Getting Settled, Going Crazy

After a very long 2 1/2 weeks of feeling almost constantly frustrated, I think we're finally past the worst of this move to Germany.  We still haven't moved into our house or had our furniture delivered, but I honestly think that unpacking boxes is going to be a breeze after the ups and downs of these past weeks.

Moving to Germany is amazing, make no mistake about it.  The scenery here is gorgeous.  Over the course of two weekends, we've visited three countries.  The people are friendly and for the most part speak beautiful English (even though they seem to think it's only "okay").  I haven't once had a moment of doubt that this is exactly where I want to be right now, but I have had an awful lot of moments of wanting to rip all of my hair out.  It's just hard, because we feel as though we're starting over completely from scratch on "Life".  It's like we just graduated from high school or college and entered the world.  To give you an idea of what I mean, here are some of the things we've had to do since waking up as residents of Germany on May 17th:

• Open up a German bank account
• Find a house
• Have the Air Force base approve our housing contract
• Set up temporary furniture delivery at our house for use until our own things eventually show up
• Search for an affordable, reliable used car
• Research rates and get approved for a car loan which involved opening another bank account
• Set up internet and landlines at the house
• Sign cell phone contracts
• Sign up for the tax avoidance program because we aren't liable for the 19% utility tax here
• Learn German rules of the road and pass a driver's license test
• Go to Customs and/or the gas station on base to get our fuel ration cards so that we don't have to pay the staggeringly high German gas prices
• Have our new car registered
• Apply for a new credit card that doesn't charge international transaction fees

And of course, we have to do most of this while dealing with a language we don't understand, while thinking in Euros and Dollars, and most of these events took hours and hours plus several different trips to accomplish.  For example, while the process of setting up our German bank account was fairly simple, it took three trips to the bank, and we've been back twice since to transfer money since they charge for online banking.  We decided on the first house we looked at, but not until after ruling out three others, and spending about four or five hours in the base housing office trying to get the contract and our furniture delivery approved.  Then there were the various newcomers briefings that we've each gone to, the fact that we have to go to the post office to check our mail now, and scads of other errands that just take SO MUCH LONGER than you would ever think possible.  In comparison, for previous moves, we've just found a house, had our utilities turned on and moved in.  The end.

So, it's been a fairly complicated move in comparison to our previous experiences, but as of last Friday, things started to feel a little more secure as we finally got the keys to our house, the keys to our new car and the Air Force decided to start reimbursing and compensating us for the terrifying amounts of money that we've had to spend to get to this point.
I am madly in love with our car.  We took a day trip to Luxembourg this past Saturday, and as we were cruising down the autobahn, I told Colby that it felt like we were riding in a hug.  First, he laughed at me, then after a moment he said, very seriously, "Yeah, actually, it does."  She's a 2006 Mercedes, so it's like we were super fancy six years ago, but she rides like a dream on the autobahn and is so quiet and smooth that it's easy to see how these Germans easily get up to and over 150/160 kilometers per hour on the autobahn.  Colby went 160 (99 mph) yesterday on one of the unrestricted sections of road, just so we could see how it felt and it seriously seemed like we were going slower than when we would struggle to go 120 in our rattletrap rental.

Since I sold my Mazda Tribute before we moved here, I was supposed to be the primary driver of Colby's Honda Pilot while he drove something more fuel efficient back and forth to work.  But I am absolutely terrified about driving and parking that massive car in tiny villages and the fuel economy of the two vehicles actually isn't that vastly different (the Pilot gets pretty great mileage), so I've been lobbying hard for Colby to let me drive the Mercedes, or as she's become known to us, Heidi, instead.  We'll see how that goes.  For now, we've still got a few weeks before the Pilot even arrives in country, so there's lots of time for me to wear him down.

In the meantime, Colby has started going into work, and I'm stuck in our TLF all day, every day with crappy internet, about eight English tv channels, and some equally stir crazy dogs.  But by Friday, we'll be in our house, we'll have some furniture, and I think we'll start to feel a lot better about life.  Now I just have to get through four more days...

Comments

[Melissa]

I'm glad you've got most of the challenging parts of the move completed! That's quite a list!

[Solange]

Whew! That must have been exhausting! I don't blame you for wanting to keep Heidi for yourself since I'm sure she's much easier to maneuver and park than the Pilot. Once the babies are here will you be putting them in the Pilot or Heidi to drive around? Just curious since (I'm assuming) you'll be the one with them most of the time so you might want to get used to the car you'll always be driving.
How long will it take for your stuff from the States to get to you guys?
I hope the next few days go by quickly so you can get in your house to nest!

[Kate P]

Vroom, vroom! I did hear it's easy to speed around on the Autobahn--my dad still likes to tell the story of his business associate (now friend), an Austrian woman with a "lead foot". . . as in, "Oh, that was Oberammergau back there; did you want to see it?" Hee. So I'm wishing you many happy, safe kilometers!

[erin - heart in ireland]

ohhhh heidi is pretty!

and wow that is quite a list of what you've done so far!

only a few more day!

[Molly P. (mollypg)]

Heidi is lovely! You two belong together. Here's hoping the lobbying works.
Sounds like despite the roadblocks you guys are kicking ass and taking names when it comes to the "to do" list.

[Ellesees]

Whew! Glad you have some spiffy wheels!

[Elizabeth]

Oh, that's SO much to have gotten done! Props to you. I think I would have had a breakdown by now, but you're doing so well!