Somehow, the time has flown by at such an astoundingly rapid pace that we have been living in Germany for almost a year and a half. I typically find that with each move, it takes about a year before I feel truly settled in to my new community and at "home" there. I feel that I'm only just now approaching that point with this assignment. In all honesty, I still frequently feel like we just got here, but I find that it's easier to answer newcomers' questions, and while I wouldn't say my questions have gotten any less numerous, it's at least become easier to track down answers on my own.
I think there are a few reasons for this--number one being that I'm in a foreign country where I don't speak the language, so obviously I'm going to feel a little more fish out of water than I would anywhere in the States.
Second, a huge part of feeling at home anywhere is making yourself at home there--again, fairly obvious. But with two babies, I have not felt particularly inspired to avail myself of what's available "on the economy" as we military folks abroad tend to say. If I were a bit more footloose and fancy free, I would be making a much larger effort to shop at the local stores, try more restaurants, attend more festivals. But with the girls, honestly, my main qualifications for going pretty much anywhere are is it 1) fast and 2) navigable with my 18-wheeler double stroller. And sadly, it's much faster to just shop on base at the commissary and BX than the local stores.
I do still make it down to the grocery store down the street, and of course my beloved Cora, in France, on a semi-regular basis, but our weekly grocery trips are done at the commissary. I've found some local clothing stores that I like, but haven't even begun to scratch the surface of what is available. We do like to try restaurants, and my big goal for this upcoming year is to invest in a babysitter more often (or really, ever, for that matter) and have more date nights so we can expand our culinary horizons.
That said, I do truly enjoy living here, and don't fantasize about returning to America any sooner than we have to. Given the opportunity to extend another year, I don't think I would want to turn it down. There are things I miss--drive through Starbucks, easy parking and running into stores, understanding what people are saying to me, signing up for a service like internet and not having to wait two months for it to be activated, just to name a few. But I'm still riding the high of absurdly easy access to a huge number of foreign countries and the adventure of being a quasi-ex-pat.
However, with our trip home less than a month away, I do find myself creating a mental list of "must dos' while in 'Merica:
- Go to Target, if only to wander around empty handed in a haze of wonderment and joy (but also probably buy everything in the store).
- Go through a Starbucks drive through for a Nutella latte, because evidently, that is a thing.
- Eat at an amazing Mexican restaurant, Raisin' Cane's, Izzo's illegal Burrito, and get a Frosty from Wendy's.
- Turn right on red, even without a green arrow.
- Engage in conversation with cashiers and restaurant employees, just as a refresher on how to engage in small talk without using sentence fragments and mispronouncing basic words.
I'm sure more will be added to the list in the next few weeks, but I feel like that's a pretty solid start.
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