First Trip Off-Post!

We HAD Internet and phone for a couple hours on Thanksgiving, but when we came home from dinner it was off and they can't fix it until Monday :( I hope it's not a sign of things to come with this service, but we'll see!! Once the phone is fixed, we'll have free calls to the states!!
Thanksgiving was fun - we went over to Vic's sponsor's house (who lives a couple buildings down) with a few other families and they had a TON of food. I brought chicken dip and stuffing ... the chicken dip was a huge hit, but I can't say the same for the stuffing.
The next night we took the bus into downtown Schweinfurt with the Logan's (John was at AIT with Vic and now they live across the street). They opened the Christmas Market downtown and it was really pretty. We weren't really prepared for how cold it was going to be, so we're going to head back next weekend during the day.

Huge building in the square. I'm not sure what it is, and I was too cold to find out. There is supposed to be a really good restaurant attached - so we'll have to check that out soon.

 

 Live sheep in the middle of the square.

 Statue in the square ... again, I'll find out what this is all about when it's warmer.

Full view of the Christmas Market. These things are huge in Germany and each town has their own. Schweinfurt has a really small one, but we're hoping to get to a couple of the bigger ones before the season is over.

One of the stranger things in Germany is that almost all vehicles are Mercedes or BMWs ... taxis, semi-trucks, dump trucks, buses, etc.

McDonald's!!

This is called a Doner and it's amazing!! It's Turkish and I'm not even sure what is inside, but I could probably eat one everyday. You can get them at little cafes downtown and they are only 3 euro.

This is the only coat I have that still zips! 

German dollar store. Everything is one Euro!!

Vic is done with in-processing and starts his first full week of work tomorrow. I'm going to try to stay busy with baby classes and getting registered with everything. We are loving it here!!

Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving from Schweinfurt!! We set-up our phone and internet this morning!! We would love to call friends and family, but it's 3am in the states :) If you get a call from a weird number, make sure you answer!! We also got our first shipment of stuff! It wasn't a lot, but at least we have towels, dishes, bedding, and some of the baby's stuff.

Yesterday I ventured out on my own while Vic was at meetings. I even took the bus by myself! I ran errands and then met Vic for a Thanksgiving lunch with his unit. I was able to meet a lot of people and stuff my face with food.

The house is still empty, but I thought I would post some pics of the weird/cool stuff ...

The toilets in Germany are super weird. There are two buttons on top ... one for a 'small' flush and the other for a 'big' flush. Haha ... I'll let you figure out what those are for.

This is the heated towel rack in the bathroom is my favorite!

Full wall of wardrobe closets in our bedroom ... I thought this would be a pain in the ass, but there is actually tons of storage. There is another half wall of these and we have plenty of space for all of our clothes and shoes. These are also in the bathroom and living room. 

German light switches ... weird.

The outside of our place. I love being on the first floor. Our main priority for next week is to get some curtains ... I'm pretty sure the neighbors have got to know us a little too well over the past few days.

Love our kitchen ... it's not huge, but there is a ton of storage. To the left is the fridge and even more storage and a pantry.

German socket vs. American socket ... see below for our first mishap ...

Vic is trying to blame me for this, but I assure you that he is the one who told me to do it :) We don't have american outlets in the bedroom, and I wanted to plug in a heating pad. Vic told me he had bought an adapter ... which I warned against using, but he assured me it would be fine. Well I plugged it in and it exploded ... and blew the fuse in the bedroom. Needless to say the heating pad is shot ... and we learned a good lesson!!!

Vic was issued all of his gear yesterday ... this picture doesn't do justice for how much stuff is actually there. Good thing we have tons of storage ... and hopefully he never has to use any of it! You can see our loaner furniture and tv in the background. Speaking of tv ... we get about 6 American channels and they show the weirdest stuff. It is also really behind ... we watched Sunday Night Football on Monday and Monday Night Football on Tuesday! There also aren't any commericials ... it is all military PSA's, which are really lame.

Vic's favorite German beer. They give it to you in this huge crate, and then you bring the bottles back to get a deposit back. It's really strong beer!!

That's about it until our furniture gets here!! We are hoping to go downtown this weekend to the Christmas Market ... we'll take some pictures of the city!

First Days in Schweinfurt

     I made it! This website is in German, so I'm not sure if I'm doing this right ... but we'll see! I arrived yesterday at 3:30 am (America time) and 9:30 here. The flight went really well ... I had an aisle seat and then two seats between myself and the other guy sharing my row. I watched a couple movies and managed to sleep for a few hours. Lola did great on the flight ... she only barked a couple of times when people would try to talk to me. Roscoe did not have as pleasurable of an experience. During the ticketing process in Atlanta he was crying and howling like crazy ... I did not even know he was capable of such noises. The lady didn't even check his paperwork, I'm sure this was in an effort to get him away from her as soon as possible. When I picked him up in Germany he was covered in poop and crying even louder than he was in Atlanta. Vic met me shortly after I got my luggage and we let him out of the cage and he was allowed to walk through the airport on a leash ... and he was much happier.The drive from Frankfurt to Schweinfurt was really pretty and I was able to see a couple castles from the Autobahn!
     Once we got into Schweinfurt, Vic took me to the apartment so I could get changed and drop off the dogs. The place is really nice!! The outside is a little questionable, but the inside is much better than what we had at Fort Gordon. The kitchen has newer appliances and tons of storage ... it's just missing a garbage disposal - apparently the Germans are not big on that. The bathroom is my favorite part ... the shower is really cool, and we have a heated towel rack! Our bedroom is nice, but a lot smaller than what we're used too. There isn't a closet, but instead these full wall wardrobe things. They are nice, but it makes it hard to put our furniture in the room ... thank goodness we have a storage unit! We haven't met our neighbors yet, but the building seems quiet so far!
     After we dropped the dogs off, Vic taught me how to use the bus and we ran a couple errands. The base is weird and it will definitely take me awhile to learn my way around. It's kind of divided into two bases, so you have to take the bus between each side. It is pretty though ... very WWIIish ... if that's even a thing?
     We're looking forward to the Thanksgiving 4-day weekend so we can relax and get the house set-up. Our first small shipment (pots&pans, clothes, bedding, towels, baby stuff, etc) should get here on Thursday, but we're not expecting our house-hold goods for 2-3 months!! In the meantime we have loaner furniture and Vic's sponsor (who turned out to be amazing) even let us borrow a tv!
     We're are doing well ... baby included!! We're going today to get my first doctor appointment set-up. I'll post pictures of the house and base in the next couple days!!
    

It's Happening!!

I decided to start a blog to document our time in Germany! I thought this was the easiest way to share with family and friends, without tons of e-mails and expensive phone calls. I also wanted to avoid being 'that girl' on Facebook with a million updates and pictures. I will try to keep this thing updated, and hopfully we will do enough exciting things that you will actually want to read it!