Sigh of Relief

Our house hunt is finally over. It feels like we've been searching for forever (since we started looking while still in the States), but really we got one relatively fast. The new pad is located in Steinbach am Glan, which is a decently sized village about 25 minutes from Baumholder. It has three stories (one of which is a basement), the main floor has a huge living space with a fireplace, dining room, kitchen, two big bedrooms (one of which has a patio), a full and a half bathroom, and a boot room. Upstairs has one large bedroom, one smaller bedroom, and one little teeny bedroom, a full bathroom, and a second living room which is going to be used as the master bedroom with a balcony. Downstairs is the basement with two bedrooms, a storage room, and a laundry room, as well as a half bathroom and the two car garage. The front of the house has a nice yard with beautiful plants, and the backyard has grass, a HUGE patio, and a nice little plant wall which would be a good place to grow a garden.

So my mom's car is in Germany, so hopefully it gets delivered before this weekend so we can get out of Baumholder and explore around. Today is a beautiful day in Germany. Everett and I walked down to the bakery and got some brochen and a treat. I snapped a few pics for you foodies.

Here's Everett enjoying his treats...such a lucky kid.

European McDonalds Experience

European McDonalds is nothing like American McDonalds...not even close. So since today is a German holiday (they have the most national holidays out of all the European nations), most of the restaurants here are closed so I figured the American-owned/corporate/whatever-you-wanna-call-it might be open. This morning Everett and I went downstairs to the restaurant in our hotel that was fortunately open for guests for breakfast and had schokolade joghurt (chocolate yogurt), brochen (hard-crusted bread similar to a french roll), käse (cheese), meat, and nutella. It was super yummy. We don't have much to do here at the moment, so we took a two-mile walk with the dog around town and down to the lake.

For lunch we walked back down to McDonalds...it was packed. Okay, so to start off let me describe the way it is decorated on the inside. It is super modern with square leather (yes, actual real leather) chairs and square tables, a bar with bar stools down the center, and a glass partition towards the right side blocking off the McDonalds McCafe, which is basically McDonald's version of Starbucks. The menu is in German (duh) but is mainly all pictures of burgers I've never seen at any fast-food joint in the U.S. I ordered a Hamburger GS (no idea what that stands for), french fries, and a coke and Everett had a Happy Meal. It was a little on the pricey side (9,46 €) almost 12 U.S. dollars but the quality was far superior. You stand at the counter while the employee prepares your tray with your food (drink, fries, sandwich, etc). The fries were very similar to the ones in the U.S., the only real difference is they don't give you several tiny packets of ketchup, you just get one large packet (tomatoes don't grow in Germany so ketchup is not wasted); and the drink is served without a lid, not too different from what I'm used to. The main difference was the hamburger...OH-EM-GEE, it was ah-mah-zing. Not smooshed, the tomatoes were juicy and perfectly red, the lettuce was crisp and cold, and the patty was flavorful and not at all greasy. For Everett's kids meal they actually served it in a square Happy Meal box.

After we were done eating, I was sort of confused as what to do with the tray. There aren't the swinging-lid garbage cans with the trays stacked on top anywhere to be seen. I sat around for a while waiting for someone else to leave so I could see what they were doing with their tray: were they leaving it to be picked up, was there some designated place for it I was missing? I wasn't sure. So I finally figured out the carts up in the front of the restaurant was the trash can...so bizarre. There's a metal tray-thing with holes in it for cups to sit, and on the top of the cart there is an opening to pour out whatever is left of your drink in order to keep the cups empty on the top. You leave your trash on your tray and slide it in this open cart thing with wheels. It's hard to describe, but basically its a tall cart, open in the front and closed on the sides and the back, with little slots for trays and a cup area on top with the drink spout I described before. I assume the reason they do this is because in Germany recycling is a huge deal, so I assume they recycle the cups and maybe go through the trash and recycle the cardboard from the fries and burger containers? That doesn't sound like a fun job...

Anyways, back to the Starbucks-like coffee shop they had...it had a totally full pastry case with muffins, donuts, cupcakes, scones, bagels...everything. The menu had mocha, coffee, tea, smoothies, frappes, iced coffee, pretty much anything you'll find at Starbucks, they had. They had little bagel sandwiches you could buy for lunch with a coffee and a little desert. It was such a trip. My camera is still dead, otherwise I might've taken some pictures of it...although that might've been weird and I'm not sure if it's allowed. I'll hopefully borrow my mom's camera sometime this week and snap some pictures of the village we're in. My camera has a world charger but the types of plugs at this hotel have a plastic cover around them so I can't get the charger to plug in all the way.

That's all for now...time to start looking at the driver's handbook for my German driver's license test.

Daniele

Wait, What Happened To The 20th?!

So...holy crap. We finally made it to Germany. Our adventure started the morning of the 20th, around 9AM. We had some last minute errands to run around and do, get back to the hotel, pack and hope everything fit in our suitcases, load it up, and make a mad dash to the airport. Once we got there we had lunch with my dad and my little brother. Finally we boarded our little puddle-jumper flight around 3:15 (a little behind schedule) and made our way to Chicago.

Once we got to Chicago, the fun began; keep in mind what we were carrying: two purses, a cat in a soft-sided carrier, Everett in his stroller with his car seat and diaper bag in the bottom compartment, my computer bag, and my mom's backpack which easily weighed 45 pounds. That being said, we had to walk down and big scary metal flight of stairs to a shuttle to take us to Concourse B, which was the international terminal, and back up an equally scary flight...all by ourselves! Yes, they were not all that willing to help us and what is worse...no elevator! Ridiculous.

So, we got to our gate in plenty of time and boy was it a freakin' zoo. There were probably 400 people all gathered around in a total cluster-fuck waiting to board this huge ass plane. Excuse my French, but seriously, it was a nightmare. So we waited in line, got aboard our plane, and fortunately a super cute steward carried Everett's car seat to our row for us. Everett wanted to give him a hug..it was pretty cute. The flight wasn't terrible, and Everett slept about 70% of the flight. The food was crap, but it's an airline...what can you expect.

This is a picture of the line to board the flight to Frankfurt-the plane was about half boarded at this point.

The real nightmare began when we landed at 10AM Frankfurt time, which is 3AM Alabama time. We got off the plane, went up an elevator, and waited for the stroller. Once we got the stroller we had to walk about 10 million gates to get to immigration, where a nice German man checked and stamped our passports. After that we got our luggage, including the dog from cargo, and wheeled our way down to where our soldier people were waiting to pick us up. They were two really nice guys who totally loaded ALL of our luggage for us, drove us from the airport to Baumholder, unloaded ALL of our luggage and carried it up two flights of stairs to our room, and then gave us a tour of the area and took us anywhere we needed to go. Even though it is their job, they were really friendly and it was nice seeing a friendly American face during a time we were both confused and in a new place.

So yeah, German hotels. They are NOTHING like American hotels...nothing. Our doors have actual keys...yes, the kind with teeth. And they have locks on the inside and outside of the doors. The "double" bed is basically a king sized frame with two twin mattresses. And they fold your blanket like a hot-dog and lay it on the bed, rather than make it up with sheets. And then there's German cable TV...so there are always American shows on with German dubbed over it. Super strange. Baumholder is super cute and quaint though. My mom and I walked around this evening and checked out all the little bakeries and shops, and then had the most amazing German food at the restaurant underneath our hotel. Tomorrow holds a busy day of dinner with new friends, looking for cell phones, and hopefully getting the chance to check out some houses for rent.

I will try and post pictures ASAP...my Flip HD camera has come up missing, so I'm hoping it wasn't left behind on the plane. Things have been so busy I haven't had the chance to really look for it yet. But off to bed now...it's been more than 24 hours since I've slept...yawn.

Daniele

P.S. German toilets are stupid. Check it:

http://asecular.com/~scott/misc/toilet.htm

Easy Like Sunday Morning...

Ugh, a moment of peace at last. So we're in our last hotel in the U.S. now. Brandon came over and spent the weekend in the room with us. Yesterday, my mom and I went to the house and got it all cleaned and ready to turn over to the landlord. Tomorrow morning I have to go in and let the carpet cleaners in. Still trying to sell my car by Wednesday. Other than that, nothing else really crazy going on. Just hurry up and wait for Thursday!

Yay for Hump Day!

Ah, Wednesday...one week from today I'll be saying, "tomorrow we leave for Germany!" Yesterday was an interesting and extremely busy day, which explains why I didn't get a chance to post a blog. Monday night/Tuesday morning consisted of organizing things to their proper place so the movers could back them Tuesday morning. Well, as things normally go, we had a lot more work than we thought we'd have. Everett and I couldn't be at the house while the packers were there (and why on Earth would we want to be is the real question) so unfortunately, my mom got stuck with finishing up trash cleanup and last minute packing after we left.

Let me tell you though, our day was not exactly "easy peasy lemon squeezy" either. Finding something to do with a two-year-old, outside of the house for eight hours is not an easy task. We drove around, got McDonalds for breakfast, drove around some more, got McDonalds orange juice (he wanted juice), he fell asleep, we went and got Sonic Limeades for my mom who was stranded at the house, then we went to the mall and saw How To Train A Dragon. Is it 'A Dragon' or 'Your Dragon'? I don't remember, but either way it was really super cute and very funny. Everett was a total doll the whole movie, and even wore the 3-D glasses for about half of the movie.

The movers finally got done around 4:30 or 5:00, so we checked into the hotel and went to Outback for dinner. It was delicious...thank you, U.S. Army! Today, Everett and I will be moving all of our luggage from the hotel rooms we're in now, back to the hotel we were originally supposed to be staying in. They overbooked so we were put in their sister/partner hotel in two king suites, which was really nice, rather than our two bedroom suite we had originally booked. At the other hotel my mom and I both have our own rooms/bathrooms, and then we have a common area with a kitchen and living room. It's really nice we get to have a place to hang out while Everett can be asleep in the bedroom so we're not all sleeping on a two-year-old's schedule.

Is it just me, or is it weird walking into your house when it's completely packed up and empty looking? It just always kind of seems surreal...this whole move seems surreal. But, we're all definitely looking forward to going to Germany...it's been hot and humid here lately and I'm looking forward to the milder summers!

That's all for now. I might post another blog tonight once we get to our new hotel room...

Daniele

Just Another Manic Monday

...no really, it is. Movers came this morning to get hold baggage, they come again tomorrow to pack, and then Wednesday they finish packing and loading. Went out and got last minute moving supplies from Target, had lunch at Mellow Mushroom, and now we're doing stuff around the house to get ready for tomorrow. Tonight is our last night in the house...hard to believe.

We're all getting really excited and can't believe in ten days we'll be on a flight to Chicago, en-route to Germany! More tomorrow...got shiz to do.

Daniele

Happy Mother's Day!

Ah, nothing like waking up on a Sunday morning to a quiet house. I love the time in the morning with Everett when we sit on the couch together, I drink my tea and he drinks his juice/milk while watching his morning cartoons. He's relaxed and it's the only cuddle time we usually have. Today we have a busy day of organizing things to get packed on Tuesday, and arranging our hold baggage so the movers can pick it up and pack it tomorrow. We might go out to dinner to celebrate Mother's Day, but not planning anything major since we have PLENTY to do.

Saw Ironman 2 with Brandon last night. I thought it was really good, even though a lot of my friends were posting on Facebook that it wasn't good. I think I might even like it better than the first one, so I definitely recommend it. We went to Red Robin after and enjoyed chowing on some delicious burgers. I'm going to go make Everett some oatmeal for breakfast. It's going to be a busy day!

Daniele