Where Did I Leave Off?

Ok...so the first day and night here in the house was awful. Luckily, things have improved since then. :)

Once everything was cleaned, and the repairs that needed immediate attention were taken care of during that first week we were here, things were much better.

On the second day in this house, Justin and I decided to drive to Vilseck to check out the PX and Sporting Goods stores there to see if we could come up with a better solution as far as sleeping arrangements go. Luckily, we found two cots and a Queen sized inflatable mattress. I couldn't have been more relieved. No more sleeping on the ground! It has been great! Justin and I have not been bitten by anything so far.

We have been staying in the downstairs portion of the house. The shower down here is much nicer, especially after I scrubbed every tile in that room. (There was still a lot that was dirty even though someone helped us clean...I still can't believe those people that lived here before we did. Grosss.)

Speaking of the previous tenants, they stopped by during our first few weeks here, dressed very nicely. There was an area rug that they had left in the backyard (for what appears like a very long time, judging by all the dead grass underneath it) and they wanted it back. I was tempted to also offer them the bag upon bag of trash they left here but I continued to cook our dinner and said nothing. Justin told them that they were welcome to their rug and said goodbye. We both wanted to ask them why they left the house like they did, but figured in the end it wasn't worth our time to bicker with anyone. Fortunately, we have not seen them since.

Just last Friday we received the first of our belongings, it was mostly our dishes, pots and pans, and Justin's many canisters of tea. He was very happy to see them, as you can well imagine. Haha.

Last Wednesday we were also able to pick up our car! It was so nice to get it back, we turned in the rental and although I was disappointed to find that our iPod and accessories had been stolen in transit from the middle console, it was nice to see that the car arrived just as we had sent it otherwise.

Justin and I have been joking that maybe this house is too large for the two of us. we go days without going upstairs for anything, it seems likely that upstairs and about 2 out of the 4 bedrooms up there will be used for storage, if not, at least we will have plenty of room for visitors! (Hint Hint, everyone!) ;)

I am very excited for the month of July. We are expecting the remainder of our belongings, including furniture, and Sox is due to join us soon after we visit Prague this coming weekend. I couldn't be happier about that, I just hope his trip here is as stress-free as possible for him. Poor little doggy...

Anyway, that's about it for now, we should have a photo blog soon about our upcoming trip. Until then, take care!

The Long Story

Hello Everyone! As promised, we have a bit of internet now, so I thought I would take a moment to blog about the House. It's a bit of a long story, sorry. :)

Originally, Justin and I had planned to meet with Housing Representative, Michael and the Caretaker of the House, Thomas on June 6th so that the representative from Housing could inspect the house and get meter readings for the Electricity, Oil, and so forth...Justin's sponsor Katie was running a bit late, so we met the Housing representative 10 minutes after the hour. Luckily for us, Michael didn't seem to mind too much. He said was having a case of the Mondays and as if to emphasize his point, his car was sitting in our driveway with a rapidly flattening tire.

We waited on the driveway for awhile chatting until the Housing representative asked Justin if he had the number of the Caretaker of the house, Thomas who was expected to meet us nearly 20 minutes earlier. Justin called Thomas and we found out that Thomas had had an emergency and had tried to call the Housing Department all morning to advise that he wasn't going to make it after all. This was unpleasant news, seeing as how we had just checked out of the Army Lodging room in Vilseck that we had been staying in up until then, and it had already been given to someone else. We were later informed that the Army Lodging Hotel on post in Grafenwoehr also had no vacancies either.

The representative from Housing spoke with Thomas and it was agreed that we would reschedule to meet again in two days. They exchanged numbers just in case of any other emergencies. Justin and I were amazed to see Michael get into his car and drive away flat and all down the road and back on post 7 KM away. We found out later, it was just a loaner car from the Housing Department.

Katie was kind enough to find us a Hotel off post in Grafenwoehr. She had been to the restaurant portion of the inn before and said that they had a very nice patio in back, and great beer, haha. After Justin paid for the room, Katie drove us back to Vilseck so we could get rental car until our own car arrived. Those two days in the Hotel room were pretty exciting, we waited patiently and bought a few things that we thought we would need in order to get by until our first set of boxes were delivered. We bought some inflatable mattresses, they were out of Queen size ones, so we bought two twin sized beds instead.

Wednesday finally arrived and Justin and I arrived on time in Eschenbach to meet with everyone again and hopefully get the keys to the House. We were joined shortly by a very apologetic Thomas, who arrived in German Military uniform and explained that he was unable to leave the Monday past due to work. With that explanation, of course we understood. Michael from Housing arrived about 10 minutes later and we were finally able to get into the house for the inspection! Justin and I grinned at each other in anticipation as we followed Thomas and the Housing representative, Michael into the Basement.

I saw, to my dismay that the floors were filthy down there. We had to step carefully to walk through the thick layer of leaves and dirt. Thomas said that this area serves as the laundry room, and showed us the appropriate hookups for each machine. I shot a look at Justin and he nodded at me reassuringly: we would clean that room before even considering leaving our clothes down there. The two men checked the Boiler while we stood aside talking and we were informed that a part was missing, and it needed to be ordered and installed before everything would work properly. We were surprised, because Thomas of course had not mentioned this during our first walk through a couple of weeks prior. I wondered silently how long this part had been missing and what other surprises were in store for us. The Housing representative, Michael and Thomas began a very lively dialogue in German and Thomas hurriedly assured us that the following morning a workman would show up to install the missing part in question. That seemed to mollify Michael for the time being and he quickly jotted a series of notes on his clipboard. Justin and I nodded and we continued back outside to begin our inspection of the house itself.

Thomas unlocked the front door and Justin and I again smiled at each other anxiously. We had seen these parts of the house before and although it was kind of dirty at the time, we dismissed it due to the fact that the previous tenants were in the process of packing. We were sure that everything would be cleaned and ready for us, as per typical German Lease Agreement terms. We were wrong.

The smell is what hit me first. Like walking into the middle of an ashtray. We four walked into the main walkway and while the two men continued their inspection in their native tongue, Justin and I did one of our own.

We peeked into the kitchen and were appalled to find that it had not even been wiped down. Remnants from the last few meals eaten were on the counter tops and in the sink, the oven looked as though it had never been cleaned. The floors were sticky and the walls were a nasty Salmon orange although Lease terms indicate any paint on the walls is to be covered with white paint upon vacating the premises. There were splash marks of sauce on the walls near the sink, and the refrigerator smelled like rancid meat. There were hairs in the freezer and it had a thick layer of ice so hardly anything seemed like it could fit into it.

In the interests of being polite, I don't think I need to elaborate when I describe the restrooms as "gag inducing"...use your imagination, with the state of the kitchen as a basis.

The wood floors throughout the house, much like the concrete in the basement were covered in a thick layer of filth. There were crumbs, dirt, and hairballs everywhere.

There was what looked like spaghetti sauce on the walls and radiator of what used to be the previous tenants living room.

The one carpeted room upstairs was stained and had been in need of vacuuming way before we arrived.

Electric sockets had been ripped out, stuffed with cardboard and covered with masking tape, there were exposed wires in the Master bedroom, haphazardly spliced wires downstairs.

In short, we had signed, paid for, and were standing in the midst of a nightmare with no way out.

- - -

Upon completion of his inspection, Michael from Housing told us that he could not in good faith sign his approval for the house until a few major things get fixed. He said that the condition that the previous tenants had turned over the house was unacceptable. Thomas agreed, and pulled out his cell phone with the intent to contact a cleaning agency. He requested that they send someone over right away, at his cost.

Michael went on to say that there were multiple fire code violations that needed to be addressed immediately and Justin said he would contact the Landlord at once. (I am glad to say, that an electrician fixed these issues within the same week.)

Understandably, both Justin and I were very upset with the condition of the House, and the way in which it was turned over to us. I dreaded the idea of having to actually spend the night here that first night.

The lady that the cleaning agency sent over was very amiable though she seemed to regard both Justin and I with mild disapproval. At my insistence, Justin successfully explained to her that we had only just moved here that morning and that the house was in this wretched state when we arrived. She immediately warmed to us, laughing, shaking her head and emphatically repeating that this had to be the nastiest house she had ever had to clean. We agreed with her that the previous tenants were real pieces of work to turn over a rental this way. We were very grateful to have her help.

Justin and I agreed to spend the first night entirely upstairs in the cleaned parts of the house. The filth was so extensive that it took the Cleaning lady two full days to get to all of it, she said she would be back first thing in the morning for everything downstairs. Justin and I drove to the PX and bought sheets and towels for our first night in the house. We took showers and set up our beds in what will eventually become our bedroom. Justin kept saying that his shins ached and he couldn't understand what had caused it. I was concerned and offered him some Advil. A few minutes passed and while I was sitting on my thin air mattress pad combing the tangles out of my hair and watching Justin play games on his phone that I happened to see a fair sized spider darting in the direction of our beds. I shrieked and smashed it with a water bottle laying nearby, Justin was kind and flushed it for me. I felt terrible that he got up with his hurt legs. I was very unhappy with the prospect of spending the night on the floor, but I told myself that I would just have to tough things out for awhile since I was not the only one who was uncomfortable. I laid there and tried to sleep, but I awoke about an hour later and found that I still felt like creepy crawlies were in bed with me. Everything felt wrong. I was scared there in the dark. I didn't like the house and I wished that I could have snuggled closer to Justin but he was a foot away on his own air mattress sleeping soundly, or so I thought. I noticed a sudden itch on my lower leg, near my ankle. I bent my leg to scratch at it absentmindedly fretting about the fact that we left the window open while we showered and must have let some mosquitoes in. Immediately, I noticed two other bumps higher up and side by side. Then another on my thigh. I reached over and shook Justin's shoulder lightly and told him that I was getting bitten by something. He woke up immediately and said he couldn't sleep anyway, that his shins were still aching. We flicked on the lights and I cowered by the door while Justin checked my sheets and blanket for any bugs and the room for any flying pests. I stood there cold and itchy and noticed that my other leg itched as well, I became frustrated and shook my leg while standing in place and was horrified to see a large spider fly out of the pant leg of my pajamas and scramble toward the corner of the room behind the door. I called to Justin who had looked in time to see the spider scramble away and he promptly smashed and disposed of it. He asked me where it had come from and was nearly as upset as I was when I told him. He knows how much I hate spiders and how scary that was for me. He gave me a hug and assured me that we would figure out a better sleeping situation in the morning, I just needed to be tough for a few more hours. We tried to go back to sleep until I noticed two more spider bites and began to cry. Justin and I agreed to sleep in the car. I was so relieved that as soon as we locked the doors and the dome light faded off I was sleeping soundly, unfortunately Justin's discomfort continued, his shins had been aching all evening. He said that the pain faded away as suddenly as it had arrived and he finally fell asleep. He woke up the next morning completely fine and has remained that way since, I was so relieved.

My twin mattress turned out to be defective and slowly deflated in the night while we were in the car. When we trudged back upstairs at 5 AM to sleep for the two remaining hours we had left until the cleaning lady and repair man for the boiler were expected to arrive, I was pretty much on the floor by the time the doorbell rang although we had just aired it up.

Update

Hello there

We had a nice four day weekend, we hope everyone else did too! We rode the train to Amberg this past Monday and had a very nice time. Justin showed me a lot of the things he got to see during his Headstart field trip and we had lunch at a very nice place on one of the main streets that he had noticed then but was unable to visit.

I had a pork fillet with mushrooms and homemade noodles, and Justin had some steamed white asparagus with Hollandaise sauce and Bratwurst. It was very very good, we agreed to visit again sometime. Across from the restaurant was a shop selling loose leaf teas. We stepped in for a moment and Justin found a very nice smelling packet of Jasmine tea and an infuser. We visited a cathedral in the town square and took pictures, I bought cherries from a Farmer's Market in the square and after Justin and I had an ice cream we decided that it was time to head back to the train station again. We were both tired and had a 2 mile walk from the train station to the Hotel room ahead. (Which I managed with minimal whining!) Haha...

To my knowledge, I have never ridden on a train before. It was great! I took video of the countryside as we went by, as Justin graciously gave me a turn riding in the window seat. ^_^

Living the German Dream

Some of you may already know the news from Facebook, but I wanted to share the full story.

A couple days ago, my Sponsor, Katie was driving us back to our hotel room from running some errands on post.  On the way back, she wanted to stop and check out an M3 sitting in front of the BMW dealership.  Being BMW fans ourselves, we clamored to accompany her.

We looked at the cars on the lot and then accompanied Katie while she spoke with the head salesman. That's when we found out BMW offers their cars to US military members for 15% off.  And I could get an insanely low interest rate.

Let me back up for a minute here.  Ever since I first saw one on display at the mall in Colorado Springs, I've wanted a BMW M3 more than any other car.  As for Sharay, she got to drive one for a little while and would love to have one again.

Unfortunately, BMW is going to stop making M3s with a V8 engine this August and will return to an inline 6.  Well, we didn't want an inline 6.  Plus, the V8 version is pretty much perfected.  We didn't want to get the new model before all the kinks have been worked out.  Finally, the M3 only came with a V8 in the current model, so it's going to become a limited edition quite soon.  If we wanted one, it was now or never.

However, we weren't the ones there to get a car.  Instead we listened to the details while Katie looked at the dealer's available M3s (she ended up getting one).  We expressed some interest, but didn't really say anything.  When we returned to our room, I crunched the numbers on our budget and determined that if we traded in our 328i, we'd be able to afford it.

The next day, after returning from my trip to Amberg, I linked up with Sharay and we walked to the BMW dealership.  We expressed our interest and looked at the available M3s.  None of them had the options we wanted.  We talked about ordering one to our specs directly from the factory, but production on the 2011 V8s ends in August and we were too late.  Luckily, the dealership had a few already on order, and they could make changes to match what we wanted.

We slept on it for another night to double check the budget and make a final decision on the options we wanted.  In the end, we decided to go big or go home and get exactly what we wanted.  Thankfully, it fit our budget.

Today, we walked back over there, paid our down payment, and ordered our car.

I'm kind of bummed we'll be giving up our 328i after only 6 months.  It was a good car, and it treated us well.  However, it's worth giving it up to have this sitting in our garage:

The City of Amberg

Every new soldier who arrives here is required to go through what's called "German Head Start", which is a week-long class that covers the basics of living in Germany.  Beyond basic language instruction, it includes information about living in the country, including shopping, traveling, setting up cell phone contracts, et cetera.  On the last day of the course, the class takes a trip to the nearby city of Amberg.  Unfortunately, the class was only for Soldiers, so Sharay was unable to accompany me.  Nevertheless, I'm planning on taking her there as soon as we get our car.  It was too nice for her to miss out.

On a side note, I forgot my camera, so I had to use the camera in my phone.  I apologize if some the pictures are blurry or poorly exposed.

The trip started with a stop at the city's largest grocery store, just to give us an idea of what one is like in Germany.  It really wasn't much different from one in the States, so I didn't bother with pictures.

The next stop was much better.  We drove to the top of the hill that overlooks the city where we visited a Franciscan church that was built in 1699.

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The view from the church's steps

Upon leaving the church, we went next door to a nice restaurant that served authentic German food.  I had baked ham covered with cheese, all on a bed of steamed, white asparagus.  It was delicious.  Unfortunately, we weren't allowed to drink on the trip since we were considered "on duty".  Luckily, I've already been able to try German beer a few times.  Let me just make this clear right now: nothing I've ever had in the States comes close.  There, I said it.

Anyway, the nice thing about German restaurants is that you can stay there as long as you'd like after you're done eating.  There's never someone trying to hurry you out the door like back home.  Needless to say, with the view from the patio, we took full advantage of this custom.  We ordered coffee for dessert and chatted while enjoying the cool breeze.

Our final stop was in downtown Amberg, which sits inside the city's old defensive wall let over from the Middle Ages.  The city itself has expanded far beyond the walls, but the area within has become the upscale part of town with apartments and excellent shopping.  Even better, only a couple of streets allow cars in the downtown area, so pedestrians have nearly free reign.

Amberg's cathedral dominates the city square.  I'm not sure when it was built, but it's definitely been there for a while.

The other side of the square that faces the Cathedral

The main square's fountain

We wandered down the main street for a while, checking out the shops.  I even found one that sells loose-leaf tea, so there's no doubt I'll be back.  

At one point, we crossed over a river that bisects the city

Finally, we made our way back to the square and looked inside the cathedral.

The trip was short, but I got a great taste of what a Bavarian city is like.  I can't wait to go back with Sharay and show her around!

A bit about the local area

Now that we've been here for a couple weeks and have been able to explore the surrounding area, we wanted to share our observations of the region with you.

We're in the northern part of the German state of Bavaria in a region called the Upper Palatinate (Oberpfalz in German).  We'll be living in the town of Eschenbach in der Oberpfalz (the last part distinguishes it from another city in Germany named Eschenbach).  The town is about 10 minutes from Grafenwoehr, which will make commuting extremely easy for me.  The entire region is mostly rural, so there's not a whole lot of excitement.  However, there are several nice restaurants and biergartens (beer gardens).  The area also has several protected forests with hiking paths.  The nearest big city is Nuremberg, which is about 45 minutes away.  We're looking forward to seeing it as soon as we're able.

The area's extremely green and picturesque.  In many ways, it looks similar to the Pacific Northwest, except with more farmland and not quite as wet.  Still, it's rained several times since we've been here, and the area supposedly receives quite a bit of snow in the winter.

As for our house, we signed the lease yesterday get to move in on June 6th.  With any luck, our car will be here by then, making it much easier for us to get around.  If not, we might have to rent something.  Wish us luck!

That's it for now.  Thanks for reading, and please leave any questions in the comments (which should be working now).

Comments should be fixed

Several of you have mentioned that your comments don't appear.  Luckily, I found the problem.  There was a default setting on that prevented unregistered users from commenting.

To make a long story short, you should be able to comment now.

Question Answered

Question:

So the landlord said Sox can live there too? He will love the cat

------------------------------------------

To Mom:

Well, this is a different house. The Landlord's rules for this one is that up to two pets are allowed, so there will be no problems with Sox living with us in the place we have officially signed for today, the one with the virtual tour link in our earlier posts.

We saw many different places in the past two weeks, I'm sorry if I was unclear about which one we went with in the end.

Compared to the house with the nice cat and goats, the one we signed for is a bigger house (5 bedrooms and 2 baths) and in a different town. (Eschenbach.) Best of all, the Landlord is living in Texas right now so we have the entire property all to ourselves. It has a HUGE lawn Mom, I can't wait until you see it, if you are able to make it out here to visit us after all. I think Sox will be very happy there, I know Justin and I will be too.

Thanks for commenting Mom!

If anyone else wants to comment, just click the "comment" link below any entry. We will be glad to respond when we can!

Nothing New

Hello, there was not much going on this past weekend. Justin and I watched Iron Man in our Hotel room, went walking around on Saturday, and yesterday Justin's sponsor drove us to Pottenstein where we had an amazing dinner. She called it "steak on the stone" but it's real name was in German, began with an S and was quite long. Katie (Justin's sponsor) told us that she had once asked the owner of the restaurant how to pronounce the name but he just laughed and gave her the rough translation that I mentioned above. :)

The restaurant was very nice and so was everyone working that night. The scenery outside the windows of the restaurant was also very pretty. Katie told Justin and I that we were very close to a forest with caves and other neat places to walk, too bad it was raining so much.

Justin had the Kangaroo, Katie ordered Ostrich, and I tried the Wild Boar. After a short time, they brought the sizzling cuts of raw meat out to our table which were neatly arranged on platters containing a hot stone in the middle, accompanied with different dipping sauces and bread. It was a lot of fun to be there and eating something new! Justin and I agreed that when we finally had guests over to visit us, that we had to show off our newest find. I know one person in particular who would probably love the fact that there is Crocodile on the menu. (My little brother, Austin.)

Anyway, today is another slow day. We got the Lease Agreement approved by the Housing office, so we need to drive over to Grafenwoehr and get it printed, signed, and scanned to be sent back to the Landlord of the house we want in Eschenbach. It will be so nice to be one step closer to having a home of our own, this Hotel room is making us feel a little cramped, and I miss being able to cook real meals with real ingredients on a stove as opposed to different variations of ramen noodle dishes a la microwave...Très Bien! (Yes, that was sarcasm, sorry.)

I love my new phone, I have my email set up on it to let me know the second anyone writes. Justin and I also downloaded the Star Wars Lightsaber app and have random battles with our phones. I love our geekiness, not going to lie.

That's it for now! I will write again if there's anything else going on!

Our Search is Complete

I just got off the phone with the landlord.  Thankfully, she agreed to lower the rent from 1400 euros to 1250 euros, which the army will cover.  In short, we have an amazing home to look forward to!  Within a couple days, we'll be official with the lease agreement and we'll have the keys on June 1st.

Needless to say we're ecstatic!  Time to celebrate our first small victory!

If you haven't seen it yet, here's a link to the virtual tour of the house (just bear in mind, our Feng Shui will be superior):

http://manuspaur.point2agent.com/Listing/VirtualTour.ashx?ListingID=34783956

Quick Update

We just saw the house with the virtual tour link.

WE LOVED IT! Justin is sending an email to the owner now to express our interest.

Wish us luck! ^_^

The Search Continues!

Yesterday's house hunt went much better! We were able to see the outside of one home in Eschenbach, and we were fortunate to be seen for a walk-through in two others:

The first was in Apfelbach, very close to where Justin will be working. It was a fair sized lot and a two story building with a detached garage and plenty of storage space. The landlord told us that he would be living upstairs and that we were free to lay claim to the lower level which had 2 bedrooms, 1 bath, a full kitchen, cozy living room with a gas furnace and a small terrace overlooking a portion of the backyard. The houses' "common areas" included a basement with one room for storage and hanging clothes to dry, the other room contained a washer and dryer. I am happy to tell you that not only was everything clean and well maintained, but I found no trace of any spiders or mold! We thanked the Landlord, (Who can't have been any older than we were, and had the tattoos and piercings to prove it) for his time. It was a very nice place and we will keep it in mind, but we were unsure if we would be able to live there without cramping his style a little bit.

The second house we were able to see was just outside of Vilseck, also fairly close to where Justin will be working. This one we liked very much: it was a house on a piece of property in much the same situation as the one before, except the Landlord lived in a separate house roughly 100 yards away from the home he was looking to rent. It reminded us of The Shire from The Lord of the Rings! There were goats and a very friendly cat, nice shady trees, flowers and so much grass! The elderly Landlord seemed gregarious upon our first meeting, and enthusiastically gave us a tour of the house. It had a covered and tiled walkway up to the front door which opened to a hallway which lead in many directions at once. The Landlord showed us the kitchen first which, much like the previous house we had seen, had a full (albeit small) kitchen. He assured us that he would leave all cabinets and appliances for our use should we need them, which is not usually done. I was struck once again by this man's kindness. He then showed us a room directly behind the kitchen which he suggested could be used as an office. Justin and I happily nodded in agreement. We returned to the hallway and were led in a different direction, to the living room, and then back into the hall and into a very large bathroom which doubled as a laundry room. I am happy to say, that once again all facilities were clean and new. Justin and I could not believe our amazing luck! We returned to the hallway once more and were lead upstairs this time, where we found two more bedrooms, one of which Justin and I agreed would become the Guest room should we choose to live here after all. We expressed our gratitude to the Landlord, thanking him for his considerate decoration of this home and also for his time, that was when Justin asked him if Sox living there with us would be a deal breaker in any way? Sadly, it seemed to be. Justin's sponsor will send him pictures via email of Sox for consideration, she is certain he can be persuaded as long as we pay a pet deposit and a monthly "pet rent" fee. We will see how that turns out.

Today at 6 PM we will be looking at yet another home as a back up plan, we had been speaking with the owner and were able to negotiate a lowered monthly price from the initial steep amount of 1400 euro. Here is a virtual tour of it online. Check it out and tell us what you think in the comment boxes below, if you want! (Just mute the lame music, we did! Haha)

http://manuspaur.point2agent.com/Listing/VirtualTour.ashx?ListingID=34783956

House Hunting!

Today we had the opportunity to check out a house in a village named Brand about 25 miles away from the base on Grafenwoehr. It was, as promised in the ad HUGE. It was 5 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms and it had a backyard terrace with an immaculately maintained garden, a large lawn, and a very nice sun-room that overlooked both. It was also located on a main thoroughfare and had a basement and attic, so in other words...there were 4 stories to this place. Needless to say, it was too huge.  Now that I mentioned all of its' good points, I will not hesitate to list the reasons why Justin and I walked away from this particular opportunity.

The current tenant, to his credit, told us no lies. He explained that the Landlord has been "renovating" for the past 4 years he had lived in the house, but next to nothing has been accomplished. He warned us that although the Landlord is very kind, he can be absent-minded and slow to fix things in need of maintenance and there were many things in need of attention.

The house was built in the 1800's. Not necessarily a bad thing, except that each and every year showed: The walls with their cracks and missing paint, the rickety staircases, the damp smell of mildew in the air, the pervasive dark throughout all levels of the house. Then, the deal breaker! Apparently the place is also infested with spiderssss! Eek! I walked out with the creepy crawlies and Justin did not look convinced either.

On the way back to our hotel room, Justin's sponsor Katherine told us we would be looking at another apartment tomorrow evening, this one is a 2 bedroom 1 bath. We saw the outside today during our drive, it looks cozy and well-maintained and it has a large fenced yard for Sox to run around in. We admired the sunset as we returned to the car and Katherine was kind enough to take our picture to include in today's blog.

The search continues!

Our Journey to Bavaria

Justin and I arrived at the Dallas airport driven via taxi by a kind driver (who smelled overwhelmingly like onions) at about 9:30 AM. Our flight was not scheduled until 2:25 PM so he and I were all too happy to walk at a leisurely pace through the surprisingly calm airport, filled with other sauntering and smiling individuals going about their business. We located our gate and took up residence there with our modest amount of carry on luggage. "Modest" due to Justin's insistence, not my marvelous amount of restraint I will admit.

After we had sat a little while and wrapped up last minute phone calls from home and sipped at some smoothies we decided to have lunch at a nearby restaurant located in our terminal. Justin seemed happy with his Chipotle burger and I forced myself to eat soup and salad. I was not very relaxed and thus not very hungry. I am a terrible traveler by air and I dreaded what was to come. As a safeguard, Justin and I had agreed that I should buy sleeping pills in case the flight got to be too stressful or long. They rattled reassuringly in my purse as we pulled our luggage back to the gate. It was just after 1 PM and we could see our plane out a nearby window. We chattered excitedly and took pictures of it.

We chattered also about the heavy rains last night and the presence of dark clouds looming overhead. 2:25 came and went and we were told that our original plane had a maintenance issue and needed to be replaced. I heaved a sigh of relief Justin's way and we watched as the ground crew took the first plane away.

With a revised boarding time of 3:15PM, we had time to sit awhile and chat some more. Justin was in very high spirits and kept happily reminding me of our plans to travel. I made me happy to see him so animated. I swallowed my gloomies and allowed his infectious enthusiasm to catch on. In our celebratory mood, we had sipped on two glasses of wine earlier that day, one with lunch, and one in the local winery also located near our gate some time after lunch. By the time the plane was ready for boarding at about 4PM, Justin and I trudged to our seats accompanied by feelings of fatigue and one splitting headache apiece.

The weather worsened and we sat on the plane for one additional hour while the pilot waited for a safe gap in the storm in which to take off. Justin graciously allowed me the window seat and I sighed with resignation as the plane gathered speed and began its' ascent. Due to the 100% humidity in the area, the wing was awash in water; my pulse quickened and my eyes darted about with fear finally settling on Justin's calm assuring ones.

I will pause and allow Justin to take over from here, he seems anxious to do so at this moment...I want to assert now before he adds any artistic license to this part of our tale that I was totally calm and mature during the flight. ...hahaha! Who am I kidding?

Justin here. Let me just say, Sharay did very well and remained very collected despite her fear of flying...until we left the ground. When the plane rotated, the high humidity in the air condensed over the wings, shrouding them in "clouds". It was enough to send Sharay over the edge. She threw her face into my shoulder and kicked her feet like a child throwing a temper tantrum every time the plane shuddered from turbulence. Over her sobs, I (without letting her see me laugh, I found her little kicks hilarious) I tried to comfort her and reassure that everything was fine. Thankfully, the plane shortly made it through the rainclouds and the flight smoothed. From then on, the flight went well and our only problems were sore backsides and trying to find a comfortable position to sleep.

Ten hours later we finally landed at Frankfurt International Airport. Happily, Sharay never had to crush my hand in a death grip and seemed genuinely happy to be in Europe. Of course, she might have just been happy to be off the plane, but I can't fault her there.

After passing through customs and picking up our luggage, we waited for our bus in a holding area where one of the Army civilians kept us entertained with rudimentary lessons in German. Once on the bus, we watched the Autobahn pass by (and the fast German cars passing us by).

Before long, our exhaustion and jet lag caught up with us and we slept fitfully until our designated dinner stop at a German restaurant with authentic local food. Just kidding, we actually stopped at McDonald's...but it was a little different, so that was cool...I guess.

Anyway, we returned to the bus for the final leg of our journey. Fortunately, we left the Autobahn before long, allowing us to catch our first real views of the Bavarian countryside with its forested, rolling hills interspersed with tiny villages and orderly plots of farmland. We kept saying how it looks like the Shire in Lord of the Rings. It will be so amazing to have a place to live here.

Finally, by 7 PM we reached the base and signed into the hotel. Too tired to go anywhere, we ordered a pizza from a local restaurant. It was kind of bland, but we were too tired to care. After forcing ourselves to eat a reasonable amount, we showered and crawled into bed where sleep happily took us.

Greetings from Germany!

Hello everyone!

Justin here, we're still getting settled in here in Germany.  I'm working on a detailed post about our trip over here.  Until then, I'll leave you with a picture from the drive to Grafenwoehr:

Hi, it's Sharay, the trip here took a long time, but so far it seems well worth it! I can't wait until Justin and I get off base and take some more pictures to show all of you. I am also excited about Monday when Justin will be meeting with the Housing office so they can get the "finding a place to live" process started. This hotel room is cozy, but it seems empty without our Sox. I hope he is behaving himself in Denver!