Our First Wine Fest!
Apologies for the radio silence these past few days- we finally got moved into our new home (!!!!!) but there is no wifi and the 3G on our cell service works about 10% of the time here… so needless to say I have not been able to get a post out!
Friday morning was quite an adventure! We got all packed up Thursday and loaded everything into Miss Pepper! Like… everything with room to spare! AND Ryders crate was fully assembled. To most of you this does not mean anything, but Mom- you understand! She is HUGE! So Friday morning we were up bright and early to get to our housing appointment by 8am. The housing office, however, is on another base. A base we thought we had been to before. But when we show up at the front gate and ask the man where the housing office is he directs us OFF base and about 15 more minutes down the road. This throws Michael into a panic because if you are late to your housing appointment they will quickly move onto the next person and shuffle us to the end of the stack. It IS “PSC Season” after all. (argggg). So we are speeding just a tad to get here and even though we have been told over and over that the Germans AND base take their speed limits very seriously, we continue. Well we pass TWO base police officers clocking along our way and miracle beyond miracle we don’t get tickets. The first one waved his hand out the window telling us to slow down, and the second… well I think we just got really lucky. Anyhow, we make it to our appointment just a FEW minutes late and they had not moved down the list yet so we were good! WHEW! Everything went well and soon we were upstairs at FMO (Furnishings Management Office) signing up to receive loaner furniture. We get the basics (bed, table, night stand etc) until our shipment of goods makes it here and we get a few large appliances (Washer & Dryer, Microwave) and 3 wardrobes for the entire time we are here. Since there are no closets in Germany and we cannot run our large appliances even on a transformer, it is really awesome that base offers us these items. In just a few hours we are done there and headed back to the TLF for a final pack up! Of COURSE as we are gathering our final things and trying to get out the door some base staff show up to check the fire suppression system. I try to explain we are on our way out if they will just give us a minute but they insist. I also debate telling them that yes I in fact have tested your fire suppression systems and so far, only the alarm has proved its worth. I don’t. We struggle to load up AND grab Ryder and keep him from freaking out on these strange men in our TLF and scoot OUT OF THERE. Did NOT even look back.
To Bosenbach we Goooooooo!!!!!
We meet our Property manager, Petra, at the new house and have a 2-hour orientation about all things German-houses. Like how to open the doors and windows… I promise you, it’s different! How to sort our recycling (because its mandatory and you can get fined for doing it wrong), how to operate the oil heating system etc etc. 2 Hours later we have our keys and we are waving Tschuss to Petra in our new homeeeeee!!!!! We could not be more excited. Michael heads back to base to finish up some in processing (awesome side note: they give him 30 days to get in processed and settled and he completed everything in a week and 2 days. So he has asked for one more week to finalize everything and then will hit the flight line next week- 2 weeks early!) And I stayed to get as settled as possible with our UAB shipment of goods waiting for us in the basement! Think: bag chairs, a rug and a box for a coffee table in the living room, an air matress and lamp on the floor in the bedroom and stacks and stacks of clothing in the “dressing room” (we are using one of the spare bedrooms as a closet for us both… since again… no closets here… so strange) and ta-da! We are settled.
We have an apple tree! And it produces AMAZING apples!
Welcome to our (humble) abode! This is our current version of #settled
View from our bathroom... I mean... is this real life?
Friday night we went over to a friend’s house for dinner. I met Krysta via Facebook and she was kind enough to answer a ton of my crazy questions before we arrived. Then once we got here she invited me to lunch with her and her friend Kristy. So Friday she was having a small BBQ to celebrate her husband’s birthday. It ended up being us and 3 other couples, one of which we met on our second night here when we went to dinner with some people Michael had met, so we pretty much knew everyone already! It was so nice to relax and hang out and start building new friendships. This bunch was a lot of fun and I look forward to hanging out with them again! Krysta and Chris, her husband, are in Switzerland this weekend for his birthday! While at dinner we were asking everyone where we should go first, and of course we got so many answers “Prague, Cologne, Italy, Paris!!” The fact that these are even options for a weekend trip blows my mind. Apparently during your first 30 days of getting settled you are allowed to take weekend trips without signing leave. We JUST found this out and of course are working to plan a trip for the weekend, possibly with Krysta and Chris! Stay tuned…
Saturday we were invited to a wine festival in Wiesbaden with Gwen and her husband Brandt and their little boy William! (Michael and I know Gwen from high school and she actually went to UGA! Such a small world in the military!) First of all the weather was perfect, second of all, WHY don’t we do these sort of things in the states?!? It was amazing- the entire downtown part of the village is totally converted for this festival. All these different vineyards have booths where you can buy glasses or bottles of wine. Of course they serve them in legit wine glasses, so you either pay the deposit and wander around, then either keep the glass or return it for your 2 euros OR you just stay put and relax in the shade at a wine barrel or picnic table and enjoy your wine before moving on. There are food vendors (meat on bread and bread on meat and cheese and fruit oh my!) and stages where Germans play American music! It was divine. I could have stayed there all day. This will be the first of many I am sure!
Helloooo Wiesbaden!
That evening we stood on our terrace and watched the sun go down. Our yard is not totally fenced in yet, but we have been letting Ryder out without a leash to try to teach him the boundaries and he was a champ! We are still going to get it totally fenced in, but at least for now it is so nice to not have to have him on the leash 24/7 in our backyard. We are still trying to wrap our minds around the beauty that is Germany and our village, but I honestly pray we NEVER get used to these views and appreciate them each day we are here.
Yesterday was a lazy and wonderful Sunday. We relaxed at the house, cooked a nice dinner (can I get a woop woop for having some of my own dishes!) and then went on a walk along our trail again, but this time at sunset. WOW. The view actually got better if that is possible. We saw a farmer feeding his horses, another one spreading hay or something throughout his fields, another tending to something else. We forget that these amazing views are here BECAUSE of the farm land, so it was neat seeing them out and about working the land. It must be difficult with all the hills, but I suppose they are used to it. Sundays are really nice here because everything is closed, you are kind of forced to relax and it is quiet hours all day. So no loud lawn equipment (guess farmers are exempt), no barking dogs, etc. The one word I keep coming back to, to describe living here, is PEACEFUL.
Today Michael was off to check in on base and get some more in processing done. I am off to run errands and attempt my first German grocery shopping experience! Wish me luck!