Getting settled

What a long two weeks it has been! After moving out of the hotel, which we called home for about 5 weeks, we had 1 night without any furniture. Luckily Chris' parents let us borrow 2 cots and a blow up mattress so we had something to sleep on without having to borrow beds and things from the Army's Loan closet.

The movers didn't lose anything, but I don't know if it was crappy packers or the trip across the ocean, but they managed to break 2 legs off our German Shrank (like a china cabinet), break glass on a photo, destroy our TV stand and a bookcase, and minor damage to a lot more things. This is the one thing I hate about moving around- I have to oversee the packing and unpacking, just waiting for damages. Oh, I did forget the WATER BOTTLE one of the packers left in a tub that leaked. Not good. I don't think there was anything too terribly important that was water-damaged. Our apartment has no closets- it sucks. Next week we are getting our "wardrobes" so we can hang up our things.

Chris has been in the field for the past month, only coming home for 4 days (which coincidently fell in the time we moved in and the movers came, maybe it was my good planning ;) so he hasn't seen the house without all the boxes and piles. Well, there are plenty of things that don't have a "place"- we have gone from a 3 bedroom, 3 bath, 2+ garage, 1700 sq foot house to a 3 bedrooms, 1.5 bath 1400 sq foot apartment (with no basement and a 1 stall garage). Add on top of that all the patio furniture that was on our HUGE patio- loveseat, several chairs, table, grill, etc...That is actually what is taking up most of our garage storage space. Damn you Target for having such great outdoor furniture last year! LOL I'm glad our gazebo flew away into the neighbor's house last year, cause we'd have NO place for that! :P

It is interesting living in a different country, especially when they do not speak the same language. I have started taking German language classes- learning a whole lot! I can now say my A,B,C's in German and count to 100! I have met one of my neighbors- he is in (I think) his 60's and likes speaking English. I told him I was learning so he quizzed me on my A, B, Cs at the bus stop! (He was very hard on me, but told me it will come with learning the language. I was glad he was honest with the pronunciations!) I can say several phrases and know my greetings and how to be polite. The kids even have German class once a week. I almost wish they would do a lot more, but I understand they have a lot to teach.

We've got all the amenities within walking distance from the house. We've got a pizza/kabob place right across the street, which is DELICIOUS!! A butcher shop and bakery right around the corner- the butcher shop is owned by our landlord's family. Right across the street from the bakery/butcher shop is the kids' bus stop. It takes about a minute to get from our door to the bus stop, which is quite convenient! Right near the bus stop is a grocery store. Only been there once, but plan on going quite often! There plenty of restaurants around us too. If only we had a train stop too! The closest one is only 5 miles, so hopefully we can take full advantage of the closeness!

We are looking forward to when Chris comes home next week! I hope to get some pictures after our place once we find a place for everything! :)