Lots and lots of Snow!

Before I get to talking about my trip to Rome, I thought I'd share some pictures of all the snow that was dumped on us in the last couple of weeks.  My landlords said this is the worst winter and the most snow we've had for thirty years.  What a nice introduction to a German winter I received.  I would have preferred being broken in slowly.  Oh well. :)  Thank goodness for winter tires or I would be sliding all over the roads.

backyard

backyard

Looking out my front window

Right outside my front door

Bernkastle Christmas Market

I recently went to the Christmas Market in Bernkastle which is about thirty to forty five minutes away.  (Going to Christmas Markets is the thing to do around here at this time of year.)  Most people go to the Christmas Market just to get the Gluchwein (warm wine).  I do not indulge, I don't like wine.  Oh well.

Bernkastle is along the Mosel river and there is an actual castle at the top of a hill next to the river.  It's a gorgeous town and lots of quaint little shops.  For this trip I actually brought Blitz with me since he had just gotten over his vaccination scare and I didn't want to leave him home alone.  I put his little blue jacket on and he looked so cute. :)

It was a little rainy at first but it stopped (thank goodness) and we had a good time looking at all the booths, getting hot chocolate, walking the cobblestones streets (it hurts to walk on those after awhile by the way), stopping at a pub for a break, and finally meeting up with other friends to have dinner at an Indian restaurant there in town.  Yes, I ate Indian food, go figure.  It was good.  Here are some pics.

This is a living Christmas calendar, like the ones where you open the doors to find chocolate.

This depicts the German Christmas tradition where Santa comes to bring gifts for the good kids, but the guy on the left comes and takes the bad kids away, if you look close you can see the legs of a child hanging from the sack.

The thing to get are Nativity sets and you will find displays everywhere.  Want to buy one?  Take your pick of the thousands of different styles you can find at the Christmas markets.

That's all for now, next stop....Rome, Italy.

Doggie Crisis and Phone/Internet Frustration

Well, last Friday and Monday were not a fun days.  To start off, Friday I took Blitz to the veterinarian on base to get some shots he needed in order to be able to go into a local kennel while I go to Rome for Christmas.  He got two shots and one vaccination they put in his nose and things seem to be fine.  While I was sitting waiting for the final paperwork to get done all of the sudden where Blitz was sitting on the floor was a pile of pee.  Now he doesn't normally just pee on the floor like that, especially when just sitting somewhere, but it didn't concern me yet.  After paying we walked outside and he was walking slowly and stiffly (they said he would be drowsy) and I asked him to go potty outside.  He was walking more and more stiffly and then all of the sudden he threw up a lot (not normal for him).  I immediately took him back inside to the vet and they took him in the back. 

I waited for about 15 minutes and they came out and told me that Blitz had an allergic reaction to one of the vaccinations (there's no way to tell which one) and that they had him on oxygen and a benadryl and steroids I.V.  Freak out time.  So I waited and waited to see that he was o.k.  About an hour later they came out and said they had taken him off the oxygen and I.V. but wanted him to stay another 20 minutes or so to make sure he would be o.k. without them.  Well he was, but they gave me a whole bunch of things to look out for and gave me some Benadryl pills to give him for the next five days.  From now on, we will have to pre-treat him with Benadryl before he gets any vaccination to keep this from happening again.  I go back in 30 days for another vaccination and hopefully this doesn't happen again because it freaked me out.  Poor baby.

I went to Bernkastle for their Christmas Market Sunday and took Blitz with me (I'll write about that next).

Monday I took my final day off to wait for Telekom to come and install the phone and Internet.  They said they would come between 0800 and 1600.  By 1500 they still hadn't come so I asked my landlady if she would call them (they only speak German) and they said we still have an hour, we'll be there.  Fine.  At 1530 we both saw a little car come up to the house but he never rang the doorbell and never came in.  Two minutes later the car left.  We called again.  They said they had been there and the work was done.  If it wasn't working it would work by 1830.  So I waited till then, still nothing.  My landlord came home and he tried it too and tried his own phone at the actual source where the line comes in, no signal.  My landlady called again Tuesday and Wednesday and they keep saying they'll come by but they haven't.  Today is Wednesday, they said they'll be there between 1200 and 1600.  We'll see.  I'm getting frustrated because I wasted a day off and I haven't had a decent conversation (more than 2-3 minutes) with any family since October because it's $2 a minute on the cell phone and it's extremely hard to not have Internet at my house because I do my Master's classes online.  This has been the only frustrating thing so far about Germany I have encountered.  Luckily I'm not the only one, all the teachers here said they had some problem or other with getting phone or Internet.  Come on Germany!

Valkenburg Christmas Market

This past weekend I went on an ITT tour to the Valkenburg Christmas Market in Holland.  It was about a two hour bus ride, so not too bad.  Once we arrived though we had quite a bit of a walk to get to the little town of Valkenburg and the Velvet Caves where the Christmas Market was.  I nearly slipped and fell several times in my leather-bottomed shoes (which is why one of the purchases I made there were real snow boots).

The theme of the market was Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol.  Throughout the caves there are decorations that have to do with the Christmas Carol story.  It was very cool and not too crowded until around the time I was done, which was good.  I got a lot of good things for very cheap prices.  I also stopped at cafe inside the caves and had some hot chocolate and a waffle.  They don't provide syrup for waffles like we use in America, but it was still really good.  It was nice to just sit and watch the people go by.  It was also a little bit disconcerting because I happened to be sitting in front of a display and people were stopping to take pictures.  Oh well, they can watch me eat if they want to. :)

Well there was still a lot of time before the bus left so I walked around the town a little bit and looked into some shops but soon got tired because the stuff I bought at the market were getting heavy.  I decided to stop at a cafe near where the walkway back to the bus was and discovered our tour escort in there.  I sat with her and had some hot chocolate and some apple strudel while we talked.  We had a great time.

We decided to go walk around the town some more and we stopped at a store where I bought my real snow boots.  Finally it was dinner time so we decided on one of the many restaurants and had a light dinner of pea soup with a ham and cheese sandwich.  It was very good.

Finally it was time to go back to the bus and head home.  The walk back was harder with all the stuff I was carrying (lots of steps to climb), but it was worth it.  Here's a picture of how I have to bundle up to stay warm around here.

Thanksgiving in Portugal Day Three

Today it was warmer and sunnier and we got up a little earlier.  We went down to Sintra and did some more shopping.  Sintra is full of beautiful, narrow, windy streets.

Sorry it's sideways :)

Then we drove through the back streets toward Cascais and saw some huge homes and beautiful roads.  Drivers are crazy around here though, they think they're the only ones on the road and who cares about anyone else.

Once in Cascais, we went to an English pub (of all places) and had steak on a stone.  It was delicious.  Then we walked a little through the town.  Next we headed to Boca do Inferno on the coast.  It's a place where during high tide or rough seas the waves slam into a ceiling-less cave and spouts the water (kind of like Hawaii's blowhole).  Unfortunately the waves were calm, but it was beautiful.

Well this is the end of my adventure in Portugal.  Tomorrow morning, early, I fly back to Germany via Madrid.  When I got back, it was to discover we had our first snow and there was about four to five inches of snow all over my car that I had to remove before driving.  That wasn't fun.

Thanksgiving in Portugal Day Two

Today, Ray and Penny let me sleep in (a little too long).  Once we got going we headed first to Belem to see the Discoverer's Monument (very cool).  It was cold and windy so it was hard to stay outside and enjoy it, so I just took some quick pictures and then headed inside to the gift store to get a little book that explained who each of the explorers on monument were and what they did.

Next we headed to the Jeronimo's Monastery and looked in the church where a famous Portugese poet was buried as well as Vasco da Gama, a famous discoverer is buried. 

Then we went to the main area where they serve pasteis de Belem, some famous pasteries that the monks created so many years ago.  Ray says you haven't been to Portugal until you've had one of these.  They were very good and the place was very crowded, but service was quick.

Then Ray and Penny drove me through downtown Lisbon to have a look and showed me the university where they teach English classes at.  We ended up at the very huge Colombo Mall.  We looked through some stores and then they were gracious enough to let me watch the new Harry Potter movie while they stayed at the mall and shopped and relaxed.  Portugese movie experience:  assigned seats and halfway through the movie it stops for an intermission.  Weird.

Thanksgiving in Portugal Day One

For Thanksgiving this year I went to Lisbon, Portugal to spend the holiday with my second cousins, Ray and Penny, who have lived there the past three years.  At first I was going to fly into Porto and then take a train down to Lisbon but a week before I was due to leave I got an email that my flight was cancelled because of strikes in Portugal.  So no flights or anything on the day I was planning to get there.  So I changed my plans.  I had to fly one airline into Madrid on Wednesday and stayed the night.  I didn't see anything of Madrid, I got there late afternoon and was not brave enough to try and take the Metro to the center of town by myself.  So I just walked a few blocks to find something to eat and then returned to the Ibis Hotel I was staying at right near the airport. I realized then that I had forgotten my camera.  Of all the things to forget!

The next morning I took the shuttle to the airport and got on a different airline to fly to Lisbon where Ray and Penny picked me up.  We drove immediately to Obidos, a medeival town that has lots of little shops and an ancient wall you can walk on.  Penny is a great shopper, but Ray pooped out about half way through.  I bought a few things, a wall hanging and some Christmas linen.  We had a light lunch of soup and bread at a place they've never tried before.  Boy, that soup was really good.  Here are some pictures of the town.  I had to borrow Penny's camera and then they downloaded the pictures onto a CD for me.

Very popular all over Portugal are the myriad of pottery styles.  Penny and Ray collect certain patterns.  At this point I don't have anywhere to put such things so I didn't purchase any.

After we were done at Obidos we headed to friends of Ray and Penny's for Thanksgiving dinner.  There were nine adults and two children there so it was quite a crowd and wonderful food.  Penny's sweet potato dish is to die for.  It was nice to meet their friends, have a nice meal, and spend the first holiday away from home with family.  We got home around 10:30, early by Portugese standards, but I was tired.  Ray and Penny allowed me to use their phone to call home and say Happy Thanksgiving to family, that was great.

Trier

One of the places I've been to several times now is Trier.  Trier is the oldest city in Germany and it's about a half hour away from where I live.  It still has several Roman pieces of architecture still standing.  The best introduction I got to the city was a train trip to Trier offered by the base.  We had a real tour guide who gave us a quick overview on how to use the trains in Germany, then we took a bus to the Bitburg train station and then got on the train to Trier.  Along the way, our tour guide, Easter, gave us quite a bit of history about Trier. (Of course, I don't remember much.)  One of the interesting things was that Trier was once completely walled in and at one time the number of residents that Trier currently has was the same in Roman times except that they were all inside the walls, a much smaller area.  The only part of the wall left standing is the Porta Nigra (Black Gate).  I will have to add the pictures later.

The area around the Porta Nigra is a great shopping area, the Hauptmarkt.  There are some great shops, including the U.S.'s own Claire's and restaurants.  Also nearby is the Trier Cathedral, the Roman baths, a pretty good museum and a Roman ampitheatre. (pics to come)  One of my favorite places to eat is right in the center where you can get a great Turkish Kebap/Doner.  They're very good.

In getting off the train at Trier we had to walk about five blocks to the Hauptmarkt and along the way Easter pointed out a building that during World War II was one of the headquarters for the Nazis.

Trier is definitely one of the places I will take any visitors who come visit me because it's a pretty cool place.

Cologne

Hi Again,

A couple of weeks ago I took an ITT tour to Cologne.  ITT is the office on base that provides tours to local areas and nearby countries.  Cologe, or Koln (picture two dots over the o), is about two and a half hours north of the base.  I was still living in temporary quarters and had no car, so the morning of the trip I had to walk to the other side of the base where the bus would pick us up for the trip.  The bus then went to the base in Bitburg to pick up another group of people.  I learned quickly that I mistakenly forgot to bring a pillow, oh I wish I had.

The scenery on the ride there was very beautiful but we were moving too fast to get any good pictures.  When we arrived there we found out there was some sort of motorcycle brigade thing going and all the main roads the bus driver was used to was closed.  So, we drove around for about an hour while the bus driver tried to find a place to stop and let us off near the chocolate factory.  By the time he drove back to the main road, the motorcycle thing was over and he was able to drop us off where he originally planned.  What a waste of an hour.  Oh well.

We proceeded into the chocolate factory and took a self-guided tour, kind of difficult since none of us could speak German to read anything.  It was interesting though to see the machines used to make all the different kinds of chocolate shapes and the molds for the hollowed out Santas and such.  When we were done we went to the store and bought some chocolate (of course).  I found some chocolate in the shape of a computer keyboard and another in the shape of a cell phone.  Perfect!  I also found a tin sign that I have sent to my son, something like: "Teenagers, tired of your annoying parents?  Move out, get a job, and pay your own bills while you still know everything!"  I thought it was great.

Throughout the tour of the chocolate factory I hung out with two other single ladies there on the tour.  One was a nanny for a doctor on the base and another was a counselor working for the family readiness center and was going to be here for just a month (they rotate in and out).  After the tour and the chocolate buying we walked along the Rhine river and enjoyed seeing the boats and such, it was a really nice day.  We found a restaurant to have lunch and then walked around the town a little bit until we reached the cathedral.

The cathedral is huge and beautiful.  It amazes me how people were able to build something like this so many years ago.  Here are just a few pictures:

One interesting thing happened while we were in the square outside of the cathedral.  We were looking at the chalk paintings some artists had drawn on the ground (and had a hat or box for donations) when we noticed about four college-aged kids in yellow hazmat suits gather in the middle with a big metal can.  All of the sudden they banged the can and over a hundred people just suddenly dropped to the ground like they were dead and the guys in the yellow suits started drawing white chalk lines around them.  Since we couldn't understand what they were saying we just assumed they were protesting either nuclear weapons or some other hazardous material.  Very interesting.

After that we just sat outside by a cafe and people watched until it was time to go.  It was a good day and a good trip.  Next time I think I will take the train up here if any visitors I have want to come see the city.  Taking the train would be much easier then trying to find a place to park around here.

Tschuss

Catchin Up

Hi Everyone,

Sorry it's been so long.  I never would have guessed that getting phone and Internet service at my house would be such an ordeal.  I've been trying to get service for awhile, but the companies say there are no ports.  Apparently there are only so many ports per village and if two people move out and three move in, that third person is out of luck, which is apparently me.  My landlord was kind enough to make his Internet connection wireless and now I can piggy back on his service.  It's extremely, extremely slow though because it has a hard time getting through the thick walls.  Their router is in a window and so is mine but it's still tough.

So anyway, let me try to catch up.  I've moved into my new place as of the the end of October.  Here are some pics.  The first one is the river that runs right along the property.  The landlord channel part of the river to an electricity generator and provides the electricity for the village and surrounding villages.  Kind of cool.  My lanlord, it turns out, is on the village's council.  The second pic is my place, no that's not my car.  The car is in front of the main door, my garage is to the right of it.  You go up the stairs and the apartment is all upstairs, three bedrooms.  It butts up against a hill, so out the back door of the apartment is a small fenced in yard.  Perfect for Blitz.  The last pic is the view of my place from the top of the driveway.  I have other pics that I took from the hill above the village, I'll post those later, it took forever just to upload these three pics.

Just before I moved in, I took a tour arranged by the base tour office (ITT) to Cologne.  I'll post about that next with some pics.

Talk to you soon.
Tschuss (Goodbye - pronounced choos)

Settling In

Hi Everyone,

I've now finished three weeks here in Germany and I have to say that I love it here.  I'm freezing my butt off, but I much prefer it to melting my face off like I was in Arizona.  I haven't traveled anywhere yet other than a quick trip to Trier (half hour away) and Ramstein AB (hour away).  I'm still waiting for my car to get here, which should be in about a month, and then I can start exploring.

I have found a place to live, it's in Huttingen an der Kyll.  It's a three bedroom, 1200 square meters apartment.  It's right next to the river Kyll and right across the river from the house is the train station.  The landlords (owners) live in a house right across the courtyard and they seem extremely nice.  The former tenants, also military, loved living there.  It has heated floors and a very open floor plan (which is very unusual in Germany).  The kitchen is a really good size and even has an island (also very unusual).  It also comes with a garage and a large storage room behind the garage (also unusual).  I think I lucked out finding this place and am pretty sure I'll be very happy.  I move in November 1st.

I've been to German restaurants a couple of times now and here's what I've noticed that is different from American restaurants.  First of all, don't expect to come in and be served right away.  If you need a place that's fast, don't go to a restaurant.  Here they expect you to take your time and socialize with who you came with.  So they don't bother you for awhile when you get here and they take their time getting you the food and then getting you your bill at the end.  Expect to spend several hours at a restaurant here.  Also, each restaurant has it's own unique house salad and dressing.  Each restaurant I've been to has had a different kind of lettuce for the salad and different toppings.  The dressings are yogurt based and are very good.

Trier was very nice.  I love all the different buildings in the "walkplatz" area in the center of town near the Porta Nigra (Black Gate).  Very colorful and busy.  The day I went they had a band playing in the courtyard, they had a children's activity area, and many street vendors.  All the shops were also open.  It was on a Sunday and they only open the shops one Sunday a month.

Everyone goes to Ramstein AB to do their shopping for items other than basic needs items.  The BX (Base Exchange) is actually part of a "mall" they built here.  It consists of the BX (huge), a food court, a movie theatre, and about 30 other shops.  Most people though shop online a lot too or wait till they go back to the states, especially for clothes.

Need to go back to work now, I'll post more soon.

Welcome to Germany

Well, I have finally arrived at Spangdahlem, Germany. The flight from Los Angeles to San Francisco went very well. They even had a little dog park to the side of the terminal where I could take Blitz outside to take care of business. On the other hand, the flight to Frankfurt was miserable. When I first got on board I tried to put Blitz under the seat as required but there was a video box under all seats so of course he couldn't fit all the way so that meant I had very little leg room. Then to top it off I discovered that my seat was broken and could not recline. So when the guy in front of me put his chair back and I couldn't put mine back that meant I had very little space. So between that and the restricted leg room I was feeling very cramped and my legs and feet were hurting pretty badly by the end of the flight. Also because of this I got no sleep except a few minutes here and there so I was up for a total of 33 hours straight by the time I went to bed.

This morning I started checking in and getting paperwork done including an I.D. Only to find out that I'm not in the system yet and that it could take a couple of days. So that means I can't go to the base stores without my sponsor with me. I feel bad because it's taking so much of her time. I still have yet to go to my school yet but I will be going in tomorrow morning.

It's very beautiful here and my sponsor, Andee, will be taking me around the little villages outside the base to get an idea of what they're like so that I know when I start looking for an apartment/house to rent.

My temporary living apartment is just as big as my apt back in the states and is on the first floor with a very nice balcony and within walking distance to the school.

More to come soon. As soon as I can use the stores I can buy an adaptor to upload pictures so I will be posting some soon.

The Countdown Begins

Soooooo.....Today is Tuesday and tomorrow is my last day teaching at Amberlea.  The principal came in to tell my class that I was leaving and to let them know that the teacher who had been helping me all day was now going to be their new teacher.  It was very sad because a few students started to cry. (Made me feel bad.)  Several more kept asking me why I said yes to take the job.  I told them that it is a once in a lifetime opportunity and you can't just turn those opportunities down, but I don't think they really understood.

The next few days will be a whirlwind.  Tomorrow morning I take Blitz to get his rabies shot and health certificate and I also have to get another fingerprint card done for some reason so I have to drive to Tempe again.  Then I'll go back to school for the afternoon and finalize things there.

Thursday I drive to Tempe again (maybe I should wait to do the fingerprint card then, hmmm) to get all the paperwork signed off for Blitz to be able to go with me to Germany and then I head over to Luke AFB to meet with TMO who will take care of sending my belongings and car to Germany and then to the travel agents in that office to sort out my flight over.

Then I plan that evening to head to Lake Montezuma to say goodbye to my parents and grandparents (that will be hard) and return Saturday evening.  Sunday I will finalize everything and then I hope to fly out on Monday.

Amidst all this I still have papers for my master's class to complete and a home to organize to get ready to pack up.  Whew!  My head is going to explode!

My next post will come when I've actually reached Germany.  I will be posting pics and info as I go.

Tschuss (Bye)  BTW that u should have two dots over it but I don't know how to do that. :)

The Waiting Continues

   So here it is on Tuesday and I am still waiting for my official orders to come through.  Now I've begun trying to be able to bring Blitz (my dog) with me to Germany.  Looks like it's going to be another very long process that I hope I can complete before I need to leave.  My biggest worry is that with this short time frame, my belongings won't get picked up in time and my daughter will be left to deal with it or the dog thing won't process quickly enough either.  Hopefully things will go smoothly and I can stop worrying about it.

   More to come later as things begin to happen.

The Adventure Begins!

Hello Everyone!

     I've started this blog to document all the adventures that I will be having in Germany and abroad.  My plan is to keep all my friends and family up to date with what I'm doing and places I'm seeing.  I'm a major picture taker, so be prepared to see lots of pictures.

     Let's start at the beginning.  As a teacher in Arizona, the school year had already been in session for two weeks when I received an interview call from the principal of Spangdahlem MS in Germany for the Educational Technologist position.  Understandably I was very surprised.  Usually DoDDS does their hiring at the beginning of the calendar year, so since I hadn't received a call for an interview by the end of last school year I thought my chances for getting hired was passed.  I've been in their system for two years and it usually takes that long to get hired.  But, lo and behold, here I was getting a call.

      Naturally, once I had been offered the position, I couldn't turn it down.  The last week has been very hectic trying to get all the paperwork completed and getting ready to go.  (Even my blood pressure has skyrocketed from all the stress :(  )  At this point, it looks like I will be leaving around the 13th of September.  Everything will depend upon when my passport arrives.

     Unfortunately neither of my children will be joining me, but that's okay, they both had planned to move away anyway.  Josh is joining his dad in California and Ashli is moving in with friends while she goes to college.  But I look forward to seeing them in the summer when they'll come and visit me.

     Well, that's all for now.  I'll keep you updated as things progress. 

Auf Wiedersehen!