Quick Update

I haven't had much to post recently because, to be honest, we haven't been doing anything interesting. Greg has been hating his job miserably and I have been actively looking for one. Good thing for me, I found a job working part-time in a program here providing breast feeding and nutritional education to mothers. Bad thing for Greg, it doesn't look like his job will be improving any time soon.

We spend our weekends trying to stay cool in the July heat despite a severe lack of air conditioning. Recently, I've been attempting to learning to drive my manual 2000 BMW 316 coupe with little improvement. Hopefully, by the time I start working I will have it mastered.

Another goal of mine that was nearly shattered with our move to Germany was going back to school. I had every intention of starting my MSN at University of Colorado in 2013, but that is obviously not going to happen now. I've been actively looking into schools that I can at least begin taking classes online and possibly finish when we move back to the states. There aren't a whole lot of options out there for my situation, but I've talked to a few advisers and have a better idea of what direction I may need to go. Hopefully, I'll be able to start taking a couple of classes in 2014 if I can find a school willing to deal with my unique situation.

This week, we're hoping to take a trip to Cologne and maybe see a few of the castles along the Rhine. We definitely need a break from spending all of our time here in Little America.

We get it.

I couldn't possibly think of a better title for this blog post.

Ever since we found out we'd be going to Germany, we've heard the same advice repeated again and again, "But you'll get to travel everywhere! You'll have plenty of opportunities, you have to ttrraavvell!"

Can I just take a moment to say: We get it. We're living in Europe. Berlin is closer to my current home than my college was to my parent's house. You could be stuck in Atlanta traffic longer than it takes to get to France from here. We have three years and we'll do plenty of traveling, so please stop reminding us that we HAVE to get out and travel the second we get off the plane. We're going to, it's just not as simple for us right now as people seem to believe.

I think people in the United States have a lot of misconceptions about traveling in Europe, particularly if they have never tried to do it as an adult who wasn't, you know, 19 and backpacking. Gas here is close to $10 a gallon on the economy. Train tickets can cost as much as flying across the United States depending on where and when you're trying to travel. How many times a year does the average American afford to fly cross country? Probably not too often. 

My point is, yes, everything is close, but that doesn't exactly mean traveling is cheap, it just means you don't have to go as far, but even the shortest trip is more expensive than the equivalent in America. And that brings us to our next issue- money. In the US, Greg and I were doing very well financially. We were dual income and living almost entirely off of Greg's basic housing allowance, giving us plenty of money to play around with. Since coming to Europe, our income has been reduced to less than a third of what it was 3 months ago. We're living on less than what grocery store clerks make in the EU. We're perfectly able to support ourselves and aren't hurting for money, but it does take some adjusting when your income suddenly reduces substantially. We're having to realistically accept the fact that there are little to no jobs out here for me. It really puts a huge damper on our plans for Greg to get out of the Army in 2016, as we may have very little savings at that point.

Speaking of the Army, did I mention Greg has to get approval for us to leave Germany? I found an awesome deal the other day for a 3 day trip to London and asked Greg if he would be interested in me "surprising" him with it. Turns out, I can't do that because he would have needed to request a pass to leave weeks ago. Bummer. Also, the Army is particularly enjoying making Greg's life miserable the next few months. He is being sent off to several different military bases for weeks on end soon for various training. It's hard to travel when you find out 2 days before that you're husband is going to be gone for the next 3 weeks.

We have ventured out to different festivals in the area and even took a train across the river the other day, but don't expect anything too exciting out of us any time soon. When we get settled and start saving money again, we'll start exploring further out of our comfort zone. Until then, we'll be at the fest drinking dunkles bier and erdbeerwein and walking home. Tschüs!

Dragon boat races on the Rhine last weekend

The Move

In case you've been curious what we've been up to, Greg and I have been lost in a big black hole called moving. After 30 days of living in a hotel, we finally have a place of our own that is somewhat put together. If I ever run across someone who is PCS'ing to Germany, I have a whole ton of advice for them when it comes to the move itself.

Two weeks before our apartment lease expired in Colorado, Greg managed to set up for us to have all of our household good shipped. So how do you prepare to move overseas in less than 2 weeks? You don't. You just wing it and hope everything arrives in one piece in Europe.

When the movers arrived in Colorado, we were surprised to find that the moving company had sent two older women and one young man to pack up our whole apartment in four hours. Yeah, it ended up taking 2 days. At the end of day one, it was pouring rain and hail to the point that they decided to just give up and come back in the morning. Greg ended up needing to be around the whole time to help them move out the larger furniture.

Our big empty apartment in Colorado

A couple of things to note:

• Greg and I sent all of our clothes, half of our linens and some of our kitchenware and utensils "unaccompanied" meaning that it flew on a plane instead of being packed onto a ship to get here. The purpose is that some of your stuff gets to your new location earlier so you aren't completely stranded. The trade-off is that it's less secure and your stuff is more likely to be damaged this way, so don't send anything of any significant value. How did this work out for us? Well, after spending all the time planning what we would send and shipping it 30 days before our arrival in Germany, our unaccompanied goods arrived 2 days after we did. However, we were not able to access our unaccompanied goods until we had a place to live, which didn't happen until we had been here for a month already. By then, our household goods had already arrived as well and both shipments were delivered the same day to our apartment. Luckily, nothing in either of the two shipments were broken or damaged, not even so much as a picture frame. So, send some things unaccompanied, but don't set your heart on actually getting them sooner than everything else. Maybe you'll get luckier than us and get a home right away, but if you're coming to where we're located, don't hold your breath. The housing situation here is crazy and you don't get to decide whether you live on or off post.
• PRO-GEAR! Make sure you separate everything that is pro-gear and most importantly, if you are  a spouse with a career (or in school), everything needed for or related to that career counts as pro-gear. Textbooks, work clothes, diplomas all count as pro-gear and do not go towards your total weight. Greg and I don't own much stuff, but we do know of others that have gone over their total weight and had to pay for part of the shipment. We shed several hundred pounds off the shipment total by being sure both of our work related items were labeled pro-gear. This also allows you to get away with more stuff in your unaccompanied goods, if you choose to go that route.
• Buy things you'll need before you leave and pack them to ship! We did this to an extent, but no where near like we should have. Fair warning, don't expect air conditioning when you move to Germany. If you are coming in summer, you'll want some good fans and black out curtains at the very least. Get them before you come here! We knew we wouldn't have air conditioning, but we were told that the temperature stayed so low that you didn't need it. Summers are rather mild, but there are days it gets 90 degrees and your apartment will feel like a sauna even when it's 80, especially if you ever plan to use your oven. You'll want fans to cool the bedrooms and living areas and good thick curtains to keep out the light. One set of curtains at the PX cost $70, when I know the exact same ones were half of that price back in the states. You'll be hard pressed to find black out curtains on the economy because German buildings have these awesome metal blinds to keep the light out that you won't get on post (and probably won't get to choose if you live on post or not). Fans at the PX are often sold out and will cost you $40 for one of those ugly stand ones that won't match any of your decor. Sure you can wait for Amazon to deliver, but if it's 85 degrees the day you're unpacking, you probably won't want to wait. Plan ahead and buy curtains and fans. If you want to be really proactive, you could consider buying an air conditioning unit, but they are not allowed in government housing. Yes, a lot of people over here have air conditioning units even though they aren't supposed to, but we surprisingly aren't one of them. I'm way too cheap to spend $400 on one. Finally, look into whether or not your housing will have a microwave, and get one if you feel you need it. We don't have a microwave and we may eventually break down and get one, but I'm not a huge fan of them anyway. If you can't live without a microwave, you may want to buy one in the states before leaving because they aren't a household staple here like in America.

We've surprisingly unpacked most of our stuff in the past 3 days. It helps that we have a whole spare room just to throw empty boxes and storage. We've realized that we still need a lot of things to really make this place home. Slowly, it will come together I hope. Until then, I'm just enjoying having my own bed back and a kitchen to make bread in!

Housing Crisis

Before I write this entry, I'd like to explain that my purpose is not to bash the housing workers here or the military, but simply give my point of view on an ongoing issue. From everything we've heard, we have not been the first people to have this same experience. My hope is that others coming here can use our situation to help them make their own personal decisions should they end up in the same predicament as us.

For anyone who doesn't know, Greg and I have been living in a hotel for a month now. Compared to a lot of people here, that's nothing. Some in bound families have been stuck in the hotel for many months at this point with little chance of getting out. Let's be honest, living in one room for over a month is horrible and wears on your nerves quickly.

The policy where Greg is stationed is that almost everyone has to live on post unless there is absolutely nothing available. However, the post is broken into separate housing areas that vary greatly in quality. Some are for enlisted, some are for officers and they range from 2 to 5 bedrooms. Since Greg and I are child-free and not of any particular importance, we've been on the housing list for a long time. When the option finally came up last week for us to take a place and get out of the hotel, we were thrilled! We talked about it and decided that no matter what, we would take the first place offered to us. I mean, how bad could on post housing be?

Then, we saw the place offered. I'll make this as short as possible, it was atrocious. The apartment itself was okay, although you could tell nothing inside of it had been updated since the building was built in the 50's. It was worn and old, but I didn't have very high expectations from the beginning. The area around the apartment, though, was about equivalent to a housing project. Many of the building around it were completely empty or only had a few residents. Trash and construction waste was thrown outside and through the stairwell and neighboring playground (which I failed to mention was literally right outside our bedroom window). There were no cars parking around the vicinity of the building. Doors were left wide open and there was evidence of break-ins in the storage area. We decided we did not feel safe there.

We were informed on multiple occasions that we would be given two options of housing. Since this was our first option, we planned to just return to the office, decline it and move on to our next option. Once back to the housing office, it was apparent that declining housing was easier said then done. In my opinion, the housing workers know that many of the quarters offered are less than desirable, but they still have to get them filled. I don't think it's the individual worker's fault, I believe this company just has certain policies that are not in the best interest of the families. They offered us an unsafe place to live, and when we tried to decline it, they attempted to tell us that we were not allowed to do that because the "housing list was too long". During this conversation, the office manager got involved, some yelling happened (from her, not us) and ultimately Greg was able to look up the regulation and prove that we were in fact allowed to decline the housing offered in order to see another location. They were less than happy that we were informed and standing our ground, despite their attempts to guilt and deceive us. Clearly, these tactics had worked on other families who were now living in these run-down areas.

That night, I got online and submitted an ICE complaint about our treatment and the condition of the apartment we saw. Trust me, they read those things. Our next experiences with the same individuals at the office were a complete turn around. I popped back into the building we were shown yesterday and it was obvious an effort had been made to clean up the area and make it appear safer. Here are some pictures after the clean-up started:

Waste all over the stairs being cleaned up 

Piles of dust and trash

Area where the walls were breaking apart under the stair railing

Temporary fix

Water damage from leaking down the ceiling

Greg was called on Monday afternoon and told there was another unit available for us to view today. We were cautiously optimistic. I mean, nothing could be worse than what we were shown first, right? The whole feeling in the office was completely different this time around. They seemed happy to see us , offering fruit and making small talk. Needless to say, our next option was far beyond what we were expecting. It was a top floor stairwell walk-up that was completely renovated with brand new appliances, windows and fixtures. The kitchen was three times the size of the one I had in Colorado and the living area in general was much more spacious. It was in a good location close to where we can easily walk everywhere and you could tell the neighbors were keeping up with maintenance. Plus, it didn't have a giant playground right outside the windows. Obviously, we hurried back to the office and accepted it. We're moving in on Friday.

Seriously, this kitchen looks like the inside of an Ikea.

So, what is the point of me even sharing this story? If there is one thing I've learned the hard way in life, it's that you really have to be your own advocate. We could have easily been pressured into taking a home that we were unhappy with and felt unsafe in, but we (mostly Greg) stood up for ourselves. We decided that we were not okay with being pushed into making a decision we would regret, and were ultimately rewarded for it. Do not let anyone try to take advantage of you or guilt you into something simply because it's easier for them. Always, always, always stick up for yourself because no one else will do it for you. Trust me, it will save you a lot of grief and disappointment in life!

From CO to TX to GA

It's been 16 days now since Greg and I landed in Germany and moved into a hotel. It's not looking like we'll be getting a place to live any time soon, which apparently we should be thrilled about. Supposedly, we're going to end up getting enough cash in TLA (temporary live allowance) to pay for a car and we're spending the hottest months of the year living in the only place in the area with air conditioning. Did I tell you how much I miss our apartment in Colorado?

View of Colorado Springs last night we were there

Anyway, before jumping on a transcontinental flight, Greg and I spent a month visiting our families. This was probably the longest visit either of us has had with our families since Greg joined the Army and since I went away to college. However, this was definitely the longest time we've ever spent with each other's families.

After the mover's packed up our things and we said a tearful goodbye to the place we've spent our whole married life, we set out for Texas where Greg spent most of his childhood. Since Greg still had to drop off his car in Dallas to be shipped, I drove my Jeep and he followed behind in his car. This was my third cross-country trip in my Jeep. The first was right after Greg left for deployment and I drove it back to Georgia. The second was the day after I graduated from college and packed that sucker down with all my belongings (and Augustus, of course) set out to my new home in Colorado. This third trip was not as upsetting as the first, but still not as exciting as the second. I hope to never drive a 2-door Wrangler with a lift kit from one side of the country to the other again.

We spent a little less than 2 weeks in Texas. Since each side of Greg's family lives in a different city in Texas, we went on an extreme road trip crossing all over the state to visit his grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins. Because I only met most of his family once at our wedding, it was nice to get to know everyone better and spend some quality time together. It would have been awesome to spend more than a day with each side of the family, but we were pressed for time to see everyone we could.

After visiting his extended family, Greg and I went back to his parent's house to spend the rest of our time in Texas with this mom, dad, two sisters and brother-in-law. In case you all might have forgotten, this was the same period of time that strong storms and tornadoes were consistently ripping through Oklahoma and northern Texas. We narrowly missed hiding in bathrooms as a tornado ripped through an area just a few miles from Greg's parent's home while we were visiting family in Austin. Luckily, everyone was safe!

Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures of visiting Texas because I took all of them on my Diana which I haven't developed the film from just yet.  While we were there, we visited the Fort Worth stockyards for the first time, ate some famous donuts and bar-b-que and spend a day canoeing on the Brazos. Mostly, we spent quality time with family until it was time to say goodbye and continue our road trip to Georgia.

My immediate family all live in the suburbs of Atlanta relatively close to each other while all of my extended family still live mostly in Pennsylvania. While in Georgia, we stayed very busy with my parents, sisters, brothers-in-law and nephews and nieces. My dad's house is just a short drive to both of my sister's homes so we made the rounds visiting everyone. I can't say there was a single day in which we were at a loss of things to do. We climbed Stone Mountain, had cook-outs, went out downtown, played with my sister's four children under the age of five, ate at every awesome restaurant in the area, went on a guided fishing tour and spent a day at the aquarium. Luckily, we also made time to visit with my best friend from growing up and his new wife.

It was great to get to see and spend time with everyone. Greg had barely met several of my family members until then and even I hadn't had much contact with everyone since moving. Actually, this was the first time I got to meet my 9-month old twin nephews! I was able to be there when my oldest nephew and niece we born, but the twins weren't born until shortly after I moved to Colorado. They've all grown up so much that it reminded me how much I'm going to miss being in Germany for three years. Not just with the kids, but with my whole family. Mind you, even when we lived stateside I didn't visit hardly at all, but that fact of knowing that you can't visit is pretty hard. At least we got to all really enjoy quality time together for about 2 weeks before leaving. And I didn't even cry nearly as much this time as I did before driving out to Colorado.

I'll leave you with some pictures from the Georgia Aquarium, biggest in the world!

You all notice that line to the far right side of all of my pictures? Yep, my Canon is done for. I really had no intention of replacing it any time soon until I noticed all of these pictures were marked with that white line of death.

I'm a horrible blogger thus far. Since we've gotten here, we've gone to two festivals and explored both of the cities we are closest to. We've also passed our driver's tests, eaten way too much fast-food and been super depressed over our endless lack of permanent housing. This upcoming week, Greg will be busy at work so hopefully I'll have some time to update. Once Greg's car gets here, we already have out first day trip planned to Cologne!