Finally Got My Hair Done

Before- Steph's finished work 3 1/2 hours later.

Processing- Kaiserslautern, Germany

After.........Mushroom Head! 1hour and 20minutes later

It has been 3 months and 1 week since I got my hair done last!!!! I was really nervous about going to someone else. I know that sounds silly, but when I’d been going to Steph for the last 7 years and all I had to do was sit in the chair and be still for 3-4 hours (that’s pretty challenging for me to do) and say “Do whatever you feel like doing today.” The end result was always great! I left with a smile on my face. This time, I left with tears in my eyes looking like a mushroom head! I will admit that the color turned out ok. Not as I wanted it, I wanted it to be darker, but atleast it's not purple or some crazy color. I’m just not happy with the way that she cut it, and the fact that it only took an hour and 20 minutes from start to finish. I felt like she was in a race to cut and color my hair the whole time. They probably work slower at Great Clips! I guess I’ve just been very spoiled the last 7 years. I’ve known it all along, but never thought I would ever have to pay anyone other than Stephie to do my hair. Miss ya Stephie!

Busy Lives

Life has gotten pretty hectic over here. I’m working different crazy hours every day. I get random days off here and there. When I do get a day off I’m just trying to catch up on my chores that I didn’t do on the days that I worked. I’m still trying to figure out how to balance work, chores, sleep, and play. It makes it hard when I don’t know what my schedule is going to be from day to day in advance. I think I make it harder than it needs to be. J Pointers anyone? I am proud to say that all of my Christmas shopping is done and over with. I really had to plan ahead this year to make sure I got everything in the mail in time.

There’s really not a whole lot new over here. It’s been snowing pretty frequently, but it usually melts a day or two later. Gas is dropping like crazy which I’m sure is the same in the States. We are at $2.10/gal this week. Shawn talked to his parents in California and they’re paying $1.60/gal. So we’re still paying more over here, but it’s better than nearly $5/gal. I’m happy to be able to fill my little car up with $20 again as opposed to $70.

I’ve gotten a couple of other job offers this last week. I had a job interview yesterday with the Command Chaplin and Command Chief to be their Executive Secretary. That was pretty exciting news to even get an interview. I feel like the interview went well. There are 5 other opponents (I can refer to them as that, right?) that they interviewed as well. So I will find out tomorrow, Friday, if I am accepted for the position or not. If I’m not chosen for the position, I received an email yesterday from the lodging (base hotel) General Manager offering me a job in Guest Services. At this point, I don’t really care what other job I work as long as it isn’t retail.

As for me taking online classes, that came to a halt when we found out that I wasn’t going to get any financial aid. Based on our 2007 taxes Shawn and I made to much money……..so much in fact, there was no guarantee that I would even qualify for a 100% student loan. I would have to come up with at least $3,000 out of pocket. They told me that they couldn’t give me an exact figure until I’m actually taking the classes. Even though the military will reimburse half of my schooling cost back, we decided it was not a smart financial decision right now for me to take. So far it seems to have been a good decision.

Randoms

These signs change depending on the traffic and weather conditions.
Usually the speed limit is 130.

Volgelweh is the base that I work at.

Good thing I have the Subie!

This was the weather condition one night when I came out of work.

Thanksgiving in Stuttgart

Tom, Maria, Shawn, Nicole, Coco's husband, Coco, and Maria's Mom

Shawn has a friend that he met on the RC Rock Crawler website, who also happens to live here in Germany. So, a week after I arrived here in Germany, Tom and his wife, Maria, drove up here from Stuttgart (2 hours away) and we spent the day together. They are a cool couple. Tom and Shawn have all the same interests. Maria and I get along great too. We both talk a lot and love photography. For Thanksgiving they invited us over.

Shawn Helping Out

This pizza doesn't look as wonderful as it tasted. Nothing will beat Papa John's.

Since I've been working and am on my feet all day Shawn has been very helpful in the kitchen making dinner for us. He did all this by himself! It was so pretty that I had to take a picture to share.

My Car is Here!

My car finally arrived last week. Just in time. Shawn has still been riding the motorcycle to work so I can drive his car. He’s been riding in the rain and cold. He says that rain doesn’t bother him, it’s the ice that he won’t ride in (wonder why). Well the very next morning after my car arrived there was ice on the roads. That was a blessing to have two cars. I start work at 9am and he starts work at 7am, but we both get off at 4pm. So we’re not totally able to carpool together yet. Maybe if my hours change later on we’ll be able to carpool. I didn’t realize how much I missed my Subie until she arrived. The fastest I’ve gotten her up to so far on the Autobahn is 110 mph. I don’t even what to know what Shawn’s gotten her up to. Driving over here is not as scary as I thought it was going to be. The most difficult part is how narrow the roads are. It gets a little crazy! When I back out of my driveway if I’m not careful I’ll back right into my neighbor’s house. Shawn and I went downtown about a week ago and were driving around for quite some time trying to find a parking spot that we could actually get in to without doing what Sinbad does on “House Guest.” But the Germans make it look so easy squeezing in and out of these tight spaces.

We also went out to eat off base at McDonalds and Pizza Hut this week. The pizza wasn't to bad. The picture above is the menu outside the door. Any restraunt you go to here they have the menu posted outside so you can look what is on the menu before you go in to eat. At McDonalds The Quarter Pounder with cheese is called the Royal Burger with cheese. There menu was limited, but it's pretty much all the same anyway. I found it interesting that McDonalds only accepted euro. No debit or credit cards. Also, if you go to a Burger King or McDonalds off base that doesn't have a drive thru, they serve beer and wine if you choose to have it with your meal.
The legal drinking age for Germans is 16 years old and the legal driving age is 18 years old. Not sure how many of the 16 year olds here actually consume alcohol.

No Longer Unemployed

I officially started my job today. Today was orientation and tomorrow (Friday) I will start training. For those that don't know what the BX is, it is the military's retail store, similar to Target. So I will be the cashier that checks everyone out with all their merchandise. I wasn't real thrilled about being a cashier, but after the orientation today I learned there are lots of areas for advancement within the company. If Shawn deploys (chances are very slim) I will be able to deploy with him. They have BXs (Base Exchange) everywhere and are in need of volunteers to deploy. Like I said the chances of that happening are nil. As it goes with any job you have to start somewhere. It might not be that bad after all. It’s just hard going from Deaconess where I worked for the company 7 1/2 years and worked my way up to make decent money and now I’m back down making less money than I made when I even stared at Valley Hospital 7 1/2 years ago. They know people here need jobs and will take whatever they can get. Plus there is a high turn over rate so I understand that they don’t want to waste money on those employees that aren’t going to stick around. They also offer tuition assistance. I might have to be employed with the company for 6 months before the tuition assistance will apply to me. Either way I will be starting to take online classes in mid December through the University of Phoenix. I will be working on my AA in General Studies or Business. I haven’t totally decided yet which direction I want to go, but I will have to make up my mind soon.

1 Month Down....

It has been one month today since I landed on German soil. It definitely feels like I've been here much longer than one month, but in a good way. I’ve still been keeping open communication with our neighbors. Bianca, the girl next door with the dog, is just as busy as I was when I was in Spokane, so it’s been a little difficult to keep up with her. We’ve managed to take our dogs out together twice now.

Over the last month I've been fervently searching for a job. I finally got an offer today to work as a cashier at the BX. Not really what I had in mind for a job over here. Shawn and I are just relieved that I have a job. I'm not even sure when I'm going to start yet, but I'm assuming it will be within the next couple weeks.

The weather is still fairly decent. Shawn is still riding his motorcycle to work on the days that it’s not raining. The temperature is remaining in the 50’s or higher. So as long as the temperature stays above freezing Shawn insists on riding his bike to work. I was surprised when we went to the gas station on Saturday, November 1st, to see that gas is down to $2.87/gallon. A month ago when I arrived here it was $1 more per gallon. I don’t even remember the last time I saw gas at $2 something a gallon. We’ll see how long this will last.

Another change that we’ve seen is in the exchange rate for the better. When I got here $1.38 USD was equivalent to 1 Euro. 2 months prior to my arrival $1.55 USD was equivalent to 1 Euro. Today, $1.27 USD is equivalent to 1 Euro. This is something that I never paid attention to in the States, but now that I’m here it is interesting to see how much things do fluctuate on a daily basis.

Out for a Saturday Stroll

Buddy and Roco, they make great running partners. I don't know what I'd do without them. (right)

I was minding my own business taking pictures of the breath taking scenery when this creature came out of no where hissing at me and the dogs to get away. I didn't know birds hissed until this day. It's feathers were flared and everything. Even in this intense situation I still had to get my picture.......it sure looks pretty innocent, but I wouldn't mess with it!

This setting makes for a peaceful run. This is a stretch of the path that runs around the lake/pond. (above)

There is a trail all the way around this body of water. It's so gorgeous! The distance is about a mile around. So if I run from my house to this location and around the water twice I have a perfect 3 mile course. There are a few hills as well. Not like the hill Mom has, but it works for me. I'm just thankful that I don't have to run in the city. There are a few short hills that are a steeper incline on this course. For those that don't know, I love running hills! Shawn thinks I'm crazy. I just have my track coach Linda Lanker to thank for introducing the fun of running hills to me!

The German Difference

A beautiful nearby oversized pond/mini lake. (above)
Taken on the other side of
the hill behind our house. (below left)

Our house is on the other side of the trees
where you see the dot on the right side. (below)

Last weekend we drove around exploring our area. Shawn had to go to a motorcycle shop to have his VAT form taken care of. VAT = Value Added Tax. There is 19% sales tax here. When we make purchases outside of the base (on the economy) we are paying this tax. Having the VAT form we can have this money reimbursed to us. We have to be careful because not every business will acknowledge this form. It’s the business that is refunding this money to us. I’m sure that it gets reimbursed to them somehow in the end. It’s kind of confusing how it all works basically what I know is that it’s not like in the states where the sales tax is added at the register. The tax is included with the price that you see. That also makes it easier to figure out how much something is because I can look at the price and deduct 19% and that’s what I’ll be paying in the end. This is really only worth while with any purchase over $50. So with small purchases we don’t worry about it.

Another thing that I’ve learned here is that when you go to McDonalds or Burger King off base they sell beer and wine to go along with your burger. Kind of interesting! Shawn and I went to see the new Star Wars a couple days ago and they had Heineken and some other beer with the refreshments. Thought that was funny too. You don’t have to sneak the booze into the theater over here! Ha ha! Just kidding! Beer and popcorn what an unusual combination.

One huge thing over here is that the Germans recycle EVERYTHING! When you go to a concession stand and buy a soda, and once the drink is gone you can take the bottle back to the concession stand and they will give you 2 euro back for returning the bottle! Same with the grocery carts, you get euro back for returning your grocery carts. Not sure how that works yet as I haven’t gone shopping at a local grocery store yet. This is a good thing, but also a pain because we have to divide up our own trash. We have three bins in the basement: glass, plastic, and paper. Anything that is not any of those three things is trash. This has totally opened my eyes to how thriftless I was. I would say that 98% of what we use on a daily basis is all recyclable or compost. It’s pretty interesting. It does create a lot of extra work for us having to divide it all up. We really don’t have a choice since our garbage can is so small. We have been assigned a little tiny garbage can consisting of a 2’x2’x2’ space that we can throw away our trash. The garbage man comes around every other Monday to empty the garbage can. Then the other Mondays that it’s not “garbage” day it’s recycle day. We are allotted as many bags of recycled stuff as needed.

The Germans are very clean and take care of their country. Every Saturday they go out and sweep their section of the sidewalk and street. Then every Sunday is quiet day. We are not allowed to mow the lawn or do anything that is noisy. And everyday after 7pm is quiet time as well. By 10pm on our street you can hear a pin drop. This is quite a change for us after living 2 blocks from Division for the last 3 years. It is definitely a nice change.

All of these pictures I’ve posted were taken within ¼ of a mile from our house. I’m not exaggerating when I say we live in a beautiful place!

Playing with the "kids"

It’s been quite a while since my last entry. So I’ll just give a brief update……..well as brief as I can. These pictures were taken in the field right above our house where we take the dogs to run around and play Frisbee. Roco is quite the Frisbee fanatic. I really should’ve gotten him into competitions. He would’ve been a great competitor. Right, add something else to my "to do list!" We tried to get video footage of him. This video (below) is the best that we could get so far. It’s hard to tell, but he can jump close to 6 feet off the ground! Of course when we're recording him he doesn't do it for us. One of these days we'll get it recorded. For the most part the dogs have been pretty good. It’s been raining a lot here so they haven’t gotten out as much, and they do get a bit irritating when they don’t get their daily walk. It’s been good for me because it forces me to get outside.
I finally took my written driving test and passed the 1st time around! SO I can officially drive in Germany, but my car isn’t expected to arrive here for another 3 weeks or so. Shawn has his car that I can practice with for now, but I think I feel more comfortable driving my own car.

Getting Out

This is is our adorable house here in Germany! I need to get the house totally set up on the inside then I'll post pictures of the inside. On the main floor is the living room, dining room, kitchen, and bathroom. Upstairs, where the balcony is, are 3 bedrooms and a half bath. Upstairs again, is the attic, which we've made into our office area/my scrapbooking area. There are 3 skylight windows that allow natural light in during the day. The basement just has a laundry room and another small room where Shawn can keep his toys. There are hardwood floors throughout the house. Right now we are waiting for our new couches to arrive. They are expected to arrive in February; so we are without a couch for the time being.

The weather here is still fairly warm. I haven't had to pull out the winter jacket yet. This last weekend we went with a group of guys on a motorcycle ride to Mannheim. Mannheim is about an hour and a half from where we live. There was an event going on down there that was similar to what they do at the fair grounds on occasion. There were different venders there and a bunch of old cool cars, motorcycles, and collectables. Shawn and I messed up and didn't bring any euro with us. We didn't realize what we were going to; we just heard motorcycle ride and said, "We're in!" When we got there of course the ATM machine was out of order. We still had a great time walking around looking at all the cool things. On the way home we took the back way home; it was a beautiful ride! Hopefully we have a few more weekends left to get some riding in.

Feeling Blessed

I was in the back yard the other night with the dogs when I heard a voice, “Hello.” I looked over and it was one of our neighbors, a girl about my age. She saw that we have dogs and came over to introduce herself and see if I would be interested in walking our dogs together. Last night I took Buddy and she showed me this huge field a couple blocks up from our house. We were able to let the dogs off their leashes to run and play. It was great! I really didn’t think I’d be able to find a place where I could let the dogs off their leashes to run about without having to drive a ways outside of town. Now, there just happens to be a place 2 blocks from our house! Bianca is a German girl who teaches kindergarten. She seems friendly enough and has offered to show me around town and help me with anything that I might need. I feel very blessed with everything we have over here: an amazing home, safe neighborhood, beautiful surroundings with lots to do, Shawn loves his job, and our dogs were able to travel over here with us. I would be very surprised if we have one dull moment while we’re here for the next 4 years. I’m not saying for one minute that I’m not going to get homesick, but I know we need to make the most of everything that we have over here. Thank you all for your prayers back home. Auf wiedersehen! (Goodbye)

Nicole's Adventure at the Seattle Airport

I just arrived in Germany on the 3rd, last week! I was supposed to leave on September 18th. When I took my dogs to the vet on the September 12th for their final check up I found out for the first time during this whole process that there was some important paper work for the dogs that needed to be done before I could leave. No problem right? This paper work was the “International Health Certificate” that had to be mailed to Olympia to be endorsed and then mailed back. After receiving this news I realized that this would be cutting it to close. I then moved my plane flight to the following week on the 25th. On the 22nd I ended up having to take one of my dogs, Buddy, to the vet because he had some red bloody spots all over his neck. It started with 1 spot a week before then over the course of a week it had spread. The vet said that they needed to do a biopsy on him to find out what it was. They were thinking maybe a skin tumor was starting to form. Whatever it was it seemed serious................Then another 3 days went by for that. The results came back stating that he was having some kind of allergic reaction to something (not sure what). Then they permitted him to go to Germany! At this point I was able to book my flight for October 1st. My sister, Stephanie and I drove to Seattle the day before just to make sure everything would go smoothly on the 1st. My flight didn't leave until 1425 so we got to the airport at 1215 thinking we would check in my bags, and have about an hour to take the dogs on one last walk, then check them in and off to Germany we go. I was told at Fairchild to check in with United Airlines even though we were flying through a company called Lufthansa. So we parked in the garage near United Airlines, went to the United counter and they told us that we had to check in at the Lufthansa counter; which just happened to be way at the opposite end of the airport! At this point I was getting a little irritated, but didn’t want to stress myself out about it. That’s why we got there so early, so we could give ourselves time for the “run around.” It took us 7 minutes to walk from the United counter to the Lufthansa counter.............oh yeah we left the dogs and my carry on stuff in the car so it would be easier to carry everything else that needed to be checked in. We arrived at the Lufthansa counter @ 1300, still an hour and a half before the flight leaves. They start checking me in and ask where the dogs are. They told me I'm really pushing it to make my flight on time. So much for being early! So Steph had to literally run back to the car, get the dogs and bring them to me so we could get them checked in. She was back in 10 minutes sweating and out of breath. Whew! Ok, a little stress going on, but we're ok.................. THEN as they're trying to check me in they said that the tickets have not been funded! Fairchild never paid for them, even after I called them 5 days prior to make sure that everything was good to go and they said, "Yes Mrs. Berg, you'll check in at the United Airlines counter and everything has been taken care of." At this point, the time was 1315, the supervisor said that I wasn't going to fly out that day. I would have to wait until the following day! I'm sure you could imagine the furry that is running through me at this point. Shawn and I worked so hard to make sure that this day would run smoothly. I’ve already had to reschedule my flight twice, and now I’ve “missed” my flight! I couldn’t believe it.

To make a long story a little shorter, I did end up having to leave the next day, on October 2nd. In the end, it was in my favor that this happened, I got to spend one more day with my sister, my best friend, my hairstylist, who I've always had around and am going to miss more than anything. This way we actually got in a satisfactory goodbye (if there is such a thing). Not to mention everything went very smoothly the next day. The employees knew who I was, we knew exactly where we were going, we figured out an easier way to check everything in all at the same time and didn’t have to make 2 trips to the car, and I wasn't leaving on such stressed out conditions.

Getting Settled In Germany

When I first stepped off the plane in Fankfurt I was a little nervous being in a forign country not knowing the language with no cell phone to call Shawn to determine a meeting point, but it all worked out just fine. It was a miracle that everything went smoothly. I got my luggage right away, waited maybe 10 minutes for Shawn, met the Vetranarian, who looked over the dog's paper work and on our way we went.
We live in the village of Schönenberg-Kübelberg about 30 minutes from Ramstein AFB, where Shawn is currently stationed. I love our house! Shawn has been living in the house since August. It's in a quiet neighborhood, we have all German neighbors with the exception of one American. So far everyone seems to keep to themselves, however, we know that the Germans are all keeping an eye on us, curious of the new Americans and their 2 large dogs. I can't wait to learn German so we can communicate. Most of the elderly Germans (our neighbors) don't know a lot of English. The younger generations know both from what I've been told anyway.
Shawn and I are getting in the habbit of walking the dogs each night after dinner. The weather has been decently warm. It seems like it's colder during the day than it is in the evening, but I stll haven't had to bring out my winter coat yet. It is really neat walking in the neighborhood and looking at all the different styles of houses. The most interesting thing that I've seen so far is that there are cigarrett vending machines on various street corners! You can even swipe a credit card in these machines. There's one on each corner down the street from our house. That's pretty strange to me.
Yesterday, Shawn took me out to the base to do all my "inprocessing." I have 2 weeks to study for a test to get my driver's license. I got a little information about some different jobs to apply for. Not sure exactly what I want to do yet (for a job). I can't believe it's already been a month since I quit at Deaconess. I need to be getting a job here pretty soon.