more as I think of them.
1. I don't care how many deployments you have been through please don't judge me or make me feel inferior because this is my first deployment. I respect those who have gone through multiple deployments, but don't make me feel inferior because of it. For those who are going through their first deployments, everyone has had a first deployment, after this you too can be one of those seasoned wives.
2. Find something in common that you can talk about. Your loved one will most likely not be able to talk about what he/she is doing all the time. It does get old being the only one talking about what your day to day activities. Nathan and I have a Bible study that we do together and we read books together and then talk about them. We kind of have our very own book club going on.
3. Make lots of connections and use those connections to stay busy. Go to the spouse's club meetings, go to garrison events, etc. It helps you feel more connected to the unit that your loved one is deployed with. You will have more common connections to talk about.
4. Have a communication plan made before he leaves. Are you going to talk by phone, email or IM? Understand that even if your loved one says that you will get a form of communication every day some things happen, don't panic if you don't hear anything for a few days.
5. Journal. This is my saving grace some days, it gives me an outlet to express my feelings whether anger at the deployment, utter loneliness, etc.
I am sure I can come up with lots more but here is the start of my list. I will add more as I think of them.
Ticking away days of this deployment
So I have to admit part of the reason I have posted much during this deployment is that I feel that I don't have much to blog about. After my first couple of trips I felt guilty going on trips without Nathan. I felt guilty that I was seeing amazing sights and tasting fantastic foods without him around. I felt like he was far off taking care of so much for our country and here I was having a great time without him. Because of this guilt and my paperwork finally going through for my job I have not traveled as much. My job has been a tremendous help in keeping me busy instead of traveling.
I am going to post some pics from our cruise over R&R, we left out of Rome then traveled to Sicily, Athens, Turkey, Crete and back to Rome. We had a truly amazing time and cannot wait for another cruise. The top pic is a beach/coast line in Sicily, the middle is Mt. Etna, an active volcano that we went to Sicily, the bottom is from one of the formal nights aboard the cruise. I will post more later...
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