Futbol!

The weather here in Germany has been AWESOME lately. I think spring is finally making an appearance. So yesterday we decided to venture out and go to a soccer game.
We have a local professional soccer team here called FC Kaiserslautern, or just FCK for short (pronounced more like eff-say-kaw in German).

It was a great game. It was tied up at 1:1 for most of the time, and then we scored in literally the last play of the game. Super awesome.

Just life

Fall in Germany is pretty awesome. If you've ever been to Europe you know how green it is - well the fall colors are just as vivid. I was going to get out and take pics last weekend, but we had a huge wind storm on Thur and it pretty much blew all the leaves off the trees.

Last week I was in a Logistics course, and we took a field trip to one of our storage sites in Luxembourg. Not super exciting, but on the way back we stopped at the Luxembourg American Cemetery and Memorial. Way awesome. I really wish I had had my camera. Sadly I did not. I got these pictures from someone else who took them with their phone. Thanks boss.

While I was gone on my cruise, it was decided by my bosses that I would be moving jobs. I'm pretty excited about this. I've been in the same unit since I got here. I'm basically just going to be running a couple of programs, and doing whatever projects the Col needs done. He is awesome, and told me that I'm pretty much my own boss now. This is kind of a new, made-up position, so I don't actually have a job title yet. They told me just to make one up. This is my new office. The 5th one I've had since I've been here. I'll be sharing it with someone eventually (there's another desk on the other side of the room) but they haven't figured out who yet.

So that's just daily life in a nutshell as it stands right now.

Wandering

On Saturday I went to mail some boxes for my nephews. In Germany they have these DHL Packstations. I don't think they have these in the states, but they should. They're just these random like...lockers that you take your package too and you can either buy postage there or print it online before hand. Then you scan your package and one of the little lockers opens up and you stick your package in - and done. mailed.




However, that is not the point of this post, that was just the preempt. This is the moral of the story:
On my way to find one of these little stations, my GPS took me on a route into town I'd never been on before. I live on one side of my village and have never explored the other side. Turns out it's rather scenic. I passed a bunch of walking trails and it was so nice and sunny outside I decided to go home and grab my camera and come back and explore a little. (this was also a good means of procrastinating writing my paper)

They have these paths ALL over Germany. Just these random paved paths that weave around the countryside in the middle of nowhere.








I passed a ton of trails that went into the forests that I want to go explore. Wandering around out here is just like stepping into the landscape of a fantasy novel. It's awesome. And this is what it looks like in the winter. I'm excited to go out in the summer when everything is really green.

Bringing in the New Year: Germany Style

In the States if you want a real firework show on New Years Eve you have to go looking for one. Sure you might step outside, bang some pans, blow those noise maker things, light some sparklers. You may even see a few fireworks go off in the distance. But, unless you live near a large city, or have made the adventurous trip to one, chances are you watch the big celebration on tv - the ball dropping, the millions of people crammed into time square (which, don't get me wrong, I think would be super awesome to go to some day) and that's pretty much the extent of it. (Atleast that's been my experience)
Sure they have those giant city celebrations in Europe too ( I hear Berlin is bigger than NY even), but just staying at home in your own neighborhood here is quite the event.
Here EVERYONE has their own firework show, right in their own back yard. And I'm not talking those measly little firecrackers. These are full blown, 4th of July quality fireworks. Tonight when we stepped outside at midnight you could see fireworks in every direction. Both neighbors on either side of us were lighting them off, and pretty much 1 out of every 3 of the houses in the entire town were lighting them off. And to add to it all the church bells rang for a good 10 min. The streets were so filled with smoke in a matter of minutes it was actually hard to see most of them. But it was awesome anyhow!

I forgot to take my camera, and I doubt I could have really captured it from where I was anyways. But these pics kind of give you an idea of what's it's like looking down on a German town on New Years Eve

Cochem Castle

Last weekend the YSA (Young Single Adults) went on a trip to Cochem (Coke - em).


We walked all the way up to the castle and got a tour - which was actually quite the hike because we started down by that bridge.






We got to go inside a few of the rooms. They only have a few of them furnished. This is just some replica armor. But that tall guy behind me really did exist.


This is looking down over Cochem from the castle.
(Mays - I remembered what you said about me always crossing my arms in pics so I tried not to this time)


Afterwards we ate at a little German restaurant. I had pasta of some sort.


We finished off the day with gelato- the perfect completion to a German meal. That's Strawberry and Nutella in case you were wondering - which, may I add, I ordered completely in German :)

A roof and wheels

So this week was the week of big purchases.

I decided to get a used car for now and then before I leave I'm going to buy a new custom BMW (328xi for those of you who are wondering). I bought this 98 BMW 323i to get me around for now. Except for the fact that it has no cup holders - it's a pretty good little car.


I also went house shopping this week. After looking at about 6 different places I found one that I LOVE. It's about 20 min away from base in the little village of Erlenbach. I got really lucky too. There were already two other people scheduled to look at it the day after I called but I managed to talk her in to letting me look that day. If I had called a day later I probably wouldn't have gotten it. It's all on one floor (which is unusual for here). I'm on the main floor. This is a view from the back. ( I forgot to take a pic of the front)


This is my view from the back yard. Awesome, no? And that's west so it's going to be an awesome view for sunsets :)


This is the "secret garden" gate out of my backyard. I have no idea where it goes... yet :)

This is my back yard. Patio and all. I'm definitely going to have to get a grill.


This is the guest bedroom. That means I need guests to come stay in it - that means you!


This is the master bedroom. There is an office almost identical to this just a little smaller so I didn't take a pic.


This is the guest bathroom


Master bath


Other side of the master bath


This is the living room, and that doorway to the left leads to the entry way. The entry way is about as big as the living room in my last place.


A view of the living room from the opposite corner


The kitchen.


There's also a laundry room/pantry, some closets, a garage and a tiny basement for storage. I really am not sure what I'm going to do with all this space. But the AF is going to give me furniture to fill it with until I buy something of my own. I'll get more pics up when I actually get all moved in.
And an awesome thing about the AF - I don't have to use any of my monthly pay to pay for this place. They pay me extra to cover the rent (about $1300). I love the AF :)

I Have Arrived

After a very long day of 3 flights and more than 15 total hours on a plane, I have made it to Germany. This is a photo I took at 2 am (at least by my watch which was still on AL time). Luckily I actually got a decent amount of sleep on the plane so the flight wasn't so bad.


This is on the decent in to Ramstein. We got in about 3pm. I got my luggage and my sponsor (another LT from my squadron assigned to help me out) picked me up and took me to my hotel.


I'm staying in a hotel right off base, that smells strangely similar to my hotel in Africa. So this is my home for the next couple weeks til I find a permanent place. I'll get more pics up of the area in the next week.


After I unpacked I got in touch with one of the LDS Young Single Adult guys I've been in contact with over here. I went with the YSA group to German conversation class with the missionaries followed by institute taught by an Englishman who wears Crocs with his suit. It was pretty sweet. I'm sooo glad I have contacts over here already. The Church is Awesome! It's made getting here so much better knowing I have people to hang out with and willing to help me out with anything.

I'm now going to attempt to get on a regular sleeping schedule. It doesn't even get dark here til 10pm, which weirds me out. But it's now 11 so hopefully I can actually sleep and wake up at a normal hour!