Life in Germany

Lots going on, little time to be online.

I am going down to Heidelberg Army post tomorrow to interview for a Computer Support job. It is a LONG commute, so not sure if I will take the job or not, will have to see. About half of what I made in the states, but double what I am making now, plus health care, etc.

We are in the new apartment, no kitchen for a month, nothing on the walls or floors (welcome to renting in in Europe!) not even light fixtures. We will be buying wallpaper and will be taking advantage of the long weekend for Christmas to paper the walls.

Have bought a couple of beds, that is it. we have the TV, basic cable comes with the apt..... will be getting a land line in this next week i hope. internet (YES!!!!) in a few weeks.

Cats are confused, the place is huge and empty so it echoes.

Am short on time, will try to write more in the next couple of days....... Bye!

Officially Army

well, before I get into my day,I just to reply to the comment made about my adventure having a purpose...

This blog was was simply created so that I could communicate with friends and family without having to write emails to everyone. That's it.

SOOOOOO.. today we went in, and finally got our ID cards that gives us access to the base. We also received a card that goes with our passports that will allow us unrestricted access in and out of Germany, since our three month tourist visas will be up.

Of course I went and got the covetted(sp) bars of Coast soap and the can of Sierra Mist. (Just about as good as I hoped, but will taste much better in a glass with ice when I am sitting in our new apartment.

We think we have an apartment right in Hanau! This means a 5 minute bus right to and from work, not bad!! It is also owned but a woman Veterinarian, SCORE again, she said no porblem to the 4 cats. it is also located right next door to her Vet clinic, score again for the cats! i can't stand it, cn hardly wait until Monday to see it.

Whe have an appt Monday at 9 am to see it, but unless there are gaping holes in the walls, we will take it. That means we only have to pay for bus to and from work, about a 5 minutes ride from the apt. What a deal. monday and Tuesday we also have real orientation.... Two all day sessions.

Jess actually worked until 6 tonight, I am waiting for her to come back any time. I work tomorrow from 1 pm to 9 pm....so I get to sleep late....

What else, oh yes! We both opened up APO boxes, meaning that we can get mail from the US at regular stamp prices. This means my mother no longer has to put 5 stamps on everything, if she sends it to the APO box. Cool!

What else, oh yes, tomorrow we have to go before I start work and open up accounts at the community bank on base. This way we get direct depost and also are able to pay our German bills through this account.

I am so tired, really can't think of much else to say right now, so am off for the evening. Take care!!!

THANK GOD FOR MOTHERS!!!!!!!!

Ok please, I would like every one of you to post a comment thanking my mother for being there and being generous enough to save our butts again! I can't really explain how and why she did it, but you will have to trust me, short of giving up a kidney she made the ultimate sacrifice so that we were able to stay here, get back and forth to our jobs, find an apartment etc. All I am asking of you who read this is to put an anoymous comment on this blog thanking her....


I LOVE YOU MOM!!!!! thank you for being there for us.... nothing I can say will truly express how thankful I m that you have been there behind us!!!!!!!!

Both Jess and I received a call today saying that we have been apporved to work before we even go to orientation on Monday, so tomorrow morning we go in, fill out paperwork, and start our respective jobs at Subway and Taco Bell. LOL

Should be a lot of fun to be busy again, and be around people esp those that speak English!

That is all for now, bye! (mom, to read any comments, just click on the number of comments at the end of this blog.)

The best of both worlds?

Anothe short blog, sorry.

We went on post today, the woman at Taco Bell didn't even really interview me, just said how many hours a week were available, anywhere from 25-35 or more. Asked if I could work evenings, weekends, holidays. I said yep, I have no life, will be glad to, so i now work at Taco Bell!! piece of cake...less problems with carpal tunnel! plus there may be a supervisor position coming up, which changes my staus from intermittent to PT, which gives me more benefits, though not sure health....

We went in to the commissarie, and I found COAST SOAP and SIERRA MIST! I actually started crying (ok, that is mostly because I have been off meds a month, and I have a tendency to cry when not on them.) but it was soooooooo nice to find things like that. Hey, I left America because of the crime, etc. No one said i could not have coast soap and Sierra Mist if I left.

I had 3 bars of Coast, a can of Sierra Mist (all I could afford) a Slim Jim and some ladies items that Jess can not find in Germany stores. AND THEY WOULD NOT LET US CHECK OUT WITHOUT AN ID from on Post.. I about died... no fair.... *SIGH* That is OK, we will get them within the next week. We have orientation on monday and Tues and should be able to start as of next Wed.

There is an unfurnished apt we want to take a look at. Unfiurnished being nothing in the kitchen but walls and outlets. Bathroom had toilet and tub, but the place is huge, two bedrooms, and cheap, 360€ a month, which is about $400, so I am waiting to hear from the agent tomorrow about going up and seeing it.. YES!! It woul dbe so nice to be in a place of our own by xmas. ok, have to go, using the expensive coputer time at the hotel. No cash right now. Love you all and take care!!!

Money in - money out

Sheesh, we seem to get enough cash in for a couple of days, then it is gone. We have been broke the last few days, which is why we have not been online and/or written blogs. We've simply been sitting in the hotel room sulking, waiting for the week to begin. What a LONG weekend. Some money came in this evening, but then this internet cafe closes in about 20 minutes. Will write more tomorrow. Got a call from Taco Bell and have an interview tomorrow at 10 am. Then we will be contacting a couple of rental agents in Hanau about an apartment. YES!........ So til tomorrow..... Bye!!

A bit of America in Germany

Yesterday Jess and I went to the Hanau Army base for her two job interviews. One with Subway and one with a pizza place. Obviously they loved her a smuch as she loved them, and before we even left the base after the interviews, Jess was being offered the Subway job. YEAH!

I had decided enough for shooting big with jobs, and the day before had gone ahead and applied for a fast food job also. WEE NEED MONEY! (That and being able to access the base means books and magazines in English, access to used cars cheap, commisary, etc..)

Since Jess has taken the one, and the HR person has spoken with me while jess was making out paperwork, I got lucky. The HR person called Jess this mornign and said they had reopened the pizza job so that I could apply for it. LOL. I never thought I would be bragging about a pizza job being opened for me so that I could apply. :-D

Works for me, will get us money for transportation and an apartment while I keep applying for other jobs. To be honest, I don't even care if I get an IT job any more, I think this is a blessing in disguise.

We will also be able to go to the onsite university for cheap, and then I think I wll go ahead and take the few classes I need to get my BA. It walways seems to haunt me that I have 2 -two year degrees, so close to a BA.....

Well, i have to go, we have used the last of our cash again, waiting for a refund on some clothing i brought back to a store. Will talk more later!!!!!

Baby Steps

are what we are taking. Going to another part of Germany means leaving our comfort zone and going somewhere where we have NO idea where things are, how far away, what they cost, etc.. It is going to take a few days for us to get our bearings. In the meantime, WE GOT OUR MONEY BACK FROM ATENA!! Which works out really well, because we had 4€ in our pockets, enought to get online and see if my money came in, and then we were broke..

My dear mother had emailed them saying what a digsgrace it was that they would not return my money. They emailed her back and CCd me saying how rude she was, but amazingly my money showed up today also. Co-inky-dink? I THINK NOT!

Below is the blog I wrote out on paper last night....

We have escaped, YEAH! We gor into Langensbold, a town about a half hour out of Frankfurt, at about 5 pm or so, with minimal trauma to the cats, etc. The drive took about 3 hours. We found the hotel and saw that it had undergraound parking. SCORE. We got buzzed in and got out of the car to go to reception when suddenly a god awfulear splitting alarm went off! I mean this was LOUD. In my version of this story the lights are flashing on and off. I later made the mistake of asking Jess if this really happened or not. The killjoy she is, she said NO mom, the lights were not flashing on and off. She then goes on to say, but the lights did go off and I had to find the button to get them back on. I say that qualifies me to be able to say the alarm was skrieking and the lights were flashing on and off.

We make it to the elevator, all the while yelling back and forth.... Did we cause this? What IS it? Did we make this happen? It finally stops somewhere when we were going up to reception in the elevator. We ask check-in and they say no, we didn't cause it, they were testing the alarm system. (Is that some sort of sick German way of greeting guests?)

I hate checking into hotels with the cats, because even though I pick pet friendly hotels, my worst nightmare will be them seeing up drag in 4 cats and they will proceed to kick us out.. In thi hotel the elevator goes directly from the parking ramp to the rooms, bypassing the lobby altogther. SCORE again. This way not only do they not see us bringing up the cats, by they will also miss the show of us making 6 trips up with all our worldly possessions, parking themin the hotel room. I was however able to get just about everything into the armoir, only leaving out our suitcases. Thus housekeeping will get the idea we are just your ordinary travelers. LOL.

The room is only 29€ a day, or about $33. Although after getting up and lookkng at the information we are supposed to pay an extra 5€ a day, so that makes it more like a whole $40 a day or so, and that includes the taxes. Let's face it, it would not be possible to rent something habitable for that amount in the US. This room is GREAT. We each have a full sized bed, a mini-bar refridge so we can buy pop etc and store it. We also have a corner room on the second floor, with a big windows on each side, and also a small sofa and a huge desk, worok area. AND, a tub. YES... It has been so ong since I have been some place with a tub. I don't even like baths, but I plan on taking one every night here. Sheer heaven.

I have had the stomach flu this last week or or so. I have not had the flu in so many years, has b´to be 20 or so.... Must be some strange European bug. I would much prefer a cold thank you. The constant queasiness sucks big time.

Anyway, tomorrow (really today, I wrote this Monday night) we take the car back, check out buying some sort of weekly or monthly rail tickets and start looking for a place to live, etc.


Off the subject.

In Germany people don't eat french fries with their hands, they use this cool little thing to spear them. It looks like one of those flat wooden sticks youget when you buy the little individual containers of ice cream,but this is forked at one end. It is disposible and you use it to spear your french fries. I'm telling you, it beats the hell out of getting your hands full of grease, and if you have been shopping, etc, who the hell knows whathas been on those hands. I have even been in some semi-fast food restaurants that have a little sink right in the eating area so that youcan wash your hands before and or after eating. Pretty smart.

So now it is Tuesday,and we have brought back the car in frankfurt, and inquired about rail passes. looks like we can get a bahncard, where it will get you 25% off your tickets for one year for 50€, 50% off all your fares for one year for 200€ and for a mere 2,000 €, free riding for one year. Man, I like that one. But I don't think we will be going for it quite yet. Though the 200€ one would pay for itself in a month or so if you are riding back and forth to work. Train fare is expensive here!

JESSICA alread received a call for an interview to work at the onbase Subway in Hanau. The interview is for this Thursday. Certainly not the most glamorous job in the world, but a great start! The next step is for me to get some sort of interview.

Anyway, enough blogging, I need to get to work online looking for a place to stay, work etc. Later!

Escaping to Reality

So my son Nick… I LOVE HIM! He is doing great at UPS and sounds like he is also working a lot of hours at Blockbuster. He has a girlfriend who is very nice to him, and some great friends who are covering his back.
He has pretty much moved out of the apartment I rented for him, and will be sharing a townhouse with some friends starting the first of the year (I think)

I miss him soooooo much. I love when I get online in the morning and he is on AIM. Some days I get a hard time from him, but most times we just talk. That works for me.

I can hardly wait until he gets here or I get there to visit. He’d better get ready for one hell of a hug!

*SIGH*

Well, tomorrow we head off to Frankfurt. Not sure if I can even get Mark to give me a ride to Northheim as he promised…. Typical… So I will be online tonight checking train fare to go pick up the car. We have the car for one day, thank god in Germany it costs no more to drive a car one way, so I will be able to drop it off in Frankfurt Tuesday morning. We have a hotel rented for a little less than a week, and about 60 euros in our pockets. LOLOL Back to the adventure.

Trust me, Tues after I drop the car off we will be calling every base ion the area looking for work, and going out to the main hiring HQ and dropping off CVs, etc.


I am hoping things go better there. In the back of my mind I see myself saving every dime I can, doing a bit of cheap travelling to Spain, England, Netherlands etc, and the whole time doing research on what would be the nicest, safest area of the US to live. Propose to my mom that when her lease is up next October, to move in with me somewhere… We’ll see, so many things seem to change, and I know now that plans don’t seem to go the way we hope. So………..

I will be so glad to leave here, the Pension. Even though Mark was nice enough to give us a place to stay, it is time to move on and find a place of my own. I really long for a place of my OWN. Without jess, just me, mine, no one else’s. I am tired of trying to make sure everyone is happy. I actually came over to Europe so that I could be selfish. Yeah, right. HA.

Well, I need to get online and print out some directions to the hotel, etc. mark is on the phone, Jess is sitting here SIGHING because god forbid she may not get online right at 9 to talk to Rob. A word of advice to those planning to be parents, do NOT give your kids everything. Be really mean to them, deny them everything, beat them. Trust me, they’ll turn out to be better people and thank you for it. Damn straight.

Phase 3? 2.5?

Hi-ho, hi-ho, it’s off to look for work we go.

As of Monday, we will be broke and down in the Frankfurt area looking for work and a place to live.
My mother God bless her, has come to the rescue again and is lending us her credit card to rent a card for one day and a cheap hotel for the next week or two until we can get settled. My only fear is that the car rental and hotel will say no to it being used and not even there with me. I have a feeling that the hotel will not care, but the car place I am not sure about.

(Oscar speech time)
I would like to take this time to say thank you to all of those who have helped Jess and I get to this place.

First and foremost my mother, who besides giving birth to me, has put aside her own feelings and stood beside us the entire way, giving moral and monetary help even when I know she just wanted to scream “WHAT THE HELL KIND OF DUMB THING ARE YOU DOING? JUST GET BACK HERE SO THAT YOU CAN TAKE CARE OF YOUR FAMILY AND HAVE A NICE JOB AND HOUSE AND BE NEAR ME SO THAT WE CAN ALL BE TOGETHER AND YOU DON’T HAVE TO HAVE ALL THIS WORRY AND YOU WILL BE SAFE!!”

Hopefully at some point things will settle down, in the meantime, I LOVE YOU MOM!!!!

Next I would like to thank Jodi, my friend and unfortunately for her, my real estate agent. She gave me the initial money for the house, in good faith that it would sell, and the damn thing is still on the market. She also was able to give me a couple thousand more that should have been paid only when the house sold. This got me out of trouble a few weeks ago and allowed me to pay the car payments and insurance up, get Nick out of the red in his checking account (my fault he was there) and buy pants that fit me and winter coats for Jess and I. We went a little spend crazy because I thought we were set staying in the house, had I known, we would at least have a couple of hundred dollars left in my account. Oh well, it is more important that Nick is able to have a car to get to and from work.

Next would be Eric, who no matter what anyone else thinks about this craziness, has ALWAYS backed me 100%, saying to go for the risk, take a chance and enjoy it all. Of course he admits that is not what HE personally would do, but he knows me well enough to know that these are things I have to do. THANK you Eric, for standing by me! ((HUGS))

Ann is my voice of reason, tells me what I should be doing, the smart way to handle things. I of course ignore her, but I love the fact that she worries about me and wants me to be safe and secure!

And then there is everyone else who reads the blog and sends words of encouragement. I finally put a counter on the blog, I have no clue how many read it, but I received a comment the other day from someone I worked with at the state, he works in another building. He said he had gotten the site address from someone at work. So now I am wondering just how many people might be checking the blog out. Might be fun to see, or maybe depressing. LOL


This started out to be thank you, and as I read it, it almost sounds like a goodbye letter! LOL Not at all, This is the next phase of the journey, I just wanted everyone to know that I am thinking of you all, and thankful I am able to share all this, and to thanks you for supporting me!

All that aside, Monday we rent a station wagon, pack up all of our worldly goods and cats and take a 3 hour drive down to Frankfurt. Once we get there I know we will be able to get jobs at the army bases right away, even if they are only cashier ones, those are always available.

The big problem is to get money for an apartment. The damn rental place in Italy is STILL sitting on almost $400 of our deposit money. They keep saying it has been sent, be we have seen nothing of it.


Well, I need to get online and post this. Will keep you informed the best I can when we get down there. Will be using internet cafes again, and depending on money, may only be able to post once in a while.

Will talk to you all before we leave on Monday. Take care!

Hmmmm

Sooooooo.. We have been asked by the new renters to be out of the house before they arrive.
We are trying to find a way to get back down to Wiesbaden, about 3 hours away. (hi mom!) and rent a room while we get jobs at army bases.

UGH.. I was going to write more, but not even sure I want to right now.