Phones, house, and more

For the first few days at least, significant events and connections are happening every day, so for that time, I’ll try to report on each consecutive day so you can “experience” things as we’ve experienced them.

Germany, Day 2- Thursday 15MAY08
As usual, Matt woke up early to go to formation at 0630. Because we had moved into a larger room from the day before, I spent the morning unpacking…again, and then went to a class called Battlemind Training. This class consists of introducing spouses to the dynamics that go on with them and their soldiers when the soldiers are deployed (also called “down-range”). From what I heard about military courses, I didn’t expect anything amazing, but the woman who taught the course was great. The biggest benefit for me taking that class is that all the other women there have husbands that have been down-range for the last nine months (Matt is going to join the crew that has been there since August), and/or have been through 5 other deployments.

Some things they mentioned is to not change the house completely before your husband gets home, or else they might feel like they don’t belong there anymore. They also might not stand in doorways or feel like being around crowds, because that puts them in a vulnerable position. Another dynamic I didn’t think of was that when Matt leaves, I will be taking care of everything, and when he comes back, we’ll have to figure out our roles in the marriage again: who does the finances, who does what chores, etc.

After the class I was introduced to two other women that are around my age whose husbands are already deployed. These women, named Veronica and Krista, are so ridiculously nice. When they offered to drive me back to my hotel, I invited myself to lunch so I didn’t have to have another microwave lunch, and they gladly had me over to their houses. For the next two and a half hours we got to know each other and they gave me an incredible introduction to Army life in general and Vilseck specifically. It was really great that they liked talking because I learned so much. At the end of lunch they offered to take me to Grafenwoehr (Graf for short), the neighboring training post, and to arrange everything, Krista lent me her cell phone…whoah!

They took me back to my room so I could meet Matt and they could do errands, and when I got back, I heard some very good news. Matt had gone to take the infamously hard driver’s exam that morning, and he only got one question wrong! Meaning, he now has a USAREUR (military) license. He had also already gone to Sixt Car Rental and gotten a Smart car for us to use. For those of you who are unfamiliar with Smart cars, the picture is below. It’s basically an enclosed golf cart that can go 100 mph.

So instead of the girls just taking me to Graf, we drove behind the girls so we could see how to get there. At Graf they have a larger PX and Commissary than they do in Vilseck, so it was fun seeing what was available. After grabbing a few items, we went back to the hotel, put some work-out clothes on, went to the gym, and then had Mexican food at the on-post Mexican restaurant. Such a great day!

Day 3- Friday 18MAY08
For the last few days we had been talking to people about how to find housing. We’ve talked to about 15 different people, and gotten about 10 different opinions and experiences. Most people say go with non-government private rental. Matt’s CO (Commanding Officer) said they live in an awesome government rental about 30-45 minutes away and that a place just opened up, the same place that the housing office wanted to set us up with. Much discussion had ensued about this location because it was where all the officers lived, and therefore where their wives lived (so I’m not alone when Matt gets deployed).

So, this morning, when Matt got off work early, we took our car and decided to drive by the government rental. Just for posterity’s sake, I got on the internet to try to find any other towns of significance in the area, and wrote down the name of Edelsfeld so we could check it out on the way back from the government rental.

We drove to the rental, loved the area as we were driving into the town, and then got back to these small unkempt-looking townhouses all on one street. To try and be fair, Matt and I got out of the car and walked around to see if we were missing something. What little yards people had were not very well mowed, and had bad patio furniture. In a few cases, there were even pink flamingos in the yard. Matt and I totally don’t understand that. Apparently everyone who lives in these houses loves them, and they ARE 3-story 4-bedroom houses, but we just didn’t really like the area.

Disappointed, we drove back towards Vilseck and stopped in at Edelsfeld. The drive was just so ridiculously gorgeous, and the town seemed like an up-scale town, so already we were impressed. They have a little meat deli, a couple of hotels, a café, and probably some places hidden where we couldn’t see them. Altogether it looked very modest, quaint, and just generally beautiful.

Matt gave me the number of a realtor that his friend had given him and we called to ask for an appointment to try and get a better feel of what was available in the area. We decided to meet Saturday morning just outside of post.

After Edelsfeld, we went to Graf again, and after some long conversations and some painful interactions, we finally got cell phones! So now, we both have phones. I don’t understand the phone numbers, because they are nothing alike. Matt’s number has 12 digits and mine has 11, yet we have the exact same phone and both go through Vodafone as our provider.

We both had a few other appointments that day, and we are learning so much as we just walk around and talk to people. I finally met my sponsor yesterday! Apparently, every soldier and every spouse is supposed to have someone around their rank and age to guide them through this learning time. Her name is Erin, and I can’t wait to spend some time with her. She’s the first officer’s wife I’ve been introduced to other than those who work in offices, so I’m interested to hear her perspective on everything.

That night we went to the Vilseck Volksfest (Vilseck the town is separate from Vilseck the military community, I’ll try to distinguish between the two as best I can), which is basically a carnival with some rides, lots of food, and lots of beer. The carnival itself was very cool, but to Matt’s surprise, his CO prohibited him from drinking beer, which clearly put him in a very bad mood, since he hadn’t yet had German beer. Needless to say, we left there before the party got started and just went back home for a good night’s sleep.

Day 4- Saturday 17MAY08
This morning we woke up nice and late, had breakfast, and went to our appointment with the realtor, whose last name is Burger :). He was five minutes late, which is strange for Germans, so we gave him a call. Apparently, he had forgotten about us. Nice. He told us that the place was in Edelsfeld, which got me excited, so he instructed us to drive to the main hotel and wait for either the hotel owner or his wife to come meet us…a little odd, but okay. On our way there, he called us back and said he’d meet us in ten minutes.

He met us at the hotel, and took us to the house. And let me tell you, wow! If I could just to stream of consciousness right now, I’d give you a better idea of how it looked, but perhaps pictures would be better.

We'd have the top two stories, and the basement of this place.

This is the view when you go up the stairs and walk in the front door.

This is one of the bedrooms downstairs. Love the amount of light that comes in.

This is the large living room. There's also an area to the left that could be made into a reading nook/library.

A view from the upstairs window

A small part of the upstairs room.

We played it a little hardball with the guy, but we’d basically have three rooms, a bathroom, a large living room, a kitchen, a basement, and perhaps even our own garage and car port. The whole place has been entirely redone with hard wood floors, slate floors in the bathroom, large windows, and just beautifully clean everything. The owner came out as we were about to leave, and we communicated with him using sign language, but overall he seemed quite amiable, and that he liked to keep his place clean.

As Matt and I got in the car, we looked at each other, and just smiled. We totally want it! We drove around the area, fell in love with it even more, and then called the realtor to let him know that we wanted it. He said he get back with us on Monday. Woot! Man, we are just so extremely excited, already planning what rooms will serve as what, where we’ll put our furniture, and planning parties for when our friends come to visit. I want everyone to see it!

Tonight we’re going to go to Graf, have some dinner, and then come back to the room and watch a movie. So a productive day!