Hallo from Deutschland!

Ok. I am going to attempt to squeeze seven weeks into one post. Seven absolutely crazy weeks.

Seven weeks ago we were still living in Shreveport, holed up in our bare little apartment and sleeping on an air mattress. Gosh, that seems like a lifetime ago. We made it through eating out most meals and doing laundry at other people's places (Thanks to Meagan and our parents!).

The weekend before my birthday and Thanksgiving the girls threw me a going away/birthday party. And boy, do they know how to throw a party! I had American accessories I was to wear out all night and most of the party consisted of a food tour of Shreveport. There was a custom soundtrack and clues to each restaurant along the way. First stop was Superior Steakhouse for some drinks, then on to Superior Grill for appetizers, then Tokyo for dinner, and Cheesecake Bistro for dessert. We ended at Jacklyn's to hang out. It was the best party anyone has ever thrown for me. I love my Shreveport friends!

So the Tuesday after that was my last day at work. It was ridiculously busy, but I was able to teach Brook some last minute things. I was able to leave at 3pm and Nathan and I left for San Antonio straight away. I had a good birthday with my fam on Wednesday. We ate Mexican food at my grandma's and had Chocolate Satin Pie for dessert. I got some good presents: purple cords & a new toiletry bag from Mom and Dad and a pair of jeans & two sweaters from Nathan (the man knows how to shop for me). We spent Thanksgiving with Grandma, Troy, Allison and their boys, Josh and Ben. We watched a lot of football. I ended up having to borrow my mom's and sis' makeup while we were there all week because I had left my makeup bag in my office at work. That turned out to be a blessing in disguise because I loved my sis' Bare Minerals. I had never tried it, even though I had really wanted to, because a lady at Sephora had told me one time that it would only make my blemishes look worse. Looking back now, that doesn't even make sense. I mean, the makeup is like specifically made to cover up stuff while still looking natural. Anyways, I used Allison's and loved it and am now a Bare Minerals girl.

So we only had five days left in Shreveport once we returned from Thanksgiving Break. Nathan kind of worked and I kind of did nothing. Saying goodbye to the girls that week was really really hard. I cried while packing/cleaning things up by myself the night before we left for good. I still miss my friends so much. They are the best. So that Friday morning, Dec. 3rd, we woke up at like 7am to get everything into Nathan's car and finish cleaning the apartment. We were really nervous because we figured they were going to be really hard on us. I was desperately still cleaning the oven at like 8:57am and the apartment lady was supposed to do the walk through at 9am. Once we had packed everything into the car and I finished the oven, Nathan went to get the apartment lady and I went to get everything we weren't taking in our suitcases to get packed up and shipped to Germany, i.e. our huge new computer, a few dishes we had kept, etc. I ended up at FedEx and it cost almost $400. Nathan met me there once the walk though was done and told me we only had to pay $15 for some bent blinds on the back door. Turns out they totally missed the broken plastic on the microwave. Whew. Little did we know how awful the rest of the day was going to go... The plan was for Nathan to drive his car full of all our stuff and for me to drive my car (our car) as far as Dallas to drop it off at the place that would ship it to Germany. Sounds easy. It sucked. We were both tired and there as just enough traffic to be irritating all the way into Dallas. Then we got to Dallas and had to drive all the way up to Denton. It was like an hour out of the way and the traffic there was horrendous. Plus we had to keep an eye on my gas tank because we needed enough to complete the trip, but we couldn't drop it off with more than 1/4 tank of gas. Add into that that we weren't entirely sure of how to get there even with the GPS on Nathan's phone and me trying to follow him weaving in and out of deadly traffic, and you have the makings for one horrible trip. So we finally found the place that would ship our car and located a car wash right by. Because of course, the stupid car has to be immaculately clean before they will accept it. So we got it washed and drove it around to the vacuum to clean the inside and the vacuum was broken. We were so done with the whole process by then. So we drove it to the shipping place. And the guy that helped us was kind of a jerk about it all. We don't have the title for some reason. We are hoping we accidentally boxed it up. So that kind of complicated things and of course it all took forever. After waiting for them to complete the inspection, we were free to go. We grabbed Chick-fil-A and then hit the road in Nathan's loaded down little Corolla. The traffic out of Denton to get to I-20 was awful. My nerves were already shot and that stretch of driving only made it worse. Once we hit I-20 though, I fell asleep and Nathan drove us to his parents' house in Abilene, where we stayed for a week. It was nice to just hang out after such a stressful few weeks. We celebrated Christmas on Saturday morning with Nathan's family. Nathan and I got a lot of warm gear--jackets, hats and gloves, which have really come in handy here. Actually, that's an understatement. We would be freezing our butts off if we didn't have the things they gave us. We also took some family pictures that day at ACU. Sean came in town for just a few hours one morning to take the Corolla. After that, we were not only homeless, but carless. It was so odd. But we were able to borrow Memaw and Pepaw's car to get around the rest of the time we were there. We got to catch up with Arya, Nathan's friend from high school, as well as Chad, Tressie & Dexter. He is such a cute little baby!

Friday morning Matt came to pick us up and we headed to San Antonio for a few days. We celebrated Mom's birthday on Saturday during dinner at Longhorn Steakhouse, then we went home and had Christmas with my family. We got Aperture, a photo editing software (that we have yet to really learn about), and some fun things--I got some jewelry and a makeup bag and Nathan got a new backpack and a hummingbird DVD. Sunday was spent getting everything packed into our suitcases and mailing even more stuff to Germany that wouldn't fit. We took some family pictures Monday morning before heading to DFW. We met up with Randy, Tacie & Shannon there at Joe T Garcia's for dinner and then got Braum's ice cream before heading to our hotel. We all hung out in our hotel room (which was really beautiful) until it was time for Nathan and I to go to sleep. We had to be up the next morning at 5am to be at the airport at 6am since our flight left at 8:20am. We said goodbye to my family at the curb and then to Nathan's family after we checked our bags before going through Security about 15 min later. We really could have taken our time because there was no one there and we got through in about 5 min and then just waited at gate for forever. But better safe than sorry. From there we flew to Baltimore. We got in around noon and thought our flight was at 7:30pm. They had told us at Barksdale that it's a 5 hour check-in process, so we went straight to the desk only to be greeted by one lady who told us the flight wasn't leaving until 11pm and that they weren't checking anyone in until 5pm... We thought we were doomed! But she told us to go down to the USO and they would let us leave our baggage there. So we did just that and then went to eat lunch in the airport. The food wasn't that great, but we had the best time back at the USO. They had tons of chairs, a free snack bar, free wireless Internet, a huge TV, and a sleeping room. Oh, the sleeping room! It was a dim room with 10 leather recliners. We went in there after about an hour and got to sleep a little and then watch Mad Men on our laptop with our headphones. They had nice bathrooms with toiletry items too. So we stayed there until about 6pm and then we went to check in. It took maybe ten minutes to get all the way through the gate. We were planning to eat dinner on the other side, but there was only a bar with a few food items. We had overpriced, not so great, small cheese pizzas and then watched the second Bourne movie on the laptop. By then, it was time to board the plane. The flight wasn't too bad. We were late taking off because we waited on two passengers to board. Not sure why. So we didn't get in the air until closer to midnight. We were lucky enough to get to sit in a 3 seat row by ourselves. The guy on the end was moved back a few rows where he could sit next to an empty sit, so we were really grateful for that. It was, of course, freezing. And we had quite a bit of turbulence. It lasted a really long time. So much so that it woke me up a few times. Good thing I am not afraid of it.

We got to Ramstein the next day around 2pm. Nathan's boss, Captain Gipson, and a Sergeant picked us up along with another family that just got stationed in Heidelberg. He tried to get Nathan's license taken care of there, but they have weird hours and were closed when we got there. So we made the hour drive to Heidelberg in the snow. It was so pretty! And Capt. Gipson filled us in on lots of stuff. He got us checked into lodging here and gave us a lasagna his wife, Heather, had made that way we wouldn't have to worry about dinner that night.

So now, here we are in Heidelberg. Capt. Gipson and Heather have been so very great to us. They took us out the first Friday night we were here (the 18th) in the town they live in called Schwetzingen. We had wine and cheese at their house (which is awesome) with the Major's wife, Drea, before walking to the middle of the town to eat dinner at a real German restaurant. I had Schnitzel and Nathan had Peppered Steak and we shared a "portion" of potatoes. It was all so amazingly good! I was, however, and still am, very intimidated in trying to speak German. I know only a few words and none of them can be strung together to communicate anything really. Thank goodness Nathan knows more than I do and can get us around/order for us well enough. We are thinking about getting Rosetta Stone even though it's really expensive because we really want to be good at the language. That weekend we ventured downtown to the Hauptstrasse (Main Street) and went to the Christmas Market. We drank some gluhwein and kept one of the little mugs. We decided it's not our favorite, but I like the mugs : )

The next week Nathan had a lot of appointments for in-processing, which apparently he/we will be doing all the way into February. That is his only job right now. Get in-processed. And go to PT three times a week. He actually hurt his knee again the first PT they had playing dodgeball. He thought it had healed up enough to be ok as long as he was careful. So he is back to wearing the brace and will have to do some therapy. He went to see the doctor and they still don't want to give him an MRI. We are hoping he is ok and that he doesn't find out a few years from now that he needs surgery.

We had our first housing appointment and got to pick two places to look at later in the week. The first one we saw was pretty good. The kitchen was small, which is normal, but all of the appliances and fixtures were pretty dated. I don't like to cook in a place that constantly looks grimy/dark. Plus it has like 4 rooms, which we don't really need. There is a family that lives upstairs, so the front door, stairway, and basement laundry room is all shared. We aren't crazy about that, but might not be able to get away from it. Europeans like the whole "community" thing. Everything else about it was really nice. It's not too far from where Nathan will be working. (That's another thing: the "base" is broken up all over the city into little bases called kasernes. So right now we are on Patrick Henry Village, the kaserne where lodging, the commissary and movie theatre are. Then there's the PX kaserne which has the PX obviously and also the driver's license office and other things. Then there's the medical kaserne. I think there are like 8 different kasernes or something. Nathan will be working on Campbell Barracks, the kaserne where the 7th Weather Squadron is.) Ok, so anyways, that place was in Sandhausen. We also looked at a place in Schwetzingen, where we would love to live. But that place was tiny. Nathan had to duck his head through all the doors. The worst part about it was the biggest room was a loft area up a stairwell that had no rails. It was scary. The landlord said we could install rails, but then there's the problem of the room having a huge hole in the middle of the floor. If one of us accidentally fell through there in the middle of the night, we would surely break something. So that has been removed from the list. We tried to get in to look at some places last week, but had no luck. The landlords were on vacation for the holidays. So hopefully this week we can see a few more. The pickings are slim right now. The winter cycle for PCSing is very small. Most people move in the summer cycle, so there's much more to choose from. We are praying for a place that will be just right for us while we are here.

For now, we are living in this little hotel room that has two twin beds, no kitchen, and very little room. We are sick of eating out at the Village Grill and Burger King. For once in my life, and I never thought I would say this, I want to cook so bad! Nathan has done pretty well, but my sleep/eat schedule is really messed up. Tylenol PM has been my best friend the last few weeks.

The week of Christmas, Nathan bought us train tickets to Cologne for the weekend. We opened a bank account here and bought iPhone 4s before we left on the train that Thursday afternoon. It feels so much better to have phones, even though we can talk to a few people on them, i.e. each other and Capt. Gipson. We loved Cologne though. Our hotel (hostel I would say) was a bit of a disappointment. The online site we booked it through said Room Service. I convinced Nathan it would be a good idea since we would be there Christmas Day and nothing would be open. I didn't want to starve. Well... we got there and no Room Service. We are thinking there must have been a translation glitch or something. They come "service" your room, as in make the bed and change out your towels, which isn't normal in Europe so we are guessing that's what they meant. Plus the room had kind of a terrible smell about it. We left the window open a few times while we were out because it was awful. However, the bed was amazing! And the bathroom was small but very clean and new. And we got free wireless Internet. So not a total bust. We were able to hit up the Christmas Market on its last night, so I got a mug from there : ) We saw the massive cathedral the next day and walked around the "Old City" which was really cool. We also saw the really old Roman road they found during World War 2 that is from the 3rd century. On Christmas Day we were planning to do some more city exploring but Nathan lost his wallet in the train station while we were trying to get some food to eat. We were sick about it and decided to just go back to the room. We couldn't call USAA from there, but we did get a request in to cancel his debit card. Thankfully I had brought my wallet and had all my cards with me. We chilled in the room before deciding to go get some pizza. When we got back, Nathan checked Facebook and a guy had written him saying he had his wallet. So Nathan called him and the guy told him to meet at the hotel in the train station. I was scared, thinking it was really dangerous. But Nathan wasn't, told me I was silly, and went to get it. He came back unscathed, with his entire wallet minus 20 euros which he had given the guy as a thank you. We were both so relieved. Thank goodness for honest people and Facebook! The next morning we went to the Roman-German Museum that is right by the old Roman road and the cathedral. It was really cool. Yes, we are nerds. We were a little surprised that only a few things were in English. No, we are not ignorant Americans who think everyone should cater to us. But everything in Greece was in Greek and in English. Just about everybody speaks English as a secondary language, so usually most things in museums and airports, etc are in English for "everybody else." But not there. Nonetheless, everything was really cool. We didn't stay long because I wasn't feeling well and we wanted to catch the noon train home. We had a good trip and might go back when it is warmer. When we got home, I read there is a Chocolate Museum there where they give you a bar of chocolate to eat before you enter and there is a chocolate fountain that a lady dips wafers in that you can eat also. Too cool.

So this last week Nathan did more in-processing and I did more trying to get my schedule back in sync. It was working pretty well. We got to chat with my family on Skpye for a little while one night. My gosh, we are so thankful for the technology we have access to these days. It really makes this big world feel much smaller, which makes living here so much easier.

Nathan and I had talked about New Year's plans once or twice. I didn't really want to go anywhere and was content to find something to do here in Heidelberg. Nathan really wanted to take a trip. He had another 3 day weekend and we are making quite a chunk of money staying here in lodging. We hadn't made a decision one way or the other, but Nathan texted me on Wednesday saying he had a BIG surprise for me. So I called him right away and he said he and Capt. Gipson were at the PX kaserne and they were offering a trip package to Paris for the weekend. Something like $200 euros for the whole weekend, hotel and transportation included. It was a great deal. Well it turned out it was already full so he booked us for the one day trip that was 99 euros per person. Still a good deal. I was actually excited about it. We would get picked up at 3:30am on base Thur. night/Fri. morning, tour Paris and celebrate New Year's, and then get back on the bus and return to Heidelberg at 9am on Saturday morning. So crazy. What made it even crazier is that we got invited to the Colonel's house for a Spades tournament that Thursday night as well. At first, we didn't think we could go, but then I realized there was no way I could get up around 3am to make it to the bus if I fell asleep at all that night. (Those who know me well will know this is 100% true, as Nathan did.) So we decided to go since we were going to be staying up all night anyways. Plus I was dying for some socializing haha. We had a great time that night. Everyone was so welcoming and the First Sergeant and his wife taught us how to play Spades. We ended up losing the first round, but put up a good fight. The wives get together once a month, so I am now on the invite list and am looking forward to hanging out with the ladies. So after we left the party around midnight, we hung out in our room and took a walk around the base before it was time to leave for the bus. Capt. Gipson kindly let us borrow his car to get off base and to the parking lot we were to meet at just outside of base since it was on the other side. We made stops at a bunch of other bases around Germany and then headed for Paris. We tried to sleep on the bus, but it was kind of hard. We got to Paris around 11am, after stopping to get breakfast about an hour outside the city. As we were driving in and making our way to our first stop, Nathan was snapping pictures and I was in awe of how beautiful the city was. I had been to Paris five years ago when I studied abroad with ACU, but I don't remember thinking the city was so pretty. Maybe I hadn't traveled enough at that point to be able to compare it to anything. I'm not sure. But I am sure that Paris is absolutely beautiful and we saw it on a pretty dreary day. I can't wait to see it on a great Spring or Summer day. So basically the day consisted of driving through the city and getting off at certain places for a little exploring/picture taking. I wouldn't recommend that kind of trip for someone who won't be making a trip back, but for us it was a fun day and we now have a list of exactly what we want to see and do when we do return. We hit up the Dome des Invalides (where Napolean & Co. are buried), the Arc de Triomphe, the Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame, Moulin Rouge, ate dinner in Montmartre (the art district) which was delish, and took a boat ride down the Seine at night. I think that's all. Well, and of course, we rang in the New Year with the Parisians on the Champs-Elysees--the street with all the expensive shops like Cartier and Prada. We were really excited about it and thought it would be a fun memory, but it was actually a huge disappointment. Well, other than that we were together (rare for that holiday) and in Paris. We were expecting something comparable to the ball dropping in New York. All of the signs of a good party were there: barricades, loads of police, and tons of people. However, there was nothing even close to a party. There wasn't a countdown or even fireworks. The celebrations in the street weren't even in sync. We kept looking at the time on Nathan's phone because every few seconds right around midnight a group of people would yell "Happy New Year!" We were so confused. So after waiting for the big bang and realizing it wasn't coming, we picked our own time to celebrate with a "Happy New Year!" and a kiss. Then we made our way through the sea of people back to the bus. The most anticlimactic event ever. But we loved the trip overall and I guess our New Year celebration was better than sitting in our room watching TV, right?

Well, I think that catches us up on all seven weeks. I am impressed if you are still reading. Sorry for the lack of pictures... This post took too much to mess with the tedious task of getting pictures in here to accompany everything as well. Most are up on Facebook except for Paris, which will hopefully be edited and posted soon.

We miss you all SO much!!!