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. :)