Tomorrow, we hopefully sell our second car...the faithful Polo. It was a good buy, great to maintain, I learned a bit more about repairing our own car, and it was perfect for all of the German city driving and parking we needed to do. Owning this car has convinced us that a small kit car for me would be a great way to go, but we need to do more research on that before we take the plunge.
I have my last practice and game with my soccer team next week. They were literally the best team I ever had the privilege to play with. I learned a lot, got a great workout, and had a genuinely fun time. They were really sweet and got me a jersey as a going-away present for me. I also took a picture of the team. Not all of them were able to be present, but most of them were. We'll buy them all a beer or two for after the last game as a thank you.
From the names I can remember, from left to right...
Top: _, Stiefen, _, Philip, Marcel, _, Armin
Bottom: Andreas, Mattson, _, Me, Harald
Unpictured (Not present at this game): Deter, Sam, Lukas, Ralph, Joachim, Axel, and our alternate keeper
I unfortunately did not get to know all of them by name, but I have played with all of them on several occasions. Someone just cracked a joke right before the picture, hence all of the odd faces. :) The initials at the top stand for "SportGemeinde Linden-Schopp-Krickenbach." Sportgemeinde is essentially "sport club." The other three towns make up the team's pool for players. Most teams represent one town or city, but this team is a conglomeration of three neighboring towns. J and I live in Schopp, so that is our affiliation with the team.
For the curious, yes this is an older team. I also played with the Men's II team, but played very few games for them. This team's only requirement aside from no conflict with a different team, is that you be 32 years old or older.
J's pregnancy continues to progress. We have opted to get a hip band for her to avoid sciatic pain from her relaxing hips. It works like a charm. We're combining it with heat at night and physical therapy and a belly-sling of sorts. Sounds like a lot, but it's completely worth it.
Yesterday, we did our final yard clean up in anticipation for moving out of our town house this week. We succeeded, along with both of us getting sunburned. Even the dog was wiped out.
We're frantically selling as many items as we can before we move out and have been mostly successful. Of course, we're at the height of PCS season, so a lot of people are moving in and out. It makes selling things easier in a lot of ways. The experience of selling things has made me a little more interested in craigslist upon our arrival and future moves.
The only major pain that has occurred thus far is removing our temporary furniture prior to moving out. We scheduled a guesstimate date about one and a half months ago, but then later needed to change the date about two weeks later. We were told that it was not possible and we would have to arrange our own transportation of the furniture at our own expense. While we have managed to schedule something, many people have told us we are being taken advantage of by the temporary furniture people. We unfortunately don't have the time to engage in such a fight, but I guess it's good for people to know to be prepared for such a possible event.
Grocery shopping is proving a little more challenging now because we don't want to haul a bunch of food to the hotel, but we also don't want to spend a lot of money eating out. We're adapting as things arise, but I didn't anticipate such a quirk.
My goal of finalizing my medical school application at the end of this month may have been lofty, but I'll still try to shoot for it. I'm largely done as it is, but I want to review everything before I send it off. My letters of recommendation haven't come in yet, but that's not required for the initial application.
Lots going on at once. Sweet J has set up lodging and car rental for us once we arrive in the States, and her dad R has set things up to meet us in Baltimore to help us with moving things to Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri, so that will make the craziness more manageable. I can only imagine the whirlwind these next few weeks. Hopefully, we have planned ahead enough where it won't be as wild as it seems.
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