“I can’t think of anything that excites a greater sense of childlike wonder than to be in a country where you are ignorant of almost everything.
Suddenly, you are five years old again.
You can’t read anything, you have only the most rudimentary sense of how things work…” – Bill Bryson
So I have been completely slacking in the blog writing department. This will be our fourth night in Germany, third in the cabin we are staying in until we find a home. I must say, the three hour time zone difference was nothing compared to this! Nora has been waking up around 0100, which in turns wakes Stella and me up, and then we fall back asleep between 0400-0500.
So we are finally to Grafenwöhr in our little cabin. Well, I can’t particularly say that it’s small. It has 3 bed rooms, with a wardrobe and desk in each of them. The front room has bunk beds and a third, single bed; the second room has 2 single beds; and the back room has 2 singles pushed together. The living, dining, and kitchen areas are all open to one another giving this small space an open feeling. We really like it and want to try and remember the floor plan for our future home.
But onto the international move! We took the traverse to Santee to drop it off at the port then spent a weekend at Coronado relaxing and exploring the area. The packers came that Monday to pack up and put our belongings into shipment containers to head this way. We went back home to Missouri for a week, then we woke up at 0130 on Sunday morning to head to the airport.
After departing St. Louis and getting to Baltimore, our flight got cancelled so we waited in the airport for about 6 hours, until Justin could pick up our hotel voucher. Of course the area our hotel was in didn’t have much, we walked to two gas stations in search of beer but I am assuming that Maryland must not allow the purchase of alcohol in gas stations or gas stations don’t see it worth their while to get their license to sell alcohol. We got to the airport the next day around 1800, checked into our flight at 2000, and found all the restaurants and shops closing! According to one manager, the airline didn’t inform anyone that our flight got pushed back but he was kind enough to keep his (small) restaurant open so that 300+ soldiers and their families could have a place to eat before our 0200 flight. Thank goodness the Baltimore airport had a great play area in our terminal, where we spent 4 hours letting the girls run around and play with other children.
Around 0115 we boarded the flight and were on the runway by 0200. Stella and Nora slept the majority of the flight, Justin probably slept half of it, and I got a whopping 1 hour of sleep. Of course, whose little TV would only let them select ‘Spanish’ movies? Oh yes, mine. And I do not know a lick of Spanish, so I read and practiced some german. We landed in Germany around 1600, got into a small hotel, ate dinner (which was weird considering we hadn’t had breakfast or lunch!), and then hit the hay. The next morning we got on a bus and rode for about 6 hours before we got to Graf. Justin’s sponsor picked us up and we got to the cabin, went to the PX and commissary (thank goodness he has a jeep so the girl’s car seats fit), then back to the cabin.
Yesterday Justin had to go in for a couple hours and the girls and I slept until almost noon (oops). So I had to set an alarm to wake up at 0815 this morning so that hopefully we get closer to sleeping through the night. I am so exhausted I am sleeping through Justin’s alarm going off, which almost always wakes me up.
Today I am hoping we will do the nature walk that I ran yesterday. There were trees, mushrooms, creeks, moss – which may sound trivial to some, but these are all things I have missed since living in Arizona. I didn’t realize how beautiful the green scenery was until it was no longer around. The weather here has been a bit chilly, but humid, 60-70* Fahrenheit (17-20* Celsius). Due to it not getting hot here, houses do not have a/c units. Instead, they have these awesome windows that open two ways; I love them and must have them in my future home! We are suppose to open our windows every morning to allow the air to circulate to avoid mold and stuffiness in the house, which has not been a problem since I love having windows and doors open.
The 2 ways the windows open
On today’s agenda we have some errands to run once Justin gets back from in-processing. This includes getting my new (to me) phone activated so I can take better photos again. My current phone is not focusing as it should, the screen selects and moves at random, and there is always a haze on my screen. Tomorrow (Saturday) a bus will come to the cabins so it will be easier for us to get places and explore post more! Hopefully next week we can begin the house hunting process, although I love the cabin, I would rather be busing myself with unpacking, shopping for bedroom furniture, and exploring towns.
Until then, we will be here jamming to the Moana soundtrack and Billy Joel! 😉
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