Hello from Germany! (1 Viewer)

nitrogirl

Nitro Member
We made it over and we're getting settled in to our three year assignment in Germany!
We flew in on July 8th, a nice European summer day of rain and 54 degrees. I see now why air conditioning is almost non-existent here! After waiting 62 days from when we shipped our household goods, they arrived, a little battered and bruised, but at least they are here and we can sleep in our own bed.
The good news was both of our Audis arrived in perfect shape off the boat. We went to Bremerhaven to pick up my car, and you can't believe the port there. It was just acres and acres of cars being imported and exported.
My dad has the GTO now, and has promised he will keep Greg's autograph on the dash. :D He is having so much fun cruising around in it, but I still miss it terribly. Still, it wouldn't have been practical to send it over. Roads are narrow here, and parking spaces and parking garages are tiny. Gas is expensive (but I'm glad we get a break in price for active duty; otherwise it's about $8 a gallon), and there is nowhere besides the autobahn to really open a car up and go!
For Valentine's Day, I got a red 2008 Audi TT 3.2 quattro from my husband, and it gets so much attention here. Especially the 3.2, which they don't have here. Diesels are big here, and tiny engines reign. I see these tiny shoebox cars every day here, but not a bit of American Muscle. Well, I did see a '70 Chevelle SS one day, but that's it! My husband bought an A5 3.2 quattro last summer, before he deployed to the Middle East for 5 months, so that is our other car.
We live in a tiny village, with about 200 inhabitants. Most of them are elderly German folks who don't speak a bit of English, and I speak no German. Those of you who know me know I love to talk, so that gets rather lonely sometimes! Unlike being stationed at Ramstein, where there are approximately 40,000 Americans, Americans are few and far between out here.
My husband has lived in Germany before and knows a different German dialect than what they speak here, but at least he can communicate for us. I am always and forever carrying my German to English dictionary into restaurants to figure out the menu.
There are no drive-thru windows here, restaurants are extremely expensive, and there is absolutely not one Waffle House! :p I am getting used to the food, but we mostly stay home and cook during the week. They do have delicious pastries and baked goods, so I will say I enjoy those. And I can drive over to The Netherlands, to an Army base there, and get my Burger King fix now and then, so I won't starve!
We have done a little traveling so far. We went to Berlin to see the U2 concert our first weekend here, and that was an amazing show. Snow Patrol opened and there were 90,000 in attendance. It was held at the pre-WW2 Olympic stadium, which was cool to see in itself. We didn't get to do a lot of sightseeing in Berlin that weekend, but did drive around a little and it was interesting to see that, although the wall is down, it's still fairly obvious to tell if you are in the former East Berlin or West Berlin!
We also went to Paris for my birthday weekend, and it was wonderful! It was probably the most beautiful place I have ever been. We are going back in the near future to see the Louvre and some of the cathedrals, since it's only a four hour drive away.
I'm not sure where we'll be going next, since I started a job on the base, as a cosmetics manager at a Canadian retail store two weeks ago. I am glad to have my job to go to; that makes everything seem more normal for me.
We don't have TV signal yet, and when we get it, there is no ESPN or ESPN2 on it, so I will have to live vicariously through all of you attending races and posting about all the news. Talk about being out of my element! Maybe I can find out when all the racers make their annual trek to Ramstein, and show up there. :rolleyes:
 
Thanks for the up-date Joelle. Congrats on the new job. Sounds like yer gettin along oretty good. (except for no TV ) ugh!!.

Keep up the sight seeing, take in all you can while yer there. Did you see zMAX gets (2) two races in 2010 :cool: Keep in touch.
Zappy
 
Hey Joelle... Imagine the amount of people you would have to talk to if you opened up a Waffle House franchise there!?!

Drive safely and remember, they will be going MUCH faster in the left lane- pay attention to that rear-view mirror..

If I get any tours that roll into that part of the world, I'll let you know and you can send me your missing-home wish list (I'm in Moscow in mid October, but nothing else scheduled for the rest of the year in Europe).

POST PICTURES!!!!!! :)
 
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