Blackout

My Internet and phone access is virtually zero right now, so I'm saving these next several posts in my iPod until connection is restored.

Two days ago, I arrived in Ramstein. It was a unique experience because it was the first time I arrived in an air force base. There were several large cargo planes on the tarmac simply sitting around apparently scattered. Getting from the plane to baggage check was a lone long roundabout glass tunnel on the outside of the base. I got to streamline to the front because I had a pet. They only needed by DoD ID card and my SOFA passport (my no fee passport). I then met up with Etsy, but couldn't let her outside until the vet showed up. The vet never showed up as the plane was 5 hours late so we were told to forget about the vet and were lining up to get out when I saw J at the gate thought the glass. I went outside to give the dog a potty break and met up with J, with the understanding that I had to return to be cleared by customs. Verizon has no service in Germany, so my phone is only good as a paperweight right now.

I just got back into the door when I was informed that if J or some other military person was my , then I didn't need to go through customs. Total streamline!

J opted for a specific cab so we could get all of my stuff over in one trip. After I arrived at our new house, we walked around the neighborhood. There are a few trails, a velodrome, two soccer fields, what looks like a sports club restaurant building, several horses, and several small houses in Schopp...including a chicken pen! There also may be a train station, but we need to look into that a little further.

We explored Kaiserslautern a little and ate at the city's oldest wooden building. The food was good for the price and the waitress fortunately spoke English. We saw some locals playing cards. I thought they were playing 500, but it turned out that wasn't the case. When we got home, we started a checklist of Amy type of damage that existed in the house when we first moved in. I'm sure this will get pulled out when we move out.

Yesterday, our household goods arrived. That took almost the whole day. We organized it a little bit, set up our queen-size bed, and then ate at Casa de Maria. We thought it was a pizza place, but ended up being a nice Italian restaurant owned and run by Italian women who spoke English, German, and Italian. They had a regular daily fresh seafood catch menu. We both ordered pasta dishes: J got spaghetti and I got rigatoni. It was crazy good. J was exceptionally impressed. J was learning, as I did on my previous trip to Germany and Scotland, that European restaurant food is crazy good.

Today, I was supposed to only do a few things at home alone when J came home only an hour and a half after she left. She had a half day free and rushed me to base to get in-processed. I got signed up for medical, we signed for our COLA(cost of living adjustment) now that I was in Germany, met her sponsor and her boss, learned how to gas up a car using the army fuel vouchers, and returned just in time for our landlord to try to repair a few things around the house. Our TV satellite installation guys chose to come back next week as the roof was too slippery to work in from rain earlier today. Our landlord and his daughter seemed quite nice. Etsy barked once quietly, but it was enough for me to realize that we need to get her trained to not bark as soon as possible.

While at base, we got word of a last minute dinner party with J's boss and coworkers tonight. It's fortunately nice casual, so no ties this time, but I will have to be on my A game.

The more time I spend here the more I want to learn german so that J and I can mingle with the locals.