One of the things that the military included in their orientation week was a tour of local hospitals. During one of the orientation days, a Patient Liaison (more on that later) escorted about 40 of us on a bus tour to each of the hospitals in the area, in an effort to make us more comfortable with the German medical system. Why would we need such reassurance, you might ask? Well, it turns out that on our installation, the medical facilities are only staffed to care for the soldiers – not the dependents. Rest assured, the military handles the lion’s share of the costs of our healthcare – but the care itself is doled out “on the economy” as they say here.
Hubbalicious and I weren’t able to participate in the tour that took place during our orientation class. Hubbz had a training class specific to his office that he had to take that day – and I had a business trip that kept us from going to the following one. So, we only recently got our turn on the bus. We thought it was a VERY valuable part of the orientation – and here’s a little bit about what we learned:
First – our guide was a Patient Liaison. This heroic person is paid by the US Government to translate and represent us military folk whenever we need them in our medical adventures. The notion they attempted to drill into our heads was that as soon as we knew we needed hospital care, we should call them – even in lieu of calling an ambulance (they can speak German to the emergency operators). The Military Police have a direct line to the Liaison on call so we only have to keep one number by the phone!
Calling the Patient Liaison can be extremely useful in all levels of emergencies, which brings us to our second major take-home lesson. German hospitals have specific areas of expertise. There is a woman’s hospital, a hospital that deals with cardiology, oncology and endocrinology, and a different hospital that administers care for ENT, internal medicine or orthopedics…only for adults, of course. Phew!! Each hospital has several, ailment specific Emergency Rooms. You can go to the internal medicine ER, and be told that they actually think you have a kidney stone….so please go to the ER down the hall. Sometimes your correct ER is at a different hospital! So, when your child breaks her arm, and you take her to the nearest Children’s Hospital – you may be told that she cannot be seen there, because the Children’s ORTHOPEDIC Emergency Room is at an entirely different hospital altogether! Are you as confused as I am? That’s why we will call the Patient Liaison!
While this ER system seems scary and horribly inefficient to my Western sensibility – it is said to increase the efficiency of each specific emergency room. We were told on the tour that the average wait time to be seen is about 20 minutes in a non-trauma situation. Pretty impressive!
As we wandered through hospital lobbies, we started to notice some common themes. All of the hospitals had large cafés and gift shops. Each had a large selection of food items available. Many patients were seen milling about with walkers or canes in their robes or seated at the café having lunch (some of them outside smoking!). We learned that they keep you in hospitals much longer here in an effort to be sure that their diagnosis and treatment plans are completely successful. They encourage you to walk around, get fresh air, and sit and visit with your family while you are a patient. They don’t necessarily provide you with full meals and drinks during your stay (hence the popularity of the café and the large food inventory in the gift shops).
We also noticed that most patients were in their own pajamas. It turns out that hospital gowns are not really provided either. Privacy is not as important here, so in most cases, patients share a room without a curtain dividing them – even during examinations. This sounds pretty rough – but I think that once you accept that the hospital experience won’t be what you expect in the US, it will probably be just fine.
The only time I really got that “sinking” feeling was when Hubbz leaned over and whispered – “Did you notice that not one of these hospitals so far has air conditioning?” GULP. We made a pact not to require hospitalization between the months of June and August….here’s hoping fate is with us!!
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
Friday, July 23, 2010
LEARNING AND LAYING LOW
One of the by-products of starting a blog is that you feel a certain responsibility to keep it up. …Clearly, I have not let that sense of responsibility weigh me down too much!! I don’t even pretend to believe that any of you are waiting for my next installment with baited breath – but I did make a commitment of sorts, and it’s important to me to keep my commitments. I apologize for my irresponsibility and I promise to be more attentive.
So – with that – I’ll share that we haven’t had a whole lot of excitement around here in the past two weeks! We thought that we’d have more time to ourselves now that the house hunting had concluded – but we ended up staying pretty close to home. I developed a lingering cold that didn’t sideline me, per se, but did keep me up at all hours with a hacking cough. And – thanks to the joys of hotel living – my coughing kept Hubbz awake through the night and weakened his immune system enough to invite a cold in as well. So, we spent last weekend TALKING about getting out and going someplace, but never actually achieving it. Hubbalicious spent two afternoons gleefully watching live coverage of the Tour de France, and I finished another book, napped and caught up on some work tasks. Let the good times roll!!
This week I did celebrate a birthday. Thanks to the wonders of this digital age, I spent the better part of the day responding to well wishes as each time zone awoke and noticed on Facebook that it was my birthday. It was really fun and touching to have so much of “home” in front of me. We had dinner with friends that night and overall I had a lovely birthday.
I also had a lovely birthday epiphany. I am now old enough to start lying about my age! The shape my age-lie is going to take may surprise you, though. I’ve decided that when next I am asked, I’m going to ADD numbers to my years. Seriously! My logic is this…. I may not be holding up all that well for the thirty-something years that I have actually lived…but I figure I probably look darn good for someone in their forty-somethings!!
Two nights a week now, we take a German Language class! The teacher is a very kind German woman who has been teaching ex-pats the language for more than 20 years. We like her a lot. We like her even more for the fact that she brings local delicacies of chocolate and gummi bears to class every night. She’s good people! She calls on all of us equally and is very kind in her corrections of our errors. She also fills us in on some cultural happenings and roots of words. The 2 ½ hour class is a long commitment ant the end of a work day – but overall we enjoy the time and appreciate the lessons.
Learning a new language is hard (at least it is for us). We leave class feeling like we’ve absorbed something, and wake up the next morning feeling like we have lost it all! But, I realize that I have picked up a little vocabulary here and there in little places. I can kind of get the gist of a billboard sometimes or recognize a number stated in a radio commercial. We are trying to keep at it and be disciplined about studying outside of class, but we are both working full time right now and the hours seem to fly right out of the day!
I remember feeling that I wasn’t “getting it” when I started taking French in Jr. High school. Somehow something must have stuck, because today I find my brain full of French vocabulary and verb conjugations when I reach for a German word. I imagine the process in my brain happening like this: My mind recognizes that English won’t do and it reaches for the only other language I’ve ever somewhat understood. I wonder if learning German is going to actually resurrect my French memory! It’s a bit of an impediment because I also have to fight the urge to apply what French grammar rules I know to the German I am trying to learn. A clean mental slate would probably have been an advantage but I'm determined to overcome the challenge...or maybe we need to plan lots of vacations in France :)
So – with that – I’ll share that we haven’t had a whole lot of excitement around here in the past two weeks! We thought that we’d have more time to ourselves now that the house hunting had concluded – but we ended up staying pretty close to home. I developed a lingering cold that didn’t sideline me, per se, but did keep me up at all hours with a hacking cough. And – thanks to the joys of hotel living – my coughing kept Hubbz awake through the night and weakened his immune system enough to invite a cold in as well. So, we spent last weekend TALKING about getting out and going someplace, but never actually achieving it. Hubbalicious spent two afternoons gleefully watching live coverage of the Tour de France, and I finished another book, napped and caught up on some work tasks. Let the good times roll!!
This week I did celebrate a birthday. Thanks to the wonders of this digital age, I spent the better part of the day responding to well wishes as each time zone awoke and noticed on Facebook that it was my birthday. It was really fun and touching to have so much of “home” in front of me. We had dinner with friends that night and overall I had a lovely birthday.
I also had a lovely birthday epiphany. I am now old enough to start lying about my age! The shape my age-lie is going to take may surprise you, though. I’ve decided that when next I am asked, I’m going to ADD numbers to my years. Seriously! My logic is this…. I may not be holding up all that well for the thirty-something years that I have actually lived…but I figure I probably look darn good for someone in their forty-somethings!!
Two nights a week now, we take a German Language class! The teacher is a very kind German woman who has been teaching ex-pats the language for more than 20 years. We like her a lot. We like her even more for the fact that she brings local delicacies of chocolate and gummi bears to class every night. She’s good people! She calls on all of us equally and is very kind in her corrections of our errors. She also fills us in on some cultural happenings and roots of words. The 2 ½ hour class is a long commitment ant the end of a work day – but overall we enjoy the time and appreciate the lessons.
Learning a new language is hard (at least it is for us). We leave class feeling like we’ve absorbed something, and wake up the next morning feeling like we have lost it all! But, I realize that I have picked up a little vocabulary here and there in little places. I can kind of get the gist of a billboard sometimes or recognize a number stated in a radio commercial. We are trying to keep at it and be disciplined about studying outside of class, but we are both working full time right now and the hours seem to fly right out of the day!
I remember feeling that I wasn’t “getting it” when I started taking French in Jr. High school. Somehow something must have stuck, because today I find my brain full of French vocabulary and verb conjugations when I reach for a German word. I imagine the process in my brain happening like this: My mind recognizes that English won’t do and it reaches for the only other language I’ve ever somewhat understood. I wonder if learning German is going to actually resurrect my French memory! It’s a bit of an impediment because I also have to fight the urge to apply what French grammar rules I know to the German I am trying to learn. A clean mental slate would probably have been an advantage but I'm determined to overcome the challenge...or maybe we need to plan lots of vacations in France :)
Sunday, July 11, 2010
YOUR TAX DOLLARS AT WORK
The current tenant living in what will soon be our apartment is in the process of renovating their new home. The project is behind schedule, as remodeling projects can be. This affects us because it now seems that they do not plan to move out until September 1 – a month later than we had hoped, and two months later than the date in the original ad we answered more than a month ago. While the idea of living in the hotel for another 6-7 weeks is disappointing – there is a bigger storm brewing in the form of whether the military will finance another month in the hotel for us. To fully understand this predicament, I should probably fill you in on how this hotel reimbursement works:
The military’s first choice is to house us in one of the on-base hotels. Obviously, this is the most cost effective place for them to keep us. When the on-base hotels fill up, we are given permission to stay in town. This comes in the form of a “Certificate of Non-Availability Number” or “CNA”, which is valid for a specific period of time.
The military reimburses our hotel bill and give us an additional stipend for meals without questions for the first 60 days that we are in country. Basically, every 10 days, we ask the front desk for a bill containing our room charges (minus 19% VAT). We then take it to the housing office, where someone verifies that we are qualified to ask for reimbursement based on the currency of our CNA # and their knowledge of whether or not we have found a place to live. They literally rubber stamp the bill and then Hubbz can take it to the Finance office (on another base, of course!) to submit it for reimbursement. The meal stipend is a per diem that appears as a supplement to his pay each payday.
With a move in date of Sept 1, we will be solidly in the 60-90 day window of supplemented living in Germany. This means …well we don’t know exactly what it means, but it’s at the top of our list to ask around about it come Monday AM. We believe it can go a few ways:
The military’s first choice is to house us in one of the on-base hotels. Obviously, this is the most cost effective place for them to keep us. When the on-base hotels fill up, we are given permission to stay in town. This comes in the form of a “Certificate of Non-Availability Number” or “CNA”, which is valid for a specific period of time.
The military reimburses our hotel bill and give us an additional stipend for meals without questions for the first 60 days that we are in country. Basically, every 10 days, we ask the front desk for a bill containing our room charges (minus 19% VAT). We then take it to the housing office, where someone verifies that we are qualified to ask for reimbursement based on the currency of our CNA # and their knowledge of whether or not we have found a place to live. They literally rubber stamp the bill and then Hubbz can take it to the Finance office (on another base, of course!) to submit it for reimbursement. The meal stipend is a per diem that appears as a supplement to his pay each payday.
With a move in date of Sept 1, we will be solidly in the 60-90 day window of supplemented living in Germany. This means …well we don’t know exactly what it means, but it’s at the top of our list to ask around about it come Monday AM. We believe it can go a few ways:
1. They will look at our request, see that we have a signed lease for Sept 1 and decide that we’re not trying to milk the system. I think one big motivator is that they don’t want to finance a family that’s just too picky and is passing up perfectly good residences and thereby milking the government for more than their share.We will find out how this is going to work in the coming days. Until then, we've extended our hotel reservation, and requested another CNA# that will cover us until Sept. We’ll keep plugging along and hopefully filling our weekends with adventures instead of house hunting!!
2. They can look at our request and signed lease and say that Hubbz needs special permission from his command to extend the temporary living assistance we’re getting (Who wants the big boss to have to get involved in their rental issues?!?)
3. They can tell us that our temporary living money will dry up and we’ll have to find another place to live. We’ve scoped out and found a temporary furnished apartment company nearby. This would be reimbursed in a different way (they’d basically pay our “rent” like they will when we move into our apartment) and we’d lose our per diem, but it wouldn’t be too bad of a way to spend a month (we’d get a kitchen and a couch out of the deal!!).
Saturday, July 10, 2010
OH MY BLOG, WHAT A DAY!!
So, yesterday was our scheduled landlord meeting. I won’t keep you in suspense – WE GOT THE HOLY GRAIL APARTMENT!!! The landlords were very nice. He is a business man and has “interests” in the US, so he was familiar with us and spoke very good English. I’m not sure if she works, but she was very involved in the apartment management and was very warm and funny. Hubbz and I dressed up a bit (slacks/dress) because I figured this was Europe and we wanted to present our grown up and responsible selves. The first thing the realtor and current tenant said when we walked in the door was “you don’t look like American Military people!!” We took that to be a compliment…. I hope it was!!
At any rate, we spent an hour discussing and trying to appear calm and confident and kind and endearing. We explained that even though there was a chance that we would have to move with short notice, it was unlikely given the type of work Hubbz is doing here. We explained that we too were homeowners, and we understood the need for comfort with the people living in your home. Then, about an hour into the process the doorbell rang as the next person to meet with the landlord arrived!! We tried not to be discouraged by the fact that the meeting wasn’t the final step that we had hoped it would be….but just as we wrapped up the landlord said to us –“I must keep my obligation with the next appointment, but for me, my ‘belly feel ‘(cute, right?) says that I am 90% sure that we have a deal.” Phew!!
He said he would call us in an hour, so our realtor - a very sweet and somewhat excitable man – wanted to show us around our new neighborhood and take us out for a celebratory cocktail while we waited for the call. We toasted to new friends and new homes and sat outside at an Italian café literally steps from our apartment. He talked to us about places we should see in Europe, and we found him to be a very sweet and philosophical man. I hope we’ll continue to see him when this is all done. I’m a little superstitious, so when an hour passed without a call…I started to flirt with the dark side….maybe the appointment behind us had charmed the pants off of the landlord and we were out? Maybe we went from 90% to 0%?!? AAAHH!!
We had made plans to meet friends for dinner that night, so we shrugged off our fears and made our way toward their house. We decided to ignore our worries and focus on the good – and started to talk about how we were going to arrange furniture and what colors we wanted to paint the walls….and then we crashed our car. Yep… the car that JUST ARRIVED IN GERMANY ON TUESDAY….smooshed…in Germany…and, oh hooray – a two car accident, so we got to deal with German Polizei too.
Sigh. No one was hurt. The guy we hit was fine and VERY nice. Our car was drive-able....his was not. So we made our second call to our insurance company this month (see rental car post) and hung out for an hour getting information sorted out, filling out police reports and striving to find humor in our topsy turvy day!
The German folks around the scene of the accident were kind but very curious! One lady ran out of her apartment nearby to offer help – and to ask a bunch of nosy questions. She came back to talk to us three separate times before we finally left the scene. One time she pointed out the Yield sign that she assumed we ignored (we didn’t ignore it, we just misjudged the window we thought we had to cross traffic).
The Polizei wanted us to pay a fine on site – they misunderstood and thought we were about to leave Germany. Once they figured out that we were residents, they offered to bill us. Our insurance carries rental car coverage, and they’re AWESOME (USAA) so they’re going to call us on Monday with a list of mechanics they endorse. I wonder if fixing a Japanese car in Germany is as expensive as fixing a German car in the US….
.
Our friends lived on the street where our accident happened. They were GREAT. They came and hung out with us during the delay. They helped us straighten our fender so we could be as safe as possible when we drove home and kept up our spirits while we waited for everything to be sorted out. They must have been starving because our realtor cocktail made us late to begin with. The accident shenanigans added another hour and a half.
We later wandered down to an African Festival for dinner near their apartment. It was mostly vendors selling wares, but the food was awesome and the music was fun (reggae). We had just settled in and started to really enjoy ourselves when we got the text that confirmed we got the apartment. So our already lifting spirits were high by the end of the night!
It was a tumultuous day, but all’s well that ends well. We are excited about finding a place to live – and one that we really like. We made a new friend in our realtor and met what our “belly feel” says is going to be a great landlord. The accident sucked –but – nobody was hurt and our experience with the German man and police was good. So we’re still counting yesterday as a good day for us…and hoping that today is relatively quiet in comparison :)
At any rate, we spent an hour discussing and trying to appear calm and confident and kind and endearing. We explained that even though there was a chance that we would have to move with short notice, it was unlikely given the type of work Hubbz is doing here. We explained that we too were homeowners, and we understood the need for comfort with the people living in your home. Then, about an hour into the process the doorbell rang as the next person to meet with the landlord arrived!! We tried not to be discouraged by the fact that the meeting wasn’t the final step that we had hoped it would be….but just as we wrapped up the landlord said to us –“I must keep my obligation with the next appointment, but for me, my ‘belly feel ‘(cute, right?) says that I am 90% sure that we have a deal.” Phew!!
He said he would call us in an hour, so our realtor - a very sweet and somewhat excitable man – wanted to show us around our new neighborhood and take us out for a celebratory cocktail while we waited for the call. We toasted to new friends and new homes and sat outside at an Italian café literally steps from our apartment. He talked to us about places we should see in Europe, and we found him to be a very sweet and philosophical man. I hope we’ll continue to see him when this is all done. I’m a little superstitious, so when an hour passed without a call…I started to flirt with the dark side….maybe the appointment behind us had charmed the pants off of the landlord and we were out? Maybe we went from 90% to 0%?!? AAAHH!!
We had made plans to meet friends for dinner that night, so we shrugged off our fears and made our way toward their house. We decided to ignore our worries and focus on the good – and started to talk about how we were going to arrange furniture and what colors we wanted to paint the walls….and then we crashed our car. Yep… the car that JUST ARRIVED IN GERMANY ON TUESDAY….smooshed…in Germany…and, oh hooray – a two car accident, so we got to deal with German Polizei too.
Sigh. No one was hurt. The guy we hit was fine and VERY nice. Our car was drive-able....his was not. So we made our second call to our insurance company this month (see rental car post) and hung out for an hour getting information sorted out, filling out police reports and striving to find humor in our topsy turvy day!
The German folks around the scene of the accident were kind but very curious! One lady ran out of her apartment nearby to offer help – and to ask a bunch of nosy questions. She came back to talk to us three separate times before we finally left the scene. One time she pointed out the Yield sign that she assumed we ignored (we didn’t ignore it, we just misjudged the window we thought we had to cross traffic).
The Polizei wanted us to pay a fine on site – they misunderstood and thought we were about to leave Germany. Once they figured out that we were residents, they offered to bill us. Our insurance carries rental car coverage, and they’re AWESOME (USAA) so they’re going to call us on Monday with a list of mechanics they endorse. I wonder if fixing a Japanese car in Germany is as expensive as fixing a German car in the US….
.
Our friends lived on the street where our accident happened. They were GREAT. They came and hung out with us during the delay. They helped us straighten our fender so we could be as safe as possible when we drove home and kept up our spirits while we waited for everything to be sorted out. They must have been starving because our realtor cocktail made us late to begin with. The accident shenanigans added another hour and a half.
We later wandered down to an African Festival for dinner near their apartment. It was mostly vendors selling wares, but the food was awesome and the music was fun (reggae). We had just settled in and started to really enjoy ourselves when we got the text that confirmed we got the apartment. So our already lifting spirits were high by the end of the night!
It was a tumultuous day, but all’s well that ends well. We are excited about finding a place to live – and one that we really like. We made a new friend in our realtor and met what our “belly feel” says is going to be a great landlord. The accident sucked –but – nobody was hurt and our experience with the German man and police was good. So we’re still counting yesterday as a good day for us…and hoping that today is relatively quiet in comparison :)
A DAY IN THE LIFE....
Hubbalicious started “regular work” while I was working in Las Vegas last week. It was a good time for a transition, since decisions were made during my meeting that resulted in my work picking up as well. That and the fact that our car is here (and therefore I can drive it) has resulted in a little “routine” of sorts around here.
Usually, I drive Hubbz to work and then I get to keep the car for any errands I need to run. Then I go back to the room and work until it’s time to retrieve him. We meet at the post office on base, since it’s close to his office and parking at his office is sparse. The first one there gets the mail – then we head to dinner someplace (either driving there directly, or parking at the hotel and walking to a neighborhood spot.
I usually don’t have too many errands – because living in the hotel makes the need for groceries and cleaning items obsolete. We buy bottles of water and toiletries, but that’s pretty much it! Sometimes I pick up dry cleaning or take our hotel bill to be verified for reimbursement. There aren’t any projects for me work on or household goods to purchase. All in all, any errands I have take less than an hour to execute….in theory.
In reality, I’m still doing most of these actions on a military base…actually two bases. This fact adds some wrinkles to the efficiency of my planning. The base exchange (our target-like store) is on a separate base from the commissary (our grocery store). Both establishments are relatively small, although between them, they supply us with just about everything we need. But, for example, yesterday the commissary had everything on my list except hand soap. So that created an extra errand to the exchange. No biggie – but the other big wrinkle is that these places have varied and confusing hours of operation! This is best described in an example:
It’s silly on paper, but it actually isn’t so bad in terms of making the day go by quickly – and MAN am I reading a lot of books these days!!
Usually, I drive Hubbz to work and then I get to keep the car for any errands I need to run. Then I go back to the room and work until it’s time to retrieve him. We meet at the post office on base, since it’s close to his office and parking at his office is sparse. The first one there gets the mail – then we head to dinner someplace (either driving there directly, or parking at the hotel and walking to a neighborhood spot.
I usually don’t have too many errands – because living in the hotel makes the need for groceries and cleaning items obsolete. We buy bottles of water and toiletries, but that’s pretty much it! Sometimes I pick up dry cleaning or take our hotel bill to be verified for reimbursement. There aren’t any projects for me work on or household goods to purchase. All in all, any errands I have take less than an hour to execute….in theory.
In reality, I’m still doing most of these actions on a military base…actually two bases. This fact adds some wrinkles to the efficiency of my planning. The base exchange (our target-like store) is on a separate base from the commissary (our grocery store). Both establishments are relatively small, although between them, they supply us with just about everything we need. But, for example, yesterday the commissary had everything on my list except hand soap. So that created an extra errand to the exchange. No biggie – but the other big wrinkle is that these places have varied and confusing hours of operation! This is best described in an example:
My list of errands is as follows:Hubbz has to be at work by 730, so I drop him off and then park the car at the commissary and read my book in the car until it opens at 8:00. By 8:20, I have everything on my list except the soap. So I now know I need to get to the other base to pick it up from the exchange. The only other thing on my list is the post office. There are post offices on each base, and the opening time is 9:00. So the options are to wait until 9:00 in the commissary parking lot, OR drive 10 mins to the other base where the Exchange is and do the post office there, while waiting for the exchange to open at 10:00am. I decide to drive to the other base, because the drive will soak up time and get me closer to the 9:00 opening time. Plus, the exchange has a food court with a place to get a coffee – so I can soak up any extra time between post office and exchange there, while reading and enjoying a tasty beverage. So – I get onto the other base, park and discover that the post office on that base DOESN’T OPEN UNTIL 1100!! So – I now double back to the Post Office on the original base, which is open since it’s now after 9:00, and mail my items. I then drive to the other base for a second time, read in the food court for only about 15 minutes and finally purchase the hand soap. I get back to the hotel at 10:30. It has taken me 3 hours to mail a package and pick up 6 items at the store. :)
-Mail box to US
-Pick up 6 toiletry type items (contact lens stuff, shower soap, hand soap)
-Drop Hubbz off at work.
Easy, right?
It’s silly on paper, but it actually isn’t so bad in terms of making the day go by quickly – and MAN am I reading a lot of books these days!!
Friday, July 9, 2010
A TIGHT KNIT COMMUNITY OF STRANGERS
Something I have noticed since we’ve been in Germany is the kindness and generosity we’ve experienced from just about everyone we’ve met. While, as a whole, the military families I’ve encountered have always made strides to welcome and include us whenever we’ve arrived at a new place – the camaraderie and genuine efforts to ease our transitions and bridge our gaps here have been really astounding. I think it has something to do with the fact that we all find ourselves to be an isolated community, here in this foreign land. We’ve all arrived with a lot to learn and had to depend on others to navigate through the process of acclimating to the customs, rules and adaptations that moving overseas dictates. This, along with our language and familiar customs, unites us with strangers in a way that we’ve never before experienced. I commented to Hubbalicous the other day – I suddenly feel like I can truly understand why cultures that immigrate to another land all seem to settle in the same neighborhood. The amount of comfort we derive from being surrounded by the English language and a shared culture is palpable.
We have been invited to many dinners with folks we barely know, in an effort to bring a friendly face to our new world, and to offer guidance in any way possible. We’ve been introduced to other families by folks we’ve only just met ourselves, just because we’re also new to the area and may have one other quality in common that could unite us (be it a lack of children, a neighborhood where we want to live, or an area of expertise in the military). Folks not only TAKE opportunities to reach out and help, they SEEK them here – and it inspires in us a desire to do the same.
Last weekend, as I rode the shuttle at the Frankfurt airport, I noticed a young American family also en route to Stuttgart. Swept up in the spirit of friendship and fellowship I have been marinating in for the past month – I leaned over and asked the wife/mom: “Do you live in Stuttgart?” She smiled and replied: “We are moving there today, actually”. This started a brief but very warm conversation about what brought us to the area and what we would be doing during our time here. I chatted with her adorable daughters for a few moments too – and suddenly the shuttle stopped and we filed off toward our plane.
Conversations such as these are not THAT rare for me. I have met a lot of very nice folks in airports and on planes. But this time I was inspired to reach out a little further. So, when we arrived at baggage claim, I approached her again and offered her a slip of paper with my contact information on it. I told her that I had a ton of resources via the military (they were not associated with the government) and that we were staying in Sindelfingen and that she could absolutely contact me if I could be helpful. She was somewhat surprised and seemingly grateful for the fact that I reached out. I honestly hope that she will contact me.
When Hubbz found me and I relayed the story to him – he too was pleased that I had reached out. I think we are both learning about generosity and kindness on a different level than before. For me, this is also a lesson about accepting help (something that’s hard for me to do sometimes). We know that it feels good to help others – and accepting help from people is giving them the “gift” of an opportunity to feel good too.
We have been invited to many dinners with folks we barely know, in an effort to bring a friendly face to our new world, and to offer guidance in any way possible. We’ve been introduced to other families by folks we’ve only just met ourselves, just because we’re also new to the area and may have one other quality in common that could unite us (be it a lack of children, a neighborhood where we want to live, or an area of expertise in the military). Folks not only TAKE opportunities to reach out and help, they SEEK them here – and it inspires in us a desire to do the same.
Last weekend, as I rode the shuttle at the Frankfurt airport, I noticed a young American family also en route to Stuttgart. Swept up in the spirit of friendship and fellowship I have been marinating in for the past month – I leaned over and asked the wife/mom: “Do you live in Stuttgart?” She smiled and replied: “We are moving there today, actually”. This started a brief but very warm conversation about what brought us to the area and what we would be doing during our time here. I chatted with her adorable daughters for a few moments too – and suddenly the shuttle stopped and we filed off toward our plane.
Conversations such as these are not THAT rare for me. I have met a lot of very nice folks in airports and on planes. But this time I was inspired to reach out a little further. So, when we arrived at baggage claim, I approached her again and offered her a slip of paper with my contact information on it. I told her that I had a ton of resources via the military (they were not associated with the government) and that we were staying in Sindelfingen and that she could absolutely contact me if I could be helpful. She was somewhat surprised and seemingly grateful for the fact that I reached out. I honestly hope that she will contact me.
When Hubbz found me and I relayed the story to him – he too was pleased that I had reached out. I think we are both learning about generosity and kindness on a different level than before. For me, this is also a lesson about accepting help (something that’s hard for me to do sometimes). We know that it feels good to help others – and accepting help from people is giving them the “gift” of an opportunity to feel good too.
Thursday, July 8, 2010
FINDING ELEPHANTS
A few months ago, a friend posted this video on Facebook, featuring an elephant and a dog who had become best friends as they spent time at an elephant habitat in Tennessee (of all places!). The video opened by stating that the elephants on this elephant sanctuary (all female) seemed to arrive and immediately seek out a buddy to whom they could relate. They would eventually find a friend and the pair would be great friends for the duration of their stay.
It got me thinking about friendships and transience and how to coordinate the two through the moves I’ve made, and will make, in my life. It’s a question I get a lot from friends who cannot understand a life without staying in one place and weaving themselves into a community. “How can you stand it?” they ask. “Don’t you miss home?” I do. I absolutely do. I miss having my friends and loved ones in my everyday life. But I also enjoy the clean slate of moving to a new place, and the opportunities and the people I will find there.
As a new elephant to the sanctuary, I come with the sum of my experiences to a place where I frequently know no one (save Hubbz). Sometimes the terrain is as unfamiliar as it must be to an elephant arriving from Africa to a meadow in Tennessee! It can be tough and it can take awhile – but eventually, without fail, I find a soul I can relate to, and then things seem to just fall into place. (I must add that so far, I've been EXTREMELY lucky and managed to find truly amazing friends).
If that person is also transient – and especially in a place like Germany – there’s an unspoken knowledge that eventually, we’ll both carry on to another new place and we’ll find new elephant friends who anchor us and share our new place experiences with us. We may lose touch over the years, but for now, I know that I will absolutely be there if she needs an instant favor –and she will be the first girlfriend I want to call when something ridiculous happens in the neighborhood. So that's how we do it. One elephant at a time….or a dog…apparently that will work also :)
It got me thinking about friendships and transience and how to coordinate the two through the moves I’ve made, and will make, in my life. It’s a question I get a lot from friends who cannot understand a life without staying in one place and weaving themselves into a community. “How can you stand it?” they ask. “Don’t you miss home?” I do. I absolutely do. I miss having my friends and loved ones in my everyday life. But I also enjoy the clean slate of moving to a new place, and the opportunities and the people I will find there.
As a new elephant to the sanctuary, I come with the sum of my experiences to a place where I frequently know no one (save Hubbz). Sometimes the terrain is as unfamiliar as it must be to an elephant arriving from Africa to a meadow in Tennessee! It can be tough and it can take awhile – but eventually, without fail, I find a soul I can relate to, and then things seem to just fall into place. (I must add that so far, I've been EXTREMELY lucky and managed to find truly amazing friends).
If that person is also transient – and especially in a place like Germany – there’s an unspoken knowledge that eventually, we’ll both carry on to another new place and we’ll find new elephant friends who anchor us and share our new place experiences with us. We may lose touch over the years, but for now, I know that I will absolutely be there if she needs an instant favor –and she will be the first girlfriend I want to call when something ridiculous happens in the neighborhood. So that's how we do it. One elephant at a time….or a dog…apparently that will work also :)
Wednesday, July 7, 2010
NEW ARRIVALS
Well great day in the morning – we had a big slice of home arrive yesterday!! Not only did our car arrive from the states, our Express Shipment also showed up at the hotel! Things are changing over here – here’s how:
The Honda arrived!!! This is overall very good – but has a drawback or two. The good: of course, we’re glad it made it! It is registered and inspected and road ready for us here in Stuttgart. Having it gives me freedom of a different flavor because I wasn’t allowed to drive the rental car. Now I can drop Hubbz off at work and do whatever errands I want, visit with friends, etc. The downside is – now I have to drive…and PARK… in Germany. It’s an understatement to say that parking is nerve wracking. The spaces are tiny, the turns are sharp and well, now the paint I scratch is mine!!! Driving isn’t that tough – but remembering the rules, tracking along with the GPS and maintaining some modicum of sanity are difficult when performed simultaneously (difficult for me, that is!). I’m rusty, so I’m giving myself a break. It will all come naturally soon enough, I hope!! In the meantime, Hubbz is happy to retire his chauffeur cap for a bit!
With the arrival of the Express Shipment, we now have in our possession the following items:
HANGERS!!! - We can actually hang all of the clothes we want in our hotel closet. What a relief, since we’ve been sharing 3 drawers and a handful of hotel hangers for the past month.
Extra clothes – Hubblicious triaged some clothing items to arrive later and was happy to have them arrive yesterday – thus further enhancing our need for...HANGERS!!
CDs and DVDs. – O Holy Night, goodbye CNN!!! If you’ve ever spent any time at a hotel in Europe, you know that there are a scant few tv channels broadcast in English. Here they are CNN and Bloomberg TV. There’s only so much Richard Quest a girl can handle!! We’ve been limping along leaning heavily on iTunes and Netflix for other entertainment (and did I mention I’ve read no less than 6 books since we left the states?!). But now we can gorge ourselves on movies and tv series we’ve collected over the years. It’s manna in the dessert, people!!
Printer – I’m still working, albeit on a part time basis, here in Deutschland. It turned out, on final inspection, that our printer/scanner/copier was dual voltage. Completely by accident, but what a great turn of events!! So we boxed it up and forwarded it along. Having it today has made my work day waaaayyyyyy easier. Yay!
A pot and pan – Sometimes you get into an apartment before your big shipment of household goods arrives. In that case, you kind of limp along with what you can, because you sure don’t want to buy things that you’ll only need for a few weeks. For this reason, I picked one frying pan and one pot to ship quickly – just in case we get a stove before we get our stuff. For now, they sit in an empty suitcase waiting to fulfill their cookware destinies.
And some Trader Joes Treats - In a crazy fit (of inspiration?), I grabbed a few extra boxes of Madras Lentils (try them, they look like dog food but they are delicious and healthy!) and some snack packs of nuts from TJ’s before we left. I figured with access to a microwave at the hotel, the lentils would be a welcome change from restaurant fare and the nuts would be a healthy hotel room snack. Turns out, I had no idea how tired of restaurant food I would be! So the lentils will also serve as a little sanity booster when I nuke them in the PCS lounge for dinner one night. And the nuts –well, yeah, they have nuts here in Germany – but they’re familiar and homey and we’re happy to have them :)
THIS JUST IN - we have an appointment with the landlord for Friday night for the Holy Grail Apartment!! We're scared to be too hopeful, but the realtor is very confident that this is a positive sign for us and we're thrilled to have made it thus far. Keep your fingers crossed that they like us. (Aren't you tired of hearing about this from me?? I'm getting tired of myself already)
The Honda arrived!!! This is overall very good – but has a drawback or two. The good: of course, we’re glad it made it! It is registered and inspected and road ready for us here in Stuttgart. Having it gives me freedom of a different flavor because I wasn’t allowed to drive the rental car. Now I can drop Hubbz off at work and do whatever errands I want, visit with friends, etc. The downside is – now I have to drive…and PARK… in Germany. It’s an understatement to say that parking is nerve wracking. The spaces are tiny, the turns are sharp and well, now the paint I scratch is mine!!! Driving isn’t that tough – but remembering the rules, tracking along with the GPS and maintaining some modicum of sanity are difficult when performed simultaneously (difficult for me, that is!). I’m rusty, so I’m giving myself a break. It will all come naturally soon enough, I hope!! In the meantime, Hubbz is happy to retire his chauffeur cap for a bit!
With the arrival of the Express Shipment, we now have in our possession the following items:
HANGERS!!! - We can actually hang all of the clothes we want in our hotel closet. What a relief, since we’ve been sharing 3 drawers and a handful of hotel hangers for the past month.
Extra clothes – Hubblicious triaged some clothing items to arrive later and was happy to have them arrive yesterday – thus further enhancing our need for...HANGERS!!
CDs and DVDs. – O Holy Night, goodbye CNN!!! If you’ve ever spent any time at a hotel in Europe, you know that there are a scant few tv channels broadcast in English. Here they are CNN and Bloomberg TV. There’s only so much Richard Quest a girl can handle!! We’ve been limping along leaning heavily on iTunes and Netflix for other entertainment (and did I mention I’ve read no less than 6 books since we left the states?!). But now we can gorge ourselves on movies and tv series we’ve collected over the years. It’s manna in the dessert, people!!
Printer – I’m still working, albeit on a part time basis, here in Deutschland. It turned out, on final inspection, that our printer/scanner/copier was dual voltage. Completely by accident, but what a great turn of events!! So we boxed it up and forwarded it along. Having it today has made my work day waaaayyyyyy easier. Yay!
A pot and pan – Sometimes you get into an apartment before your big shipment of household goods arrives. In that case, you kind of limp along with what you can, because you sure don’t want to buy things that you’ll only need for a few weeks. For this reason, I picked one frying pan and one pot to ship quickly – just in case we get a stove before we get our stuff. For now, they sit in an empty suitcase waiting to fulfill their cookware destinies.
And some Trader Joes Treats - In a crazy fit (of inspiration?), I grabbed a few extra boxes of Madras Lentils (try them, they look like dog food but they are delicious and healthy!) and some snack packs of nuts from TJ’s before we left. I figured with access to a microwave at the hotel, the lentils would be a welcome change from restaurant fare and the nuts would be a healthy hotel room snack. Turns out, I had no idea how tired of restaurant food I would be! So the lentils will also serve as a little sanity booster when I nuke them in the PCS lounge for dinner one night. And the nuts –well, yeah, they have nuts here in Germany – but they’re familiar and homey and we’re happy to have them :)
THIS JUST IN - we have an appointment with the landlord for Friday night for the Holy Grail Apartment!! We're scared to be too hopeful, but the realtor is very confident that this is a positive sign for us and we're thrilled to have made it thus far. Keep your fingers crossed that they like us. (Aren't you tired of hearing about this from me?? I'm getting tired of myself already)
Sunday, July 4, 2010
TRIER
Another perk from missing our landlord meeting on Saturday is that we were free to explore Trier and meet up with some dear friends who are living in Brussels these days. This family is one of those that we had only just started really getting to know well before they had to leave our last duty station in Norfolk, but knowing that we were both headed for Europe, we promised to connect when we were all “across the pond”. We ALWAYS have a great time with them, and this time was no different.
Trier was a discovery of theirs, which was roughly halfway between Brussels and Stuttgart. It is one of the oldest cities in Germany, with ruins dating back to the first century! We made a day trip of it, and really had a lovely time. We walked through the city squares, and, I must admit, spent far more time chatting than taking advantage of the sites surrounding us. We took a little river cruise and ended the day at a winery/restaurant.
We had a lovely time – sampled some delicious local wines and had a great dinner. The owner came by our table as we tasted each wine and described the process of harvest and fermentation for each different wine we sampled. We tasted, ate, LAUGHED and sampled for more than four hours before we finally parted ways.
You all know how Hubbz and I love the vino – and we left all of our wine back in the states when we moved here (the military wouldn’t ship it). So we decided to start our European inventory this weekend. We bought a mixed case last night – and all of it was white wine (so unlike us!). We are excited to learn more and more about the wines of our host country – and to share them with our visitors!! Bonus information – we’ve just discovered that the military will send an honest-to-goodness wine shipment for us when we move home. We’re talking properly packed and temperature controlled! This is not a service they offered when we moved from the US – so we are really excited to have a few years here to build up our European collection!!
We will certainly visit Trier again – and perhaps even take in the sites next time….
Trier was a discovery of theirs, which was roughly halfway between Brussels and Stuttgart. It is one of the oldest cities in Germany, with ruins dating back to the first century! We made a day trip of it, and really had a lovely time. We walked through the city squares, and, I must admit, spent far more time chatting than taking advantage of the sites surrounding us. We took a little river cruise and ended the day at a winery/restaurant.
We had a lovely time – sampled some delicious local wines and had a great dinner. The owner came by our table as we tasted each wine and described the process of harvest and fermentation for each different wine we sampled. We tasted, ate, LAUGHED and sampled for more than four hours before we finally parted ways.
You all know how Hubbz and I love the vino – and we left all of our wine back in the states when we moved here (the military wouldn’t ship it). So we decided to start our European inventory this weekend. We bought a mixed case last night – and all of it was white wine (so unlike us!). We are excited to learn more and more about the wines of our host country – and to share them with our visitors!! Bonus information – we’ve just discovered that the military will send an honest-to-goodness wine shipment for us when we move home. We’re talking properly packed and temperature controlled! This is not a service they offered when we moved from the US – so we are really excited to have a few years here to build up our European collection!!
We will certainly visit Trier again – and perhaps even take in the sites next time….
THE AGONY AND THE ECSTASY
While I was in Las Vegas on a business trip last week, Hubbz was back “home” in Stuttgart working and communicating with the realtor representing our “Holy Grail” apartment. He made a lot of progress in a short time. He toured the apartment, as I mentioned in the previous post, and suddenly, the realtor was “hot” on the trail of getting things arranged. Woo Hoo!!
In the short time I was gone the following steps have been taken:
The missed meeting ended up becoming a blessing in the end. For one, my suitcase did not arrive back from Vegas when I did. Normally I shrug and roll with these bumps – they are a reality of travel. However, the thought of meeting this landlord…finally…without any of my nicer clothes or shoes and with NONE of my cosmetics available, was enough for me to feel that my lack of suitcase was going to result in us losing this silly little apartment that we’re coveting. I know it was irrational, but due to a mechanical problem that resulted in rerouting my entire flight and included a night in Chicago sans suitcase, I hadn’t slept or showered in more than 36 hours, so I cut myself a little slack in the pity-party department.
Hubbz was once again a hero. He let me ride home in pouty silence with the wind in my tired, dirty face. When we got back to the room, he pointed me in the direction of the shower and spent 20 minutes on the phone with each of the airlines that had touched my bags, trying to locate the suitcase and asking a few “what the heck!” questions of the airline. The bag arrived later that day (yay) and the meeting was cancelled anyways (boo) so it all worked out in the end.
Sidebar: Few of you may know that Hubbz will do pretty much anything other than call strangers. He’ll chat with his friends until the battery on the phone dies, but when it comes to ordering room service, cancelling the newspaper or calling to dispute a charge on the credit card, he’d pretty much rather chew his arm off than put the phone to his ear. (I tease him that this is the real reason he got married, and he very rarely denies it!). The fact that he willingly and without prompting started dialing for dollars to track down my suitcase indicated one of two possibilities to me: 1 – He could see that I was a woman on the edge of sanity and realized the need to intervene, lest I just dissolve in a puddle of tears and dirty clothes or 2 – the idea of me showing up at our Saturday morning meeting in a workout t-shirt, flip flops and pajama bottoms was more repugnant to him than dealing with whomever answered the phone at the airline. Whatever his motivation, he was my knight in shining armor. As I stepped out of the shower and heard him firmly insisting that the airline figure out where my suitcase was while he waited, I realized it was exactly what I needed to snap me out of my funk! Maybe someday I’ll deserve him…maybe...
In the short time I was gone the following steps have been taken:
- Hubbz toured the apartmentThe meeting was set for Saturday morning – and we were really excited. We should have known…. It was much ado about nothing, I am afraid. The landlord was unable to confirm the Saturday meeting, as he was in Paris this week. D’oh!! The realtor offered the option of setting something up for early next week. We’re going to wait and see if the owner is interested and try not to obsess over the process.
- Realtor got permission from the landlord to represent the apartment
- Realtor started introducing the merits of renting to Americans to the landlord.
-Realtor sent us a questionnaire about our jobs, income, living situation, etc. for the landlord to review (which, of course, we filled out and returned in very short order).
-Realtor filled out an example of a lease from the Base Housing Office and sent it to the landlord to review.
-Realtor proposed a “meet and greet” between us in order to allow him to get to know us better and allow for both sides to ask questions about the lease.
The missed meeting ended up becoming a blessing in the end. For one, my suitcase did not arrive back from Vegas when I did. Normally I shrug and roll with these bumps – they are a reality of travel. However, the thought of meeting this landlord…finally…without any of my nicer clothes or shoes and with NONE of my cosmetics available, was enough for me to feel that my lack of suitcase was going to result in us losing this silly little apartment that we’re coveting. I know it was irrational, but due to a mechanical problem that resulted in rerouting my entire flight and included a night in Chicago sans suitcase, I hadn’t slept or showered in more than 36 hours, so I cut myself a little slack in the pity-party department.
Hubbz was once again a hero. He let me ride home in pouty silence with the wind in my tired, dirty face. When we got back to the room, he pointed me in the direction of the shower and spent 20 minutes on the phone with each of the airlines that had touched my bags, trying to locate the suitcase and asking a few “what the heck!” questions of the airline. The bag arrived later that day (yay) and the meeting was cancelled anyways (boo) so it all worked out in the end.
Sidebar: Few of you may know that Hubbz will do pretty much anything other than call strangers. He’ll chat with his friends until the battery on the phone dies, but when it comes to ordering room service, cancelling the newspaper or calling to dispute a charge on the credit card, he’d pretty much rather chew his arm off than put the phone to his ear. (I tease him that this is the real reason he got married, and he very rarely denies it!). The fact that he willingly and without prompting started dialing for dollars to track down my suitcase indicated one of two possibilities to me: 1 – He could see that I was a woman on the edge of sanity and realized the need to intervene, lest I just dissolve in a puddle of tears and dirty clothes or 2 – the idea of me showing up at our Saturday morning meeting in a workout t-shirt, flip flops and pajama bottoms was more repugnant to him than dealing with whomever answered the phone at the airline. Whatever his motivation, he was my knight in shining armor. As I stepped out of the shower and heard him firmly insisting that the airline figure out where my suitcase was while he waited, I realized it was exactly what I needed to snap me out of my funk! Maybe someday I’ll deserve him…maybe...
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