Germany: The Beginning

Germany- Day 0, 13MAY08
I wake up at 0400 Central Europe time on a plane with people on either side of me, and my husband sitting in the seat behind me. I can't go back to sleep so I decide to just watch a movie. Breakfast is delicious at 0600. When we land, and Matt steps onto European soil for the first time in his life. I'm so glad to be a part of that moment! Sadly, no stamps in the passport because he's traveling on orders, and my new No-Fee passport already has the visa stamped inside.

Outside immigration we meet up with an enlisted guy, get our bags, are hustled about the airport to different rooms, fill out paperwork, and finally get on a bus to begin the four and a half hour trek to Vilseck. Matt, I, and two other officers are the only four passengers on this large tour bus, and as we are Americans, the driver decides to give us a real treat for lunch: Burger King. Apparently at Burger King, McDonald's, and who knows where else, you can pay with American dollars no matter what country you're in. But watch out, with the exchange rate, your innocent burger, fries, salad and a drink might cost you $16.

From the tour bus, we switch over to a 7-passenger van and make our way on the smaller roads through the most idyllic villages to the military post of Vilseck. We get to post and meet our "sponsor," the captain (two ranks above Matt's rank of 2nd Lieutenant), who takes us around the whole post--considering the circumference is about six miles, it didn't take long. We stopped at the commissary to get some groceries, and the PX to see what kind of furniture, cell phones, bikes, etc. they have available.

After sponging up all of this information, we go to dinner at the DFAC (Dining Facility and Containment...nobody can tell me what "containment" means. Oh the acronyms are going to be the end of me!). Luckily for me, that evening there is an FRG (Family Readiness Group) meeting. This is one venue for the wives to gather and see what's going on around post. There were about 8 of us there, so I got introduced to come cool women and got my first way to get connected here on post.

From there, Matt and I went back to our hotel, the Kristall Inn, unpack a little--we could be here for up to four months--and hit the hay. We made it through day zero!

Vilseck, Day 1- 14MAY08, first full day on Post
Matt wakes up at 0610 for his 0630 formation (what they do at these formations, I don't know, they just gather and...do important stuff), and comes back around 0700 to have breakfast with me, and than is off to his 0800 class. While he's gone, I unpack some more, and then head over to the ACS (Army Community Service) building. This is apparently the place for the spouses to go. They have all sorts of classes that they offer, outings, gatherings, etc., and I was able to get the schedule for the rest of the summer. My schedule is now filling up with useful things.

I do some other random errands--get my ID card activated, make sure I'm on healthcare here, make a dental appointment, drop by the automobile testing site--and then head to my one appointment of the day: Fuel Card Rationing seminar. We get a pretty sweet deal abroad in that we get to pay American prices for gas instead of European prices, saving us around $6.00/gallon (yes, they pay $9-11/gallon over here), and we can get these prices at select gas stations all around the country. The hitch is that the fuel is rationed, with each car getting around 100 gallons/month. For the last 49 years the method of keeping track of this ration was inadequate, so people were getting away with not adhering to the rules. Of course, the day we arrive, they start being strict about everything, hence the seminar telling everyone how to switch from using coupons to a ration credit card. The whole thing was unnecessarily long for what I deemed a simple explanation, but I guess if you're use to a system then you need a lot of training to get untrained from it.

From there Matt and I went to check out cell phones and nearly cried when we saw how expensive it would be. They charge 30 euros for 50 minutes a month. BLEH! We couldn't make a decision because our sticker shock was so extensive, so we're going to check on that tomorrow or the next day. Oh, and if you want to talk to Matt and me, get skype. My username is rachel.melone.

As for news about housing, we think we might have found a place that we like. Someone at the FRG meeting told us about a government rental that is off-post and that is going to be completely renovated and ready in about 2-3 weeks. When Matt went to the housing office today they told him there was a place that just came available and will be ready in 2-3 weeks. The really really sucky part was when they told us that if they gave us the keys to go look at the place, we had 48 hours to decide if we liked it. And if we refused to take it, then our housing allowance (the money that is keeping us in this hotel while we search for a place) will be revoked. Entirely. So basically, even to go and check out a place, we're saying that we're going to take it, or pay with our own money to stay in this hotel. Crappy? Yes, but we're trying to work with it. We think we know which place it is, so we're going to go check out the area first (Auerbach in der Oberpfalz). Hopefully the area is good, and hopefully this is the rental the housing office was talking about.

Well, it is quite late here, and I am pooped from the day, my workout, and the mexican food dinner we had tonight. No promises of writing again soon, but I'll try to keep this updated! Thanks for reading!