Written: 29 October 2010
Written by: Lea
Hello all!!!
We arrived yesterday. The flight was horrendous. The cats were great for the first 4 hours or so, but then their meds wore off and they (mainly Zipper) screamed nonstop for the next 3.5 hours. The poor little guys were so terrified. They were panicked and sending themselves into a frenzy. Zipper then peed and pooed all over himself and we were barely able to clean him up since we were on the plane. He was so miserable. And the smell was just lovely. I had a meltdown on the plane; it was just so heartbreaking to hear their frantic meows. It was a nightmare. We will not be doing that anytime soon!
We got to the hotel, cleaned up the cats, and then were whisked off for the next 6 hours getting my access ID card and renting a car, etc. Unfortunately we were not able to clean ourselves off before we went and we smelled of cat pee all day! The poor woman, Jennifer, who was in charge of taking us around the first day probably thought we were just smelly Americans. Although she's an American too...so maybe she just thought we were smelly.
The hotel is nice. They first tried to put us in a room with separate twin beds. Thankfully Jennifer spoke up, otherwise I would have been a good Japanese girl and not questioned authority. The hotel serves breakfast and has a good restaurant (so I'm told). Elliott's excited because the restaurant is attached to a butcher shop! Too bad we don't have a kitchen.
My first official day was today. I was there a half day to do some in-processing paperwork. But the job seems like it will be really good and the people seem extremely nice. I'll be doing all outpatient work and I really like my boss. Major Todd Neu (pronounced "New") is really funny and seems to be pretty supportive. As I was leaving today the buses were pulling in and unloading the wounded soldiers from Iraq and Afghanistan. It was sad, but felt really good to know that my job will be to help these men and woman. Everyone on base is incredibly friendly. All the administrative support people are German nationals, which is kind of nice. Apparently they love their forms and paperwork. I swear I'll need to fill out a form in order to wipe my ass. It's kind of crazy. I got my own office (and it's big!) and will have a phone and email account soon. Our APO mailbox is working - we collected quite a ton of mail today - including the sweetest card from Tracie - thank you, sweetheart! It was so fantastic to see that amidst our mail :) and you've got to send me the website of the place that did your address labels. Love them.
The food in Germany is great, actually! Though I suppose it depends on what you like. It's a lot of meat - so if you're not a big sausage and beer person you'd hate it. We are quite happy. We are probably going to try a Korean restaurant tonight. I'll report back. We grabbed a quick meal yesterday on the economy - nothing exciting: pizza. There seems to be pizza everywhere.
The military community is massive here. It could easily feel like you've never left the states. The PX (like a giant shopping mall) is the largest one in the world (yep, you read that right) - they have everything in there. From a Victoria's Secret to The Body Shop. We are working on housing, cell phones, and buying a car (though we need our German driver's licenses first). And we'll be buying a GPS navigation system. A definite must. Maybe we can get a Tom Tom and hear Darth Vader reading German street names.
Anyway, nothing else really to report. Hope everyone is doing well. Sorry for the mass email, but it seemed like the most expeditious way to let everyone know of our (mis)adventures thus far!
Love you all,
Lea
