100 MBS OF INTERNET GOODNESS

That’s right, dear readers. We have internet!!!! I don’t have to perch on the windowsill any more. AND we can stream shows to our television set and watch them while sitting on our couch (Watching TV on the couch is something we haven’t done since MAY)
The installation did indeed take four hours. The technician spoke no English but we made it work. (He apparently also had an aversion to personal hygiene, since I could SMELL HIM FROM THREE ROOMS AWAY. Ick) The installation was not without its hiccups…I had a very Lucy Ricardo type morning.

THE PLAN: After chatting with our guests, we decided that I would take them to the Marktplatz and show them the flower and veggie market (to which I am addicted) and take them to breakfast at that super cute café (to which I am also addicted). We figured we would all window shop and wander a bit and when they were ready to go, I would get them situated on the train to Luidwigsberg where they could visit the pumpkin festival while I hosted the cable guy at 1230.

THE EXECUTION: I had literally just put my coat on and had my hand on the door when I was completely surprised by my ringing doorbell. Major hiccup. The cable guy arrived at 930 – three hours ahead of schedule. Thank goodness we didn’t leave any earlier!!

Crazy Little Math Segue: It is entirely possible that I got the time wrong with the scheduler on the phone and the cable guy was actually on time (one wrong on my part) – but since I don’t speak German well enough to get the clear picture from the installer (another wrong on my part), I am going to take the win and tell the story in a way that makes me right (my blog, my rules). SOOO – for those of you who might be keeping track, I do believe I just proved that two wrongs CAN make a right!!

I scurried around trying to direct the cable guy, and get Jack and Jane clear directions not only to the Marktplatz but also to the train station and explain the correct trains and connections to make. I couldn’t wait for Hubbz to come home so I could tell him the story and he could shake his head in a loving but admonishing Ricky Ricardo-like way..

Thankfully it all ended well. We have blazing fast internet, our guests had a day of Stuttgart adventures and we all had dinner together tonight at our house, drank wine and watched silly YouTube videos in 1080p HD tv together.

FIRST HOUSEGUESTS

Hooray! Today we are welcoming our first houseguests at the Holy Grail Apartment (and Guest Hotel). The couple joining us this weekend are friends we made in San Diego. Jack worked with Hubbz and cruised on the Tarawa with him back in 2007. While the boys were out defending the free world and patrolling for pirates, Jane and I (and the other wives in our little helicopter deployment group) all bonded over a few girls’ nights out. Jack and Jane were dating then, but now they are married and living in Naples. They will arrive tonight and we will get to explore some of the area’s offerings together – including a visit to Volksfest on Friday night.

Unfortunately, our internet service provider called this morning and wanted to schedule our internet installation tomorrow. What a quandary!! To be a good host and show our friends around would mean passing on what may be the first of many appointments required to install our internet. Jane assured me that she and Jack were more than happy to explore on their own – so I went ahead and made the appointment for Thursday at 1230. It seems that our building is old – and the cable wires that run through it were probably installed 20 years ago. We ordered the most bandwidth possible, since we’ll be running our telephone, television and internet through it. This means that the installation could take as long as four hours!!!

At any rate, we are thrilled to welcome Jack and Jane tonight – and so appreciate them for baring with us as we work out the kinks of moving in and navigating sites that we aren’t familiar with yet!!

HOLY VOLKSFEST, BATMAN!!

We are moving a bit slowly today, because of last night.
Last night we dove head first into German assimilation.
Last night we gathered with some close friends and took a big German bite of ….Volksfest.

Volksfest is Stuttgart’s answer to Oktoberfest. We hear it is just as good as Oktoberfest in Munich – but without the tourists to crowd it up. I can tell you this – I cannot imagine how Munich could improve on what we did last night.

We walked into a tent full of approximately 5000 people (no exaggeration) who were gathered around tables with benches, all placed around a stage where a band was playing. Many were in traditional dress (dirndls and liederhosen) and all were swinging a huge beer (called a “mass”) and singing along and toasting each other. Each mass holds a liter of beer (approximately 4 bottles) and our price of entry came with 3 mass and half of a baked chicken.

We found our group and didn’t even bother to sit down. Everyone - every single person - in the whole tent was standing on their bench. They were singing and dancing and toasting and laughing. They saw us approach, reached down and pulled us up..and the rest was history.

We had a fantastic time. Good friends. Great music (everything from German drinking songs to eighties songs to JOHN DENVER). Everyone was kind to each other. There were no fights. No women dressed in a ridiculously provocative manner. No slobbering drunks or crying girls. It was a huge group of people, enjoying themselves and respecting each other. The beer disappears quickly. There’s so much toasting and glass swinging that you don’t really realize how much you’re drinking until you’re empty. The glasses are large – and HEAVY! Even when they’re empty they’re heavy! My forearms and hands are actually a little sore from holding my mass…er masses…all night.

We got home after midnight, hoarse from singing, tired from dancing. Our clothes smelled of smoke and spilled beer. We slept in (waaaayyyy in) and kind of shrugged off our list of things to accomplish today, opting only to run the errands we needed since the stores will be closed tomorrow. The rest will still be there tomorrow and a veg day on the couch is definitely in order!

I don’t know if it’s good news or bad – but we have tickets to go to Volksfest with some other friends next week too! We’ve already made our plan for next time: We’re both going to shave one mass from the number we drank last night. No sense blowing another Saturday!

MAYBE I'M A SAP....

As I sit here to collect my “blog thoughts” this morning – I have to wax sentimental a bit. I have had a very social week full of family and friends, and when reflecting upon this, well…I must admit…my cup runneth over a bit :)

We have new friends with whom I feel connected and who make this German adventure feel like “life”. They experience new things with us, we teach each other little tricks and steps we’ve learned as we’ve tried to maneuver gracefully through this new culture. We laugh and scratch our heads together over lessons we have still to learn – and with them, I know we share an experience which will bond us together for many years to come (elephants, dear readers, lots of elephants!)

This week, I socialized with one of these new friends each day – one day for an adventure at the open market and coffee, another had lunch with me in my neighborhood and then was still here as I had an Ikea delivery and a couch sale happen simultaneously! Yet another was kind enough to invite me to the Pumpkin Festival with her in-laws for a day’s adventure. And tonight, we will meet another couple at Volksfest.

In addition to our “new” friends, this week brought us in contact with many of the “old”. We’ve managed to set up three weekend visits with friends we met at other duty stations (San Diego and Norfolk), and are SO excited to be reconnecting with them while we are here. The old friends are the ones that make my heart glow just a bit when I see their names in my inbox – and with whom we already share a library of stories that start with “Remember that…?” We can’t wait to add a few more of those stories to our memory banks. What a richness they add to life!!

We’ve also heard a lot from family this week! We got anniversary cards from “home” in the states and letters from some of our family members who don’t use email. Hubbalicious’ parents have finally received a healthy offer on Hubbz’s childhood home – so (if all goes well) they are about to start their retirement, and have already started penciling their visit to Stuttgart into their calendar. And I even had some pictures of our niece and nephew hit my inbox this week. What a treat!!!

All of this emotion has to go somewhere, right? (Thesis, Woman. Thesis!) Here it is: We are in the midst of a wonderful time in our lives. The scenery is beautiful and interesting and each new day is full of promise of some flavor of adventure. But YOU GUYS – you are the ones that make our lives good and happy and rich and substantive. Your involvement in our lives makes up a majority of the reasons that we know – we are SO blessed. See? Cup….overflowing… :)

TWO YEARS DOWN....AND ALL THE REST TO GO!!

Two years ago today most of you gathered with us as Hubbalicious and I joined our lives into this crazy, silly, frustrating, liberating, protective and comfortable little marriage we call ours.

Two years isn’t long compared to most …or possibly ALL …of you. But for us, they have been an important time that has allowed us to learn about ourselves in a way that wouldn’t have been possible if we had decided instead to walk the world separately.

For me, they have been two years in which not a day goes by that I haven’t felt blessed to have such a loving person in my life who feeds my soul and challenges me and makes me feel like I have found the safest place in the world…even when he leaves his dishes in the sink for me to clean :)

HUBBALICIOUS' BEST DAY

Okay, not really – but he’s pretty happy. Right now, as I type he is working on putting the apartment together. There is a light to be installed in the bathroom. The shelves in the pantry need to be customized a bit and then secured to the wall. There are pictures to be hung. However, none of these tasks are the focus of his cheerful labor right now. Right now, he is setting up his new 47” flat screen in our living room.

We had discussed, at length, the fact that we were going to be buying a tv here in Europe. Our old one was ...well…old! And Hubbalicious has had his eye on a new one since he got back from his last cruise. I agreed that it was time to replace ours, so we agreed that we’d wait until we got to Germany, where perhaps one with dual voltage could be found. If dual voltage was not an option, we figured we’d buy something at 220v from our local Craigslist to use for the next three years, and then sell it when we moved on. Soon after we arrived here, Hubbz started sniffing around the tvs he’d see in other people’s houses and ask questions about the make and model of their set. Dual voltage was indeed an option here – and this fueled the fire of his yearning. He was very good about it – but I could see the wheels turning in his head, and I knew it was just a matter of time.

Well, this weekend we decided to start shopping around a little. Our friends, Jack and Jane, moved here when we did but they had moved into an apartment sooner.  They are nicely settled in already and are the proud owners of a nice tv set: 36”, dual voltage, etc. they bought at the local MediaMarkt store.  It cost what we figured was appropriate. We looked there yesterday, but without the specific information about the set we wanted, Hubbz was reluctant to ask for help (partially because he doesn’t want to waste the time of a salesperson when he knows he’s not buying…and partially because he doesn’t like asking anyone anything…especially in German). Everything except restaurants are closed on Sundays here – so there was no shopping to be done today in Stuttgart. But – the base exchange (Target like store) was open.

We were going to base anyways (to drop off a load of cardboard in the dumpster) and when I suggested we swing by the Exchange to comparison shop (where descriptions are in English) Hubbz perked right up! An hour later, we were loading a much bigger tv (47”) with much better graphics, and a much higher pricetag into the car. And Hubbz was grinning widely. How can you put a price on a happy husband!!

DEATH BY CURTAINS

So, I mentioned before that we had bought sheers for each of the huge windows in our house. I was really impressed with Ikea’s curtain setup. For less than $20, each pair of sheers came in at eight feet long, with some “stitch witch”/seam tape they can be customized to fit most windows. All one has to do is hang the drapes, determine the point at which the hem should be. Then take them down, iron in the hem – and then re-iron it with the seam tape and cut off the excess. Easy, right?? Sure it is….if you’re NOT me!

Now, my grandmother and mother are fantastic seamstresses. My sister and I had matching dresses for every Christmas when I was a kid. We were able to request Halloween costumes that weren’t in the stores and we were never the sad looking angel in the church pageants. Despite the domestic talents that I did assimilate from these women in my family (cooking, baking, setting a nice table, cleaning the house properly, even knitting and some crafting, etc.) that sewing gene is not in my DNA. I’ve always wanted to learn – but always suspected that I wouldn’t do very well at it.

When we got married, I figured that eventually I would stop working to raise a family (…I didn’t really plan on the “Quit Work and Move to Europe to be a Trophy Wife” path…) I figured I’d conquer sewing when that milestone provided me with the opportunity and motivation to do so. When we arrived here, I thought that perhaps, I would make a pair of decorative curtains for the guest room. Something with a little color to set over the white Ikea sheers and liven up the room a bit. How hard can curtains be? They’re a long rectangle with an open edge at the top for the rod to slide through.  All you need to do is to finish the sides and hems.  Right?

I measured, ironed, pinned and re-hung the curtains to check the new hemline. ….they were crooked. Hubbalicious was called in for consultation. He pointed out that the fabric might not have been cut straight to begin with or we (he) may not have hung the curtain rod straight (although he doubts it!). He suggested I eyeball the hem and then check that it was straight by folding it in half longwise and making sure the entire piece was symmetrical. I think he forgot what a whacked out perfectionist I can be.....but he got a little reminder..... At the end of the day today – I had hemmed only TWO pair of curtains. They were hung and checked, and re-hung and re-checked ad naseum at least 5 times (with 10 foot ceilings, this means a ladder...and a grumpy husband. So - the take home lesson for the day is this: Not only am I a perfectionist – but we now know that I am a perfectionist that is abysmally bad at pinning or ironing in a straight line. If that’s not a recipe for insanity, I don’t know what is!

Given that I can’t seem to iron a straight hem – I’ll be starting an eBay search for guest room curtains here instead!!

Now, there are another two pair of Ikea sheers in our bedroom window. Their extra fabric pools a bit where they touch the floor. Hubbz asked me last night when I was going to hem them. I told him I kinda liked them long. He laughed and asked “How many times are you going to say that before your hatred of them being imperfect overpowers your hatred of having to hem them?” I smiled, acknowledging that he had seen right through me. “About 12 more times” I replied.

NATURE'S BOUNTY

This morning I met Jane and her adorable daughter downtown for some veggies, gelbesachs and coffee.

We met at a little café called Café Scholtz. My new favorite breakfast spot! They have beautiful pastries and lovely little yogurt parfaits – as well as a full menu of hot breakfasts and dinners. We had lattes that came in little white ceramic bowls with a little pitcher of coffee next to them. Jane explained that this was so you could flavor your latte with just the right amount of espresso for your taste. We sat outside at a little café table and wrapped blankets across our laps for added warmth. It was crisp and sunny and promised to be a beautiful day.

The veggie market was really beautiful, and around the corner, about a block away, was the flower market where you could buy both potted and cut flowers. We wound around the stalls and marveled at the beauty and variety of produce. Onions were small and round and looked like they had just come from a garden. There were 5 different kinds of pumpkins – all of which were thick with flesh – not the “all shell” version all over the grocery stores at home grown for jack-o-lanterns. Jane bought a big wedge of pumpkin to take home and cook for dinner. The baby “helped” by holding on to it in the stoller as we made our way to get the gelbesachs.

Here are some market pictures:

We navigated the city hall and found the offices (interestingly enough, the very same office where I went to obtain our Parkpasse). Since Jane and I had different last names, we had to go into different offices. I had enough German to be able to tell the lady behind the counter that I needed a gelbesach and that I lived in central Stuttgart. She told me that she’d hand over the sacks this time, but next time, I needed to go to one of the vendors who hand them out in my area. She then photocopied the list of vendors and handed it over to me for next time. (Don’t let me lead you to believe that I understood all of this…the conversation went something like this: Counter Lady: “german german german gelbesach german german zentrum german german” hands me the list and a small roll of yellow bags. Me: "Ja. Danke". - Using my brilliant deductive skills and ability to read people (i.e, she was annoyed) and a list titled “Gelbesach - Stuttgart Zentrum” with a bunch of addresses in my neighborhood, I was able to ascertain that the gist of the one sided conversation).

Once I got home, I spent a little time on Google Translate (how DID people do this without the internet??!) and taped the instructions in our kitchen so we’d be able to navigate the garbage correctly in the future. Good trash, it seems, makes good neighbors in Germany!

TRASH TALK

First a caveat:  This blog is public.  That means anyone who knows the web address can read everything I've posted.  I could have protected it with a password or forced all of you readers to become members of it to see it - but that's a hassle and who needs another password to remember these days!!  

Since it is public, I’ve tried really hard to keep this blog anonymous.  This was a decision I made for many reasons:  1) my husband is a frequent topic.  I am the one writing this thing, and many of my experiences involve him (God help him).  However, HE did not make the decision to write a blog, and I’d like to protect him from things he didn’t want perfect strangers who many stumble upon this blog to learn about him.   Of course I consulted him before starting this, and he was supportive, but on a day to day basis, as new information is posted, there may be something in here that he wouldn’t want, say an employer who Googles his name to learn.  2) I am a woman.  I am security conscious.  I don’t need folks I’ve never met (or worse, those I have and wish to protect myself from ) to be able to pry the lid off of my head and read my daily thoughts AND then be able to find me.  That is something that would make me the tragic subject of a “Movie of the Week” on Lifetime, and that’s a role I’d prefer to skip!  3) I have friends.  They also share my life experiences.  I don’t want to have to ask them permission to write about what we did yesterday every time I spend time with them.  My spidey-sense tells me that this would probably not make me very popular either!!

It is reason number three that brings me to my next disclosure:  I’ve decided that for the purposes of this blog, I’m going to name all of my friends Jane.  That way, it will be clear enough that I can tell the stories, but confusing enough that no one will know any one Jane’s secrets :)

So, let’s talk some trash!  Germany is very eco-conscious – a fact that we like a lot.  There are towns here that will not allow vehicles that don’t pass a high emission standard.  (Period.  Your polluting car stops here, my friend.  Our town does not want what you’re putting out there. Park it and then walk on in, if you want).   There are rules about leaving your car idling too long (30 seconds is the max – even at a red light).  And then there’s the garbage.

Our courtyard has 3 different bins for garbage collection.  One says Paper, one is clearly compost.  Then there’s another one.  It wasn’t immediately obvious what goes in there. Also, when we walk down the street, we sometimes see these yellow bags filled with what must be recycling. And NONE of the containers seem to accept glass!  Hmmmm…  (Note:  I broke a wine glass the other night and it has been sitting on my kitchen counter.  A painful reminder of my clumsiness AND an indicator of just how ignorant Hubbz and I are!!)

We saw a roll of yellow garbage bags at the hardware store last week, so we bought them.  The ones we’ve seen on the street have (German) instructions on the outside indicating what goes in them – and they’re fairly large.  These were small and without instructions…..hmmm…wrong bags.   Recently, at a different hardware store we saw another roll of yellow bags.  They looked bigger.  The band around the roll of bags stated they were 5 liter bags.  We shrugged and bought them.  Same bags as before – no writing, no instructions….hmmmm.  And, come to think of it, none of the cans in our yard had yellow bags collected in them. So what do we do with them once we fill them?!?

Finally, while we were in Italy last week, we asked Jack and Jane who were travelling with us about the bags.  They have lived here for a few years, so they’re our go-to answer folks.  They broke it down like this.  We were right about the compost.  The paper can accepts only paper – but nothing that’s been coated with plastic or wax (no juice boxes or milk cartons).  The other can was for trash – stuff that doesn’t fit in any of the other categories.  Our glass items needed to be deposited in receptacles around the neighborhood.  There are little igloo looking things where you separate your brown glass, green and white glass from each other.  But what of the yellow bags?

The yellow bags (called gelbesacks) are for recycling plastics and plastic coatings.  They also take Styrofoam and metal cans.  You can’t buy them at a store – they’re free.  But you have to get them FROM CITY HALL.  Apparently, one of the rooms in our basement is for gelbesack collection.  On retrieval day, our hausmeister (or building manager) carries them out to the street as he does with all of the other trash collection.  

Thank goodness for Jack and Jane.  We SO want to be good neighbors – and in rule-loving Germany, we know that doing so means following the procedures correctly.  Turns out Jack and Jane are out of gelbesacks too, so Jane and I are going to meet on Thursday morning for a little field trip to city hall.  It turns out, there’s also a vegetable market out there three days a week, so we’ll hit that also.  Who knew trash could be an adventure?!

REENTRY - AND CLOSETS

We are back!! AND the painter is done.  Including the repainted kitchen which is now a yummy soft shade of butter yellow, phew!  Now the real unpacking can begin!!

We got in late last night, but we had a truly lovely time in Italy.  The weather was about 75 degrees. The water was beautiful, the company fantastic and we are really excited to be so close to places like this that we will explore again later.  

Hubbz started tonight on installing the wardrobes we got from Ikea.  They’re huge and unwieldy, but he’s tough and manly, and he honestly is really handy – so I know they will come together nicely.  Today the washer and dryer and refrigerator arrived from the base supply.  Did I mention this already?  The base will loan us these major appliances during our stay here.  The washer and dryer stack nicely in their slot in our bathroom (which is bigger than my kitchen…seriously).  The fridge – well that’s another story.  We have a long and narrow, narrow, narrow pantry in our kitchen.  Hubbz and I measured it and decided that we could fit a refrigerator from the base in it because it is 80cm wide and the fridge is 75cm wide.  It’s a close fit – but we figured we could do it.  What we didn’t consider was that the doorway to the pantry was 67cm wide. WHOOPS  The delivery man was SO NICE and showed me the error of our ways.  Thankfully he hadn’t brought the fridge up the stairs yet (perhaps he’s had this experience before!).  I called the base and they will send a new fridge on Thursday.  

We are tired and not long for this process.  More to follow soon!

A WEEKEND IN ITALY

First and foremost, I MUST wish my Grandmother a happy birthday! I know she won’t read this until much later, but I hope she knows that I am thinking of her today and sending her a great big hug.  She’s a neat lady, and one of the hardest parts about this adventure we’re on these days is that I am too far away to reach her directly.  I love you, Gram!!!!

So – the adventure du jour is a weekend trip to Bella Italia!!  Hubbalicious has a business trip to the base in Naples, and I am going along like a good trophy wife should!  We have lots of friends stationed over there, so a long weekend isn’t really long enough to fully enjoy the people, let alone the sites.  But we’re going to make a good first try at it and promise to try again as soon as we can :)

Our plan is to stay on base tonight so Hubbz can bounce down to the meeting in the morning.  Then I’ll work from the room on base until checkout time.  Hopefully by then the boys will be done and we can make our way to our friends’ house.  This couple has been a part of Hubbz’s life since college years.  I haven’t spent any large amount of time with them, so I’m looking forward to the opportunity to get to know them better.  They live on base with their two little kiddos :)  We will spend Friday night with them and then take a ferry over to Sorrento on Saturday – which is one of our favorite cities in the world (so far!).  I am using one of my meeting planning connections to book us a room in Sorrento for Saturday night.  They are putting us up for free!!  I am certainly going to miss those perks when I finally finish my work!  Then we’ll zip back across the bay of Napoli to the Naples Airport for a late flight back to Deutscheland :) Wish us bon voyage!!

ADVENTURES IN PARKING

We live on a one-way street.  This is great for us for a lot of reasons: 1) there's little traffic and little noise. 2) Half of the street is parking spots where we can nose in.  This allows for a lot more cars, and helps alleviate the crowded parking situation around here. 

We rent a covered, reserved parking space around the corner behind a grocery store for about $100 per month.  This is rolled into our rent and is therefore covered by our housing allowance.  But, if we can get a spot, we park in one of the spaces in front of our apartment.  In order to do so correctly, we needed to obtain a neighborhood parking pass.  And this was something I was going to have to do unaided!

I set out this morning for the local city hall. I figured I'd do my best to use what German I knew (darn little) and rely on the fact that most Stuttgartians speak at least a little English.  In a fit of what I will immodestly call GENIUS I snapped a picture of the parking pass I wanted on the dashboard of a neighbors car using my cell phone.  I figured if nothing else, I could show them the picture of what I was seeking.

I made my way to the local Rathaus (city hall) and walked up to the information desk.  "Sprechen Sie Englisch?" I asked?  This is a formality.  Everyone in Stuttgart replies "Yes, just a little" and then proceeds to converse as if they were fellow Americans.  However, the man at the information desk looked up and me and said "Nein".  Awesome.  Okay.  I steeled myself and carried on to the point that my German failed me "I would like a....."  um... Light Bulb!  I pulled out my phone, showed him the picture and he smiled.  "AH!  Ein Parkpass"  (really?  The German word for parking pass is Parkpass?). He directed me to another building and kindly circled the words for what I assume are the offices I should seek.


Off I went to the annex and followed the signs with the words the kind man had circled for me.  Ahead of me walked an older couple who were apparently headed to the same office as I was.  I slowed so as not to overtake them and smilingly followed them into the door with some of those circled words written on the outside of it.  The man was startled when I took followed him through the open door.  I smiled as kindly as I knew how and pressed myself against the back wall - to allow them as much privacy at the counter as possible.  

The man looked at me again over his shoulder, this time with annoyance.  I smiled again, and wondered what I could have done to offend him.  We all stood silently and waited for the counter person to see us.  

She approached and asked (in German) "Are you all together?" to which we all answered "Nein".  She then snapped up her chin, looked at me and said what I gathered to be "Get out".  Embarrassed and bewildered, I slid back out the door and sat at some chairs posted on the other side.  Only then did I notice a little indicator light above the door.  It appears that whatever takes place in that office is done privately, and there is a red light/green light set up outside which lets the people outside know if someone else is already inside attending to this private business.  

In time the couple left, staring at me as the walked past.  The light turned green and I stepped inside.  The woman there tried to speak English with me and discovered that I was in the wrong office anyways.  She pointed me in the right direction and that sad little detour was soon a thing of the past as I went back to the business of trying to get my parkpass.


Finally in the right place, the process was easy (although at one point I signed something that was entirely in German, and had no idea what it actually said).  I asked the lady behind the counter if she could copy it for me so I could take it home and attempt to translate it.  (I later discovered that I had pledged, among other things, that I did not have an assigned parking space anywhere else in the neighborhood.  Whoops!).  I got my little green card and buried it in the corner of my windshield.  Hopefully the meter maid won't notice that the license plate number on the pass is for our Honda, and not for the rental car we're parking instead these days!

AMERICAN MEDIA IN GERMANY

Hubbalicious is back at work today, so it is me and my friend the painter holding down the fort. He seems to be an interesting fellow - he was a born here in Stuttgart to Croatian parents. When he came of age, he decided to go home to Croatia and serve his mandatory military time there. He became the equivalent to a Navy Seal. When he tried to make a career of it, he wasn’t guaranteed a Seal slot – so he walked away from the military entirely and returned to Germany. Now he is painting my house. And I imagine he could kill me with his bare hands if he wanted to…. Seriously though, he’s a very nice man. He enjoys practicing his English with us, and LOVES to chat with Hubbz about all things military and political. (He also tells me to “ask my husband” about any question he has about the house. Clearly a different gender structure where he lives…)

While our painter friend paints, I work. Since my temporary internet solution is based on a cellular network – I work propped up on our windowsill in order to get a strong enough connection to work. We cannot wait to get our internet set up!! It’s kind of the hinge for all of our communication and comfort needs here. Soon, it will be the hub for us to have a US phone number, American tv shows AND of course, wireless internet access in the whole house!! Here’s what I mean:

Basic cable is included in our rent. This consists of about 30 channels in German - plus CNN International and BBC International (the only English speaking networks). We haven’t even bothered to set up the tv yet, since we 1) have no time to watch it and 2) have nothing interesting tempting us to watch it. Our tv is actually a computer monitor that Hubbz noticed was dual voltage as we were packing up our things in VA. I’m fairly certain he’s going to make a case for a new tv when the time is right. He doesn’t know that I know….but I figure there’s nothing wrong with a little mystery in your marriage :)

Once we have internet, we will set up our Slingbox. The Slingbox, is a friend to all tv addicted Ex Pats – like yours truly (and Mr. yours truly) over here. It’s basically a tool that routes into a cable box set up in the US, and allows you to watch the tv and control the cable box remotely from your computer using the internet. It’s GENIUS. Here’s how it works:

My sister in law added a cable box to her normal subscription package (we contribute to her monthly cable bill) and plugged it into the wall (not a tv set) in her home somewhere. The Slingbox connects to the cable box, and an internet connection. We will soon be able to log into a website that makes our computer, the tv that is connected to the cable box! We’ll have use of the dvr, we can subscribe to Showtime, just like we were back in the good Ol’ U-S- of tv addicted -A!

Through Vonage, we were able to subscribe to an internet phone service that allows us to have a US phone number. This will allow all of you time zone minded loved ones to call us at domestic rates at our home in Germany! AND, as if it couldn’t get any cooler, we ported my old cell phone number over to the Vonage phone – I get to keep the phone number I’ve had for more than 10 years now! I know my mom is happy about that one!

Fast internet will also allow us to have and use Skype. We’re really excited about this. It is so nice to see your shining faces and see how big your kiddos have grown, AND, once the apartment is finally settled in (a day that I KNOW will come, but is hard to ever envision right now!) we can swing the webcam around and show our families where we live! What fun!

This all sounds great, doesn’t it? Well it’s the GETTING internet that seems to be the stumbling block around here. First of all, there’s the language barrier when trying to set it up. My husband is a saint and has handled this for us. One might be able to argue that he wants internet/tv more than he hates talking to people on the phone…but I’m going to give him the points for sainthood anyways. I’m a giver like that :)

The next hurdle is getting the guy to actually show up. We’ve heard so many horror stories about people waiting fruitlessly all day long for the cable installer – and then getting a notice a week later via mail about how the cable guy came but no one answered the door. Or worse, the installer comes, pokes around the wires and says something to the effect of: “these wires weren’t installed by us, call Deutsche Telecom and ask them to fix them, then we’ll come back and install your internet” Of course, Deutsche Telecom has zero interest in sending a service rep when you are not using their service. And if you do get the wires fixed, you're back at the bottom of the list waiting for an appointment.  The stories I’ve heard indicate that it will take upwards of a month to get the cable installed – sometimes two months. So I’m not holding my breath!!

GROUNDHOG DAY + BEER

Well here's an interesting wrinkle!  We got home last night from our shopping day to find that the kitchen had been painted (yay!)  We had chosen a yellow color to replace the burnt orange color that was there before.  The shift to yellow was refreshing - but maybe a little too refreshing for Hubbalicous' taste. It was fine in the daylight - but by the light of our halogen ceiling lights, it was ..well....you know sometimes your body gives you a sign that it's processed that vitamin that you took this morning?  It was like that.  We (grossly) dubbed it Vitamin Pee Yellow.  I was willing to live with it - Hubbz was NOT.  He decreed that we needed to pick another color - right now - and ask the painter to repaint it.  He didn't care what it cost (easy for us to say, when the taxpayers foot the bill!).  And then his eyes got really big as he asked: "Didn't we tell him to use the same color in the bathroom?!?"  We scurried over and were pleased to confirm that the painter had not yet painted it!  Phew!  I'll fix it on Monday when the painter comes back.  I hope he doesn't mind.  I feel bad asking him to do it over.  Hopefully the extra pay he'll receive will sweeten the deal.

This morning we shook up our old and tired bodies this morning and squared our shoulders for what we have come to call Groundhogs Day. The pattern goes like this: Ikea, hardware store, unpacking – lather, rinse, repeat. Sigh!

Our inventory and unpacking from yesterday revealed the absence of a ladder, and a few decisions to buy some items we had contemplated while shopping yesterday. The highlight of which was the $350 ladder that Hubbaclious had been eyeballing. He’d left our old ladder at home (a decision which I fully endorsed, given that it was bent and I felt the need to grab my rosary beads each time he unfolded it and climbed aboard). I had no idea how pricey a ladder could be – and the irony didn’t escape us that we had just purchased a ladder for $350 that would facilitate the use of $75 worth of light fixtures and curtains!

It wasn’t entirely Groundhog’s Day, actually - we did cut out to meet a friend at a biergarten nearby. She was there with her family and their friends from her children’s school. This is the friend that I met at the airport on the day she moved here. She’s FANTASTIC – and her family is wonderful too. I’m feeling like a little divine intervention was at play there :)

Since we’re in the land of seasons over here, biergartens are a thing to be enjoyed as much as possible during the warm months – because they roll up tight during the cold ones. The Germans were really on a roll when they came up with this invention. Basically, they put out tables and sometimes, the really smart ones, add a playground for the kiddies. They pop in a little snack bar where 10 different kinds of “-wurst” are sold, as well as ice cream, some salads and various munchies – and, of course, beer. The nestle these little gems amidst the hiking parks and city walks so that when the people are out enjoying their recreational walking (HUGE pastime here), and they start to get a bit peckish, they can plop down and enjoy a frosty brew, while still enjoying the nature that surrounds them. The kiddos play, the adults sip and chat and they all walk home when the day is done. Since Stuttgart is built in the bottom of a bowl, many of these little spots have beautiful views.

We had a nice visit and met some really nice folks who had some funny stories and sage advice about their ex-pat experience. It was good to get out and enjoy that time – and, hey, with our silverware still at large in the cardboard wonderland – it was a nice way to have a meal!!

At one point during our visit, I remarked that if we didn’t curtail our beer consumption, we’d go home and hang crooked drapes! We shrugged and toasted to hanging drapes tomorrow! But one of our new friends reminded us that no drills could be used tomorrow, since it was a “quiet day” …being that it was Sunday. Apparently, in some, more traditional, neighborhoods Sundays were still a day of rest, and no noisy work (mowing the lawn, hammering, etc) can be done! Well, how do you like that for forced relaxation. I slumped over in defeat with the realization that we’d get NOTHING done tomorrow – and Hubbz grinned so hard that beer ran out the corner of his mouth :)

A TRUE LABOR DAY

Hello Labor Day Weekend! Hubbalicious has a FOUR day weekend (they really do know how to do this right, over here!) and we are going to devote it to: well….labor! The painter showed up, coffee in hand, and proceeded to start with the bedroom. We know we are going to need to buy closets, and we figured that the sooner the room is painted, the sooner we can set them up and get our clothing put away (which constitutes a fair amount of boxes in here!).

So, with the painter established, we left him at work and headed to the hardware store and to Ikea. Our goal: to finally pull the trigger on the closet purchase, and to seek and find some light fixtures for the ceilings. It also occurred to us last night, as we tucked in for our first night in the new place, that we are living in a fishbowl. These great big beautiful windows are like tv screens for our neighbors! We had to undress in the bathroom – and I couldn’t read in bed. So, some sort of quick and easy drapery is at the top of our list as well!

It was a long day, and I have a lot of gratitude and respect for my friend who decided to tag along. Having just settled into her place a month or two before us, she knew what she was in for, and trooped along with us!! She was also an invaluable resource for how to navigate the usage of our VAT form at Ikea.

We also made a discovery about closet purchasing which shed a little light on my failed shopping experience earlier this week. It turns out, the reason that the Ikea clerk wouldn’t sell me the closet part that wasn’t in stock, may not have been attributable to her staunch values and sense of what is fair. Buying closets at Ikea means taking a flat bed cart to a warehouse and picking up each component pieces to stack on your cart (save one or two…although not the one or two BIGGEST parts…). You then wheel your cart to the cash register, pay for the items, and THEN wheel them to the “Transportation”

So, closets have been purchased as have some white sheers for the windows and some temporary lights (SIDEBAR: What are temporary lights, you may ask? Let’s pretend you did. Here’s the answer: Each room in our house has these wires hanging from the ceiling. They are waiting for a light. I haven’t ever bought ceiling lights before, and while there are many wild and crazy options – it’s taking me some time to figure out what would be appropriate for each room. For me, the lamps are fine – so the ceiling light is gravy. Hubbz, however, has a different perspective. To HIM – the wires on the ceiling are truly bothersome. Additionally, he is accustomed to ceiling lights (it turns out he’s had them in just about every house he’s lived in…I can’t say the same). AND it’s truly frustrating to him to not be able to hit a light switch and navigate through a room – apparently his spidey sense for finding a lamp in a dark room is not finely tuned. SO his request was that we buy some very cheap ($3) ceiling lights which he will hang whilst we decide on the permanent light for each room. How could I possibly argue?)

BUT- here’s the thing about the temporary lights….they don’t come with a temporary ladder…

FINALLY HOME!!

Ah the joys of military moves! The German company that was scheduled to deliver our things called last week to ask about the parking situation and to confirm their scheduled arrival time at 8:00am. In the US the arrival time of military movers is flexible at best – but we didn’t know what to expect here in Deutschland. Turns out, it’s not so different….

We got to the apartment at 730am and emptied car load number two. Then we ran around contemplating paint chips in the daylight. I had NO IDEA that picking paint colors was so difficult. I could describe the shade and colors I wanted for each room – but too many options made selecting the actual color overwhelming! When the movers finally arrived (at 930) we also held the chips up to furniture and to the bedspread. That helped a bit.

Our shipment took a bit of a circuitous route to our apartment. In a perfect world, our furniture would have been loaded from our Norfolk home directly into large shipping crates on the truck. The crates would have been sealed up and then transferred to a ship and delivered to us in Stuttgart unopened (assuming customs didn’t need to see our furniture). However, our move was hung up by a paperwork item in Norfolk.  So, our stuff was instead loaded on to the truck, sans crates, and then unloaded at a storage area.  Six weeks later (due to yet another paperwork glitch) it was loaded into crates and forwarded to Germany. This meant that our stuff was handled by movers a total of FOUR times, instead of twice. Of course, every time our posessions are handled is another opportunity for damage and loss. Judging by the way our stuff came off of the truck – we think it must have been handled about seventeen times…..

We had a total of seven crates worth of household goods. The movers were nice and spoke very little English. I had prepared the empty apartment in advance by taping a number to the door of each room. I figured I know my numbers in German better than I know the names for “living room” and “guest room”. When the movers needed direction as to where to put items, it worked pretty well to give the number in German (although it turns out that pointing works pretty well also!)

Our furniture is pretty beat up. Hubbz dresser came without one of its legs (we later found it in one of the drawers - um...thanks??). There are chunks missing from the legs of our bed and sofas. The entire shipment looks pretty much like someone threw rocks at it (my friend B says that perhaps it was used as a shield from pirate attacks)! Our kitchen table (which is about as old as we are and not a piece of quality furniture by any measure) showed up in the first crate – with only three legs. The fourth leg showed up in the seventh crate. (We were honestly kinda bummed, because we are ready to buy a new table and the replacement money would have helped!)

Three truck loads later, all of our belongings were off of the truck…and piled in the center of each room so the painter could begin work on the next day. Hubbz had an evening conference call at work, so I dropped him off on base, and went back to the hotel to pack up the clothes – our last load of items to be moved into our new apartment. We turned in at 11:00, tired from the day’s adventure, excited about settling into the new place, and even a bit wistful about leaving the hotel which was our first German home! We chuckled at the realization that while we felt like our German life had been “on hold” for three months – we had already created a lot of memories of our time here :)

THE TIP OF THE ICEBERG

We checked out of the hotel and I headed “home” to start the unpacking process. The painter met me at the house and we decided we would paint all of the rooms, including the inside of the closets. This is a bit of a bummer, because it really inhibits the unpacking – but we’ll be glad to have everything painted and fresh in a month (or at least, that’s what I keep telling myself!)
We selected a colonial blue for the dining room, taupe/beige for the bedroom and living room, pale blue in the Guest room and (after some input from my Facebook friends) yellow in the kitchen and bathroom. Tomorrow we start with the bedroom – so we can set the closets right up when they arrive!

I’m off to dive into my first set of boxes….Here we go!!