A Stanger in a Deutschland: Reflections at Six-Months

Did I mention I'm publishing SIX books in 2016, and am currently in the midst of writing them all? Thus: poor, neglected blog.

Since we've been here in Germany almost seven months, I wanted to take a moment to reflect on how things are going.

Overall, I honestly can say, with Tony the Tiger-like enthusiasm: they're GRRRRRRREAT!

The travel, man, the travel. In case you live under a rock and haven't seen all my social media blasts, all this happened:

Dubrovnik, Croatia

Istanbul, Turkey

Olympia, Greece

Venice, Italy

So yeah, all those places happened since we've been here, plus: Paris, Amsterdam, London, Austria, and Switzerland. Not to mention, I saw a Shakespeare play (Merchant of Venice) performed outdoors at a real, live CASTLE one evening. It was definitely a quintessential "Hey, we live in Europe" moment.

Y'all, we live in EUROPE.

When people told us we should take advantage of travel and opportunities while we were here, we took them at their word. 

Of course, it hasn't all been easy. Kevin's job is significantly harder, or at least the learning curve has been. The hours are longer. The traffic is THE PITS. But he's surviving.

I've pretty much given up on learning German because Mark Twain had it right...

Okay, I haven't given up, but IT'S SO HARD. (Es tut mir leid. Mein Deutsch ist nicht sehr gut. Still, people. Still nicht sehr gut.)

Another difficulty has been the weather: it's been one of the hottest summers anyone can remember. Everyone says we'll be glad to think of this nice warm weather when winter rolls around again and it's so cold.

But right now, it's been in the upper-90s multiple days in a row. AND THERE IS NO AIR CONDITIONING. So basically this:

But except for sleeping with ice packs, the good far outweighs the bad, for sure. We continue to love the adventure, even when we can't watch America Ninja Warrior because it's not on Hulu. 

We play, we fight, we eat, we live. Sometimes it's boring, sometimes it's exciting, sometimes some old German guy is yelling at you outside your car because you accidentally blocked the bike lane while waiting for a red-light to turn. To which you just shrug. 

Basically, this place has just become home.  And what a beautiful place home is:

A Stranger in a Deutschland - The Plight of the Garbage Disposal

I realize an official update has been a long time in coming... that is because of some SUPER- AWESOME good news in my writing career that I will be announcing soon. (Just suffice to say I've had other places to be spending my writing hours).

But hey, we're still in Germany!!

We have now officially been here two full months. Let's just cut to the chase: I miss ChickFilA and Target and all my friends and family (probably in that order, sorry Mom).

But what I miss most of all?
My garbage disposal

Seriously, there are no garbage disposals here. You would be amazed at how that has changed my whole life, especially since I'm dealing with a family a six and the trash pick up is once every two weeks.

I won't go into too much detail, but it has changed what I cook, how I cook it, the portion sizes I serve and a number of other things.

I don't know exactly how garbage disposals work, but I'm pretty sure there is magic and fairies involved because in the United States you put your unused food items in your sink you run some water, turn on a light switch and Voila! the food disappears. Dispose-All

Yeah, that doesn't happen here. 

Now if my kids don't quite finish everything on their plates then it has to be raked into the garbage can. Which is fine until the next day when the little pieces of food from last night start to smell. Which is fine because we can take it outside.  EXCEPT outside we get one small Oscar-the-Grouch size trash can to hold everything for two weeks. That's usually full by day 3.

So... lots of Lysol. And smaller serving sizes so everyone finishes everything on our plates.

But honestly, despite the what's-that-smell factor in our house, things have really taken a turn for the better. 

The Broken Foot

Kids really seem to be adjusting, fitting in. Nobody is crawling into my bed crying. Nobody is asking if we can move back "home". Everyone has made friends; sports and activities have started, things seem to be working their way back to normal.

We have had some problems... Captain Awesome tripped on some stairs (at an indoor amusement park) and broke his foot. True story. They thought he would need surgery but fortunately didn't. He's been wearing a boot for a month, but should hopefully be out of that soon.

I almost flooded our entire apartment because I forgot to dump the water reservoir of the clothes dryer.  Evidently the same fairies who don't magically take the food away when we put it down the sink don't take the water away from the dryer and it has to be emptied manually after every couple of laundry loads.

PS -- I knew this, but forgot. Hand me the mop, I won't forget again.

Oh yeah, and there was the time I gave my kids wine coolers thinking it was lemonade, since evidently alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks are just randomly interspersed on the German grocery shelves. Probably would've been a better day for everyone if I'd have just let them drink it. 

But despite all any of this, the good has by far out-weighed the bad. 

For example, went to Paris for a three-day weekend:

Hey, Kiddo #4 kind of looks like Mona Lisa

Notre Dame and Venus de Milo at the Louvre

In case anyone wonders: Kid #3 has worn shorts EVERYDAY since we've been here, no matter what weather

It was a great trip full of laughter, EuroDisney and lots of eating. My boys even wore "European swimming trunks" in order to be able to use the indoor water park at our hotel. But they wouldn't let me take pictures. :)  They went ice-skating on the Eiffel Tower.

These are things I know they will remember for the rest of their lives. It was a wonderful trip, exactly what our family needed.

We bought a second car to use while we're here! 

Um yeah, that is not it, much to Capt Awesome's dismay.

We bought a Mazda 3 hatchback.  But more than just getting a car, it was an important moment for us because we managed to buy it from a German man who spoke about as much English as we did German. There was a lot of Google Translate use going on. It was a big stretch out of our comfort zone, but because the Euro is struggling so much (thanks, Greece!) we were able to get a much better deal than if we tried to buy from an American and pay dollars for a vehicle.

So far the car has been wonderful. And super-great on gas.

In February, Capt Awesome and I won free concert tickets for my birthday and met Lionel Richie! 

Yeah, we partied All Night Long.

But most importantly, we FOUND A PERMANENT HOUSE! 

It was a matter of being at the right place at the right time (or, God looking out for us). This house was listed as available right when I happened to be looking at the housing site and I scheduled us the first appointment. Within a couple of hours there were twenty people on the waiting list for it.

It has five bedrooms, two bonus rooms (one is GIANT that the boys have decided to share) and, wait for it... 3 full bathrooms.

By the time we got to the third bathroom when we were touring it, I was in tears I was so happy. It was far and beyond, bigger and better and more open than anything we'd seen. Plus, it's near the base (so there are a ton of kids around), little shops and cafes, and the train.

Most importantly, it's in the town of Boeblingen... pronounced Boob-lingen, so my boys think that is hi-larious. We move in on March 23.

So all-in-all, we're settling in well. I definitely post more updates on Facebook, so hang with me there if you're looking for more up-to-date stuff (friend me here or like my author page here). But I'll be sure to update here when we're in the new house and after our trip to Amsterdam in April to see the tulips. :) #adventuresinGermany

A Stranger in a Deutschland: Continuing our Adjustration

Oh man, have you ever read such a boo-hoo post as my last one about Surviving Our First Week in Germany? The adjustration (thanks to my writing buddy Tracey Livesay for the word!) continues to be tough.

Seriously, when Kiddo #1 crawls into bed with you one night crying because she misses her friends and everything is so hard, you can't help but wonder if MAYBE YOU'VE MADE THE WORST MISTAKE IN THE HISTORY OF THE WORLD.

When Kiddo #3 comes home from school in tears multiple days in a row because he can't seem to make any friends, you wonder it again.

When Kiddo #4 won't get off Oovoo because she talks to her USA friends 24/7... same.

When Kiddo #2 plays X-box Live with his bestie from Virginia all night... well, actually that's just normal and has been happening for years

Yeah... still a lot of adjustration going on in the Crouch family.

But three things have happened in the last week that has made life in our household a little better.

1. WE FOUND THE EXCHANGE and COMMISSARY!
Despite Capt Awesome's nearly 20 years with the DoD, we've never been part of a military base before with our everyday lives. So although I had heard of the Exchange in Norfolk, I didn't really know what it was.

The Panzer Base Exchange

Well, it's a big ol' store that sells just about everything. Kind of a cross between a Walmart and a TJ Maxx (because it is always changing what's in stock). You have to have a military ID to shop there (which I have) and prices are about the same as in the USA, but with no tax.

We'd been here 10 days before we made it into the Exchange, and I can't tell you our relief our entire family felt to go somewhere where everyone spoke English, all the packaging was in English, and they took credit cards with no problems.

Between the Exchange and the Commissary (military grocery store) we were able to find stuff that made life a little easier....

 Do I want to shop there all the time? No. Will I be going there at least a couple times a month? Bet on it.

2. OUR UNACCOMPANIED BAGGAGE ARRIVED!
We had three ways of getting all of our stuff over to Germany, so had to prioritize everything into 3 groups.

Our luggage in Norfolk

Batch #1 - Checked Luggage: Everything we couldn't live without, but was small enough to fit in suitcases and fly with us from VA to Germany. This included clothes, toiletries, the X-box, some school supplies, laptops, and various converters/adapters we'd need right away. Fortunately we were able to take as many suitcases as we wanted for free, which ended up being something like 14 checked pieces and 12 carry-ons...


Batch #2 - Unaccompanied Baggage: About 3 weeks before we moved, we were able to ship over up to 1000 pounds of non-furniture items. Anything that we would would want before the majority of our house-hold goods arrived. We shipped some coats, a few games, more school stuff, my computer printer, all my cooking spices and Kiddo #1's guitar. That arrived this week! It's amazing what some stuffed animals, familiar blankets and coffee mugs will do for morale.

UAB stuff may not have been a lot, but my favorite coffee mug made me feel better!

(The rest of our stuff will arrive with Batch #3- Household Goods after we've found our permanent home, sometime hopefully in February/March)

But the best thing that happened this week is..
#3: OUR DOG JUNIE B GOT HERE!

Junie was accompanied by our friend Carol Ann, who has been watching Junie since we left. Junie couldn't travel with us because dogs can't be flown into Stuttgart, they have to be flown into Frankfurt to be checked out by the German vet. But fortunately there's no quarantine time required in Germany, so OUR FAMILY IS TOGETHER AGAIN.

So, all in all, a better week as the adjustration continues. Next week's goal: ACTUALLY GETTING SOME WRITING ON MY NEW BOOK DONE. We'll see.

A Stranger in a Deutschland: Surviving Our First Week

For those who may have just come in on this crazy story, my family (consisting of my hubby, Capt Awesome, and our four kids and I) relocated to Stuttgart, Germany on January 1, 2015. It was part of a promotion for Capt Awesome's job with the Department of Defense.

So I'm starting a new series: A Stranger in a Deutschland, for any posts about our German life/travel/woes/joys.

In case you need further clarification about where we are:

We are right smack in the middle of Europe. Almost exactly. And we've been here almost a week.

Right now I'm trying to get coherent thoughts together about how we're doing. Witty and fun stories I was sure I would have.

I got nothing.

Seriously, this has been a pretty exhausting venture so far. Physically, mentally, emotionally. Ugh. I know the first few days of traveling anywhere multiple timezones away are tough. Jet lag and all that. So I don't know exactly what I was expecting.

Ahem...

  
But... Um, no. That's not how it has been.

I will give you, this is the lovely view from our back window:

And kiddo #1 seeing Europe for the first time from the plane as we came in over Paris while the sun was beginning to rise? Very special:

Plus our first authentic German meal our second day, at a restaurant full of character and a sense of history:

All pretty great. But so far those have been just about the only good things. Everything else has just been hard. (And we've only been able to see the lovely view off our patio a few short hours since we've been here because 1) it's only daylight between 7:30am-4:30pm and 2) it's been rainy, cloudy or foggy 90% of those daylight hours. Not to mention cold.)

But, fine. I'm not one to let rainy days and Mondays get me down, so I can deal with that. It'll clear up. And when it's daylight until 10:30pm during the summer I'll be wishing for the winter.

But really what's been so exhausting (besides the jet lag and having four kids at home) has been THE ADJUSTING.

At first I was saying I was frustrated with all the things that are different here. But really "frustrated" was the wrong word -- too strong. I am ADJUSTING to all the differences here. 

And it's not that the differences are bad, they're just different. But it's still pretty exhausting.

The biggest pitfall is easily recognizable and understandable: we don't speak the language and everything spoken around us is impossible to understand. We have to rely on others to know our language to be able to do the simplest of things. Here's my joke about myself:

What do you call someone who speaks three languages? Trilingual

What do you call someone who speaks two languages? Bilingual

What do you call someone who speaks one language? American

Hahahaha. Hilarious. Except for if you're trying to order food at a restaurant and the waiter doesn't understand what you want and you have four hungry kids who are bickering with one another. Then not quite as funny.

I admit, I have learned three German sentences that have gotten me pretty far: Es tut mir leid. Mein Deutsch ist nicht sehr gut. Sprechen sie Englisch?  (You can probably figure it out, but if not try Google Translate. It's become my most used app)

There are other adjustments:

- A frig roughly 1/3 size of mine in Virginia, that still needs to keep enough refrigerated food for six people.

- Kids having to share room.

- Pressing down on the light switches when you need lights to come on. And the outlets? Luckily I'm married to an engineer who figures out voltage converters and math stuff...

- Euros rather than dollars. And don't even get me started on exchange rates (math again).

- Our bathroom in all its yellowness:

- Different types of food, none of them quite American, even the American chains.

- Our bed, which is as soft as the ground.
- New phones (Viber and WhatsApp has become an important part of our lives. What to chat?)

- This train map being my primary means of transportation:

(Asking for directions is comical. I can't pronounce any of these stops/towns.)

So yeah, week one is almost down, and it has been A CHANGE. I know we'll continue to adjust (kids starting school on Thursday will really help), and that things that were once normal (laundry, dish-washing, grocery shopping) will become so again. 

And that we'll stop referring to Virginia as "home" and will start thinking of here as home.

I know it will all happen. I just hope it's sooner, rather than later.