Lessons Learned

We have had 4 weekends in Germany so far. The first weekend Joslyn was sick so we stayed at the hotel. 2nd weekend Kyla was covered in hives and again stayed at the hotel. 3rd weekend was our first weekend to really explore. We decided to take it easy by just heading to a local mall, checking out a couple stores that sell gluten free items and then went to our first church service since moving here. So this last weekend came and we decided to really go out and explore...

Saturday-Josh volunteered with his co-workers to help park cars at the Volks March that was going on downtown Stuttgart with the German-American Womans Club. The girls and I stayed home for the morning. Josh came home in the afternoon and talked about how the Germans like to party! We decided to not go into Stuttgart  because of the chaos with the Volks March, a protest about something and there was also the Gay Pride Parade going on. So we picked a city southwest of Stuttgart called Reutlingen. The drive there was beautiful. We were surrounded by rolling hills of green, trees everywhere and beautiful views of little villages in the distance. Felt like we were on country roads but we were driving 120 KM...it's really not as fast as it sounds. 

Getting into Reutlingen was another adventure. Although we have a GPS the roads can be a bit confusing here and we tend to get lost at least once when going anywhere. Josh found a parking spot on a side street only to realize we didn't bring any Euro change for the parking meters...GRRR! He had some Euro bills and went to a store and got change. Lesson learned...always have some Euro change handy!

 Reutlingen was a great place. I believe we were in the downtown area so there were tons of shops. We of course hit up a gluten free store and stocked up once again. Then we wandered around and around. There were familiar stores like Foot Locker and H&M but mostly were German stores. We went into one store to buy umbrellas (funny how I never used one in Seattle but I need one here). It was a multi level store so we grabbed the umbrellas and went up the elevator to check out the next floor. We went to pay on that floor and were told we had to pay downstairs. Ok we actually don't know what was said because she said it in German but her hand motions of pointing us downstairs led us to believe we had to pay there. So back down the elevator we go. And might I add that the elevator was just big enough for us 4 with a compact stroller...very small and scary! Go to pay downstairs and are again told we can't pay...huh? This lady motioned us to the back of the store to another check out counter and we successfully paid there. We were at a store called K&L. When we left, we glanced at the store again and we think that they store is set up in halves. So if you pick items from the K side you pay at the K side, if you pick from the L side you pay at the L side. That was the only explanation we could come up with and even that didn't make sense. 

We spent the rest of the time walking up and down the streets. We saw an amazing church. St. Mary's church which was built from 1247-1343. Josh quickly pointed out that America wasn't discovered yet.

After grabbing some Gelato (something we tend to do often) we left.

We decided it was still early and we should go check out this Sushi/Mongolian Grill place that people raved about and seemed like it would be easy enough to make gluten free. Lesson learned-when googling addresses don't translate to English. Our GPS wouldn't find the restaurant because google translated the street name of Klein Konigstrasse to Little King Strasse (which didn't exist). We finally figured it out and we head off to downtown Stuttgart. After making a few wrong turns we somehow squeezed through a tiny alleyway and went into a parking garage. We can't read the signs so we ended up getting lost in the garage and we hit a couple dead ends too. In Germany the parking garages are TINY!! So having  to back up when hitting a dead end is not a quick 3 point turn, it's more like a 30 point turn! After our experience in that garage I'm so, so thankful we bought a tiny clown car to drive in the city. I think if we had our SUV we would still be searching for a parking spot to fit in! 

We make our way out of the garage and into garbage....literally. They had sweeper trucks and leaf blower people going up and down the roads cleaning up tons and tons of garbage. We clearly just missed a big celebration. After a couple glances around and noticing all the stores having rainbow flags and banners, we realized we just missed the Gay Parade party. I'm not going to lie, I was sort of sad because I have a good feeling it was one heck of a party! I will say, that everyone was very cheery after the parade and I don't recall getting too many funny looks from people! We finally found our way to the restaurant and we were asked what we wanted to drink. I said water. And here is the conversation we had with the waitress.  

Me: I'd like a water.

Josh: Flat water (the Germans drink fizzy water and not flat water)

Waitress: *confused expression* gas or no gas?

Josh: Ahhh, no gas (meaning flat). We will take 4 no gas waters.

Waitress: 4? *again very confused and she writes 4L on her paper and points to it*

Josh: Yes 

*waitress leaves and hollers over to us. She is holding a 4 liter (it's about the 1/2 the size of Kyla!) bottle*

Waitress: This what you want?

Josh: Yes *Josh is confused why we can't just get a cup of water but agrees to the big bottle*

Waitress: 10 Euro for this.

Josh: Oh no! Um. Small we want small. 

Waitress: Small water.

Me: Yes just 2 (water isn't free in Germany...it's practically cheaper to buy a beer then get water).
Got 2 cups of water and Josh got a coke..that was a whole other experience I think I blocked out of my memory! 

2 Lessons Learned-learn the metric system and bring in our own water (not sure if we are allowed to but I'm not sure I can handle paying for water)

Off to check out the mongolian grub. As many of you know my favorite place to eat in Spokane is HuHot. We love mongolian grills and they are usually very easy to make gluten free. Well the selection here was not so good. Poor Joslyn got chicken and carrots. It was chicken, some fish, and about 6 veggies to chose from :( Next came our sauces. There were 4 to choose from. They didn't have the actual sauce present. Just a card with the name of the sauce with a colored straw attached to it. You then pick the sauce you want by picking from a bin the color straw that corresponds to your desired sauce. 2 were easy enough to figure out, curry and fish. That left us with 2 that were unknown. We grabbed the straw for the first one and Josh asked the staff if it was spicy. After some confused looks they all agreed it was ok and not "spicy". We got our food and it was clear the sauce me and the girls got was pepper of some sort...it was spicy! Kyla took a bite and screamed. I could only handle a few bites and surprisingly Joslyn ate a good amount of it. Thankfully we had the rotating belt that was included with our dinner and we ate lots of fruit! 

That concludes our Saturday adventures.

Now onto Sunday:

We weren't too impressed with the church we attended the previous weekend so we head off base and go to check out a new church. It was great! Now, don't get me wrong it was not our church in Puyallup and no church ever will be. We are trying very hard not to compare everything to Celebration Center and we are keeping our hearts and minds open to new opportunities. Kyla went into her 3 yr old room and although she cried for a minute, she had a blast. Joslyn went to her room where she has her own church basically. They do separate worship music for the kids and they have their own service and such. She had so much fun and talked about it nonstop the rest of the day. Josh and I were very pleased with the church and we think we will continue to go there. There were many military families there and we chatted with quite a few of them. After service a very nice lady invited us and some others to a German restaurant for lunch. We jumped on it! We ran back to the hotel, made Joslyn a GF lunch and headed out to the Schwabengarten, a beer garden. We sat outside next to the playground/sandbox and the kids had a blast. We connected with a few different families and had so much fun chatting with them all. It was so nice to be in the company of so many nice, welcoming couples. The ladies and I chatted about Awanas, MOPS and VBS, I felt at home again :) I was very excited to finally eat some real German food. We got the special (mainly because it looked good and we could just point to the special sign to order!). It was so good. Pork with some sauce, a dumpling of some sort and of course kraut! 

After lunch we decided to take advantage of the nice day and we headed off to a local park, Killesberg Park. It's a huge park. From what we have been told there is a swimming pool, petting zoo, train ride and more. We walked and walked the park and didn't even get to see a petting zoo or pool!  Josh and the girls went up a huge thing in the sky. I have no idea what it was, all I know is it was swaying in the wind! 

I figured it would cost money but people were just walking up the stairs so the girls and Josh went for it. I stayed on the ground, of course, and then I started noticing everyone else putting money into this wall. I thought this wall was just the explanation of this structure but towards the bottom there was something written with Euro amounts next to it. Thankfully the girls and Josh made it down alive and I told Josh we have to pay. He tried to figure it out how much we were supposed to pay but he couldn't figure out the words either! So he just had Joslyn shove a bunch of money into the slots and we called it good! Who knows we either took advantage of the system or we over paid by a lot.

Lesson learned-look around first and see if you have to pay

and yet another lesson learned-we need a translator...big time!!

A Step Back in Time

When telling people we were moving to Germany I would get one of two responses. 1. You will love it there and 2. You will see how "new" the USA is. Number 1 was usually from military members who had lived in Germany at one point so I definitely felt comforted by that response. Number 2 was strange for me. If you really know me, you know I don't have a clue when it comes to sports, politics and history. I  never have and although I'm not proud of it, I admit those faults. I'm very fortunate to have married a man who is the complete opposite when it comes to those things and he helps in explaining things to me. I am the one who is up to date on other important stuff. Like which Kardashian is getting married or having a baby or which Real Housewife of OC is backstabbing the others (ok they all are) or how Rosie Pope would handle your pregnancy issue..yep I know the important stuff :) So to go back to number 2 and how new the USA is. Well I think old and I picture old buildings, roads, etc. I thought the USA was old because I know of a few roads in the South Hill area of Spokane that are still made of brick...now that's old! Well after living here just 3 weeks I have a whole different understanding of the number 2 response.

Just last week there were areas blocked off around the base we are at because they found a WWII era bomb! Seriously!! Now even I know WWII wasn't eons ago but it was a long time ago. When that bomb was found it made me think about the history that is surrounding me. I can see the history when going into Germany and even on base. So many roads are brick and bumpy or are "old fashioned" as Joslyn likes to call them. The buildings and houses are so much older then I had ever seen in the states (granted I never really went farther then WA!). There is greenery everywhere! I'm used to seeing condos, buildings, houses, shopping malls, etc smushed together and stacked on top of each other. I see the cute, authentic German houses with their laundry being hung outside to dry. It's amazing! So many villages have been "untouched" by the modern world and it really takes my breath away.

I think of the personal history from mine and Josh's family. Growing up my Grandma Betty talked often about Switzerland and her mom's life there. I listened to tapes of my Great Grandma yodeling and now I'm less then 4 hours away from that very place...how cool is that?! We are close to the beaches of Normandy which Josh's Grandpa walked! If I'm told correctly, I'm at the exact base that my Grandpa and cousin both were stationed at many years ago. Being here makes me want to learn more about the history. I want to soak in all I can in the limited time we are here. Even 5 years ago I would have had a much different feeling being here but I know God has worked in me over the past couple years and He has prepared me. He has prepared me to be strong enough to leave my family and friends, He has opened up my heart to accept a new lifestyle I am not use to and He has opened my eyes to see the world in a whole new way....and in the end this world is nothing compared to what He has in store for me :) I truly feel blessed that we were given this opportunity by the military and even though Josh wishes we could have been here years ago, I know that our timing here was planned out perfectly by someone much higher then the Air Force! I can't wait to see more of this country and the surrounding areas and to share it all with you.

P.S. the USA is sooo new :) 

Our last 2 weeks.

Well here we are in Germany. It's been almost 2 weeks since we said goodbye to our life in the United States. We have been gone a very short time but so much has happened already. If you read my facebook posts you will already know what I'm talking about. For those of you who don't, I will give you a run down.


July 4th-had the most amazing 4th of July get together with our friends in Puyallup. We can't think of any better way to have spent our last full day in the U.S. There was lots of yummy food, laughter, fireworks, tacky outfits and towards the end lots and lots of tears. 

July 5th-Off to the airport! We had so much luggage we had to have our awesome friend, Sean, follow us with his vehicle packed as well. 8 luggage bags (well mostly military bags stuffed to full capacity), 4 carry on bags, stroller, car seat and booster seat. Everything we need to survive for the next 2+ months.
---flight straight to Frankfurt, Germany (10 hours). The girls did great! We had the whole middle row to ourselves and they girls were able to watch movies and play games on our Kindle's plus they had touch screens in the headrests in front of us, loaded with movies, music and TV shows. The girls and I have never flown farther then from WA to OH so this was definitely a big change and we got hot meals! Joslyn and I got the gluten free option and I will just say that I'm glad I packed lots of snacks!

July 6th-we are in Frankfurt...HOLY COW I'M IN GERMANY!!! Unfortunately the excitement of being off the plane and into Germany was short lived as culture shock set in. Everything was in German and the employees and passerby's all spoke German. I know, I know that is so obvious but it really was different once we were there and trying to navigate the airport. In the U.S., we know you have to go through TSA lines, no liquids, remove shoes, etc. Well Germany had their own rules and we did not know them! We went through multiple check points for passports and screenings/pat downs. We had to go through a mini TSA type line but you get a full on pat down...or might I say it was like a free grope session for the employees. Now, we were not prepared for that but we also know they are doing their job and we just let it pass.Made me giggle because in the U.S. if that happened, there would be protests and lawyers getting involved saying how our rights are being taken away because we are being violated. I say...grope away Germany, grope away :)
We had 1 1/2 hours to get to our connecting flight, more then enough time to stretch our legs, go potty, etc. Or so we thought. Made it to our gate and Josh went to the restroom and to grab waters. We had about 15-20 minutes to spare. Well the airline announcer started talking (in German of course) and thankfully followed up her message in English...time to get on the bus that takes us to the airplane and passengers with kids need to go first. What? Bus to airplane? Passengers with kids go first? People are already moving through the line. WHERE'S JOSH????? Finally at the very last minute Josh makes it back just taking his sweet time, assuming we have 15 minutes to spare. I'm freaking out, we still have to drop off our car seat, booster and stroller at the gate..but wheres the gate when we are getting on a bus and not a plane? Oh my stress level went through the roof! Finally made it to the airplane and relaxed for our 30 minute flight to Stuttgart.
Once in the Stuttgart airport we were told our stroller, car seat and booster seat would be waiting for us...nope. Thankfully there was a super nice lady who spoke German that was missing her stroller and car seat as well. She was told they would be waiting for us by the baggage claim. Well we waited. And waited. And waited some more. Josh was then told it will take a little bit of time but it will be there. So we waited. And waited and waited some more. Still no car seats or stroller. Finally a guy told us there was no strollers or car seats for any of us :( Josh had to talk with the lost baggage lady and turned out all our stuff we left at "the gate" never left Frankfurt. We also learned in Germany strollers are called buggies and they don't know what a loaner means. As in Josh asked for loaner car seats for the ride to base and she didn't know what loaner meant. So it was just a lot of extra work on our end and their end to fully understand what we were trying to say. We finally got a booster and car seat and all our luggage. 2 of Josh's coworkers were there with a big old van. We all piled in and went to check in at the hotel. I was so excited to shower, unpack and just relax but apparently you can't check into the hotel until 2PM and it was not 2PM...nope not for a few hours. So we drove around and around ultimately making us all very tired, cranky and hungry. Was able to get some food from the Commissary so I could make a GF dinner and to have breakfast in the morning. Finally got checked into the Panzer Hotel and we all did our best to stay awake. But poor Josh got the call that our stroller, car seat and booster was being delivered to the front gate at Panzer. So Josh being the trooper that he is, he grabbed the loaner car and booster seats and walked to the front gate and waited to swap the loaners for ours. Thankfully the front gate isn't far from the hotel but after flying all day and night, it was the last thing he wanted to do.

July 7th-Took the duty bus (buses run from all 4 bases throughout the day so people can go to work, go shopping, school, etc and it's free) to Patch Barracks and did more grocery shopping. Still very hard to function and stay awake as we were still 9 hours behind the actual time! Later in the night Joslyn got sick and was throwing up (this kid rarely ever gets sick like that). She was up most of the night being sick. Finally I just put Kyla in bed with Josh and I stayed up with Joslyn.

July 8th-I finally went to bed in the morning and Josh stayed up with Joslyn who was still throwing up.Took it easy for the rest of the day.

July 9-10- Josh had to start inprocessing so the girls and I just hung around the hotel.

July 11th-We got a babysitter and Josh and I attended a tour of the German hospitals which is highly recommended by the military. I'm so glad we did that...you will know why soon. There are 5 local hospitals that work with our base so they do well at speaking English but here each hospital has specific areas they treat so you need to be aware of which hospital you are going to. Like 1 is for Pediatrics only and 3 are for adults only.

July 12th-After a week of being in a non air conditioned room that was so stuffy and horrible, we were moved! We ended up getting the room for disabled people so it's all hard floors, bigger counters and more space in general. Plus the air conditioner works!

July13th-Had the babysitter scheduled to come over again so Josh and I can could go get our licenses. But we woke up to Kyla in hives. She was up all night crying (not unusual for her because she hasn't been doing good with adjusting) and now we know why that night was even harder for her. Josh calls the nurse line and she says to just give her Benadryl every 6 hours until the hives are gone then continue for 12 hours after that. So I stayed home with her but Josh went got his drivers license! 
*picture below shows the red on Kyla's face. Those are all hives that bunched together. Her whole body, including scalp, looked like this*

July 14th-Kyla is not getting better and she looks like she has some crazy contagious rash. Hives are all over body, she's itching like crazy. We are slathering hydrocortisone cream on her, rubbing ice on the super itchy spots and she is so miserable.

July 15th-Called the nurse again about the never ending hives and she recommended we go the ER. We don't have a car and the base doesn't have a hospital so off we go onto the economy. We had Josh's coworker drive us to Boebligen hospital (we knew they took kids because of our tour a few days earlier) but we would have to call a taxi to get home. So we head into the doors with a booster and car seat! We check in with the Information desk and tell them we are American and our child needs to be seen. We are directed to the American-Pediatric waiting room (no joke!)...we were the only ones! A nurse/receptionist took our info, took Kyla's temp and Josh even asked her about some German words :) She was great! The doctor came and he was great too. We had to explain what Benadryl was and he finally looked it up on the computer and he said it was very similar to the German Antihistiminics. Another lesson learned...stay away from name brands (Benadryl, Kleenex, Tylenol, etc). He said there was no way knowing how she got the hives because we have just changed so much in our lives lately. He said to wait a few more days, if it wasn't better to come back and see him. So off we go into the taxi that Josh called and back to the hotel. The whole ER visit took 45 minutes...unheard of in the U.S.! After the taxi driver got a 14 Euro tip from us, we learned a valuable lesson in Euro counting as well :)
3 hours later Joslyn is sleeping soundly in bed and Kyla is complaining of her ear hurting. Turns out Joslyn put a popcorn kernel in her own ear, Kyla did the same. Joslyn's came right out. Kyla's did not. After realizing we couldn't get the kernel out ourselves I call to my Audiologist buddy in Puyallup, Marc. Well actually I called his wife, Tana, and through her I got his advice on what to do. Although Kyla wasn't complaining anymore and had fallen asleep we thought she might push the kernel down farther in the night so we decided that Josh and Joslyn would stay at the hotel and I would take Kyla to the hospital...YIKES!! So off we go into the taxi, to the hospital with her car seat and we go to the American-Pediatric waiting room. But we weren't alone, 3 others were there and from their looks at me, I knew they were not American. Guess they go down to 1 waiting room at night and the American waiting room is closer then the German-Pediatric one. So there I sat getting funny looks because of my crazy cow printed car seat sitting right next to me. Was seen shortly after and kernel was taken out! The doctor and nurse thought it was funny but were fascinated at how big the kernel was and how far down the kernel got. All done, called taxi and back to hotel. Whole ordeal 1 hour! Yep 1 hour ER visit!

July 17th-hives are finally gone! We also bought a used car. It's a 2006 Peogeut. It's a 2 door, stick shift, great gas mileage little car. It looks and drives exactly like my old Hyundai Accent I had many years ago, except this bad boy has air conditioning and power windows! We were able to venture off base and went to a German store called Real (I believe it's pronounced Re-all). Basically it's a German Walmart. Had a good selection of GF foods so we stocked up! Then we got lost going home which put us in downtown Stuttgart and challenged Josh's driving ability and German rule following. Although Josh was a bit stressed I think it was great it happened.

July 18th-Babysitter came and I got my license! Decided to drive to Patch Barracks with the family because tomorrow I will be going to the doctor and I wanted to do a trial run. It was great to drive again but very scary because their rules and signs are a bit different.


So that's our last 1 1/2 weeks. For anyone that actually read all that...thank you! I promise future blogs will not be this long.