So it seems have if I have been going non stop these past (almost) two weeks! The 2 days or so of "downtime" I didn't have the energy to get online lol. So best place to start is at the beginning:
Day we left: It was hard to say goodbye and I cried waiting for the plane but thankfully Matt isn't very emotional so he made me laugh. I was really panicking that I couldn't get a hold of my Dad to say goodbye until like 2 minutes before take off! And I never did get to say goodbye to Shana or the little kids officially. The plane ride wasn't that bad. We mainly watched movies on the cool screens (you get to choose what movie, tv show, video game, or flight plan you want to watch/play!) I tried to sleep but no such luck- just couldn't get comfortable.
We arrived in Frankfurt and had no clue what to do but we made it to baggage claim and while waiting for our bags luckily a soldier came up to us and asked if we were PCSing in and told us where to wait for him. How did he know we were American?? Matt's UT shirt and camo hat maybe...well he took a group of us up to a hotel room in the airport which was converted to offices/waiting room for the Army and then we find out we're being sent to Schweinfurt instead of Mannheim. Of course the freaking out begins and the confusion and Matt refused to ask why so I did. Turns out his unit in Mannheim (44 ESB) is being sent here to Schweinfurt in July so they just sent us here instead of setttling in at Mannheim then in a month moving to Schweinfurt (for once the Army made sense!) We hang out in this room for 3 hours then they put us on a bus for Schweinfurt. It was a long bus ride and very pretty but pretty soon everyone (all 3 other people including Matt) fell asleep so I gave in and fell asleep as well. We arrived at Conn Barracks in Schweinfurt and they took us to the building where we got our ID cards into the system, our ration card, set up Matt's in processing dates, and a few other things. Then our sponsor took us to the hotel to check us in and drop of our bags (and Elvis). The hotel doesn't take dogs but in the housing unit they converted the 4th floor into temporary housing for people with pets so that's where we've been staying. Not so fun- there's no a/c (though we haven't really needed it) but you leave your windows open and there are kids screaming outside at like 7AM!! Anyways... so check in and the sponsor takes us to pick up Subway on Ledward then back to Askren Manor (where housing is) to shop at the Commissary. That night we tried to stay up but Matt fell asleep on the couch for about an hour around 6pm so I took a shower then when I got out he got in and I fell asleep! So we went to bed at 8pm. I woke up from 3am and couldn't fall asleep til 5am and by the way- the sun rises here at about 4:30am!
We arrived on Wednesday so Thursday Matt was off and we went around the three posts exploring, etc. Nothing to exciting
Friday Matt began inprocessing (I slept haha) then we went to the cafe on post and had dinner then attempted to walk to the train station to get Adri. Now we didn't know when she'd be in exactly but I told her I would get to the station at about 8pm and would stay until 10pm and if she wasn't there then I'd assume she had stayed in a hotel in Frankfurt. So I had gotten directions from a lady at the shopette who takes the train everyday and walks to post so Matt and I were going to attempt to walk the 1 1/2 miles there. Yeah she doesn't give good directions. And neither did the german teenagers we asked. Thankfully a german man who didn't speak good english but knows how to point (haha) helped us out. We got to the station at 8:15pm (Adri knows I always run late lol) but she wasn't in. At about 9-9:30pm I start to panic. I'm terrified something has happened to her. We used the internet cafe at the station because I knew that if she had decided to get a hotel in Frankfurt she would have emailed me (remember- none of us have cell phones yet!) No email. So I double checked the train schedules from Frankfurt to Schweinfurt and I see that there are trains coming in until 1am! I told Matt we were staying until the last train arrived lol. It was getting VERY cold and dark by this time. After really working up the panic Adri walked off the train at 10:15pm! Thank GOD I didn't leave at 10pm like I had told her (exactly what she said and what I was thinking!!) So we caught a taxi back to Askren Manor and signed Adri in. The guard told us to just sign her out before 24 hrs was up and sign her back in. That's it. Ok no biggie...just wait for later...
Saturday our sponsor picked us up and took us to look at 3 off post apartments the housing office had offered. The first was far away but gorgeous and the landlord had an english speaking interpreator. The 2nd was a joke! SOOO tiny and the landlord didn't speak a lick of English! It was also far away. The 3rd was big but not at nice but it was closer. The housing office had just given Matt the keys for us to look at on our own time. So after a long day of that the sponsor drove us back to Ledward so we could walk around the PX. We drop Matt and Adri off at the gate so he could sign her in and the sponsor and I pull up to the next parking lot to wait on them. After what seemed like forever I see Matt walking towards us but no Adri...something was up. Matt gets in the car and tells us the guards told him he was on the suspension list and couldn't sign in guests for 30 days and Adri was banned from post for 30 days for not signing out. WHAT IS GOING ON?!?! We drive back out the gate and pick up Adri and decide to go talk to Askren Manor guards since they're the one's who initially gave us the visitor rules. No luck there. I tried giving them attitude, the sponsor tried the "Im sorry Im stupid" bit nothing worked. I even told them "But this is YOUR guard's fault they didn't say to sign out everytime you leave post! Just every 24 hrs" but the guy just pointed to a small flyer with TINY print that "explains" the visitor rules. FYI it does NOT say if you leave post in general- it says if you leave the post with a visitors pass and Adri had never been given a pass so we didnt know that applied!! They said talk to your MPs they are the only one's who can help you. They will call us if they tell you ok. Next stop- MP station. We drive BACK to Ledward drop off Matt and Adri outside the gate (because I would argue better with the MPs than Matt if need be) but after driving everywhere then stopping and asking we find out they aren't even ON POST! They're around the corner on their own little mini post. BAH! So we all drive over there- sponsor parks inside the gate, a no no apparently we learned. The MPs were basically like the guards are jerks we'll call them just don't let it happen again. FINALLY! You could see the panic in Adri's eyes, and she was checking out the hotels as we drove haha. I just saw red- I was REALLY hating Germans at this point (the guards were/are SO RUDE!)
Sunday we made our first excursion to Wurzburg. Its about a 25minute train ride. The city was beautiful and so medieval/german. We had authentic german food for lunch and toured the palace. Then the torture began. For me at least. We wanted to see the fortress which is on a big hill (mountain in my opinion!) but we couldn't figure out the bus up so we decided to take the "heart thumping walk" I read about in my tour book. Heart thumping my bum! It was more like they were taking a meat cleaver to my chest and had put my legs on medieval stretching machines!!! It was seriously miserable and I couldn't breathe except to cuss. Needless to say Adri (who's used to all the walking in Europe) and Matt (who's in the ARMY) were having a nice laugh at me as they waited at the top. Oh and the most frustrating thing?? The german woman who showed up shortly after me and had made the hike in STILLETOS!!
I'm glad they forced me into making the climb though because nothing beat that view! So beautiful! I recommend everyone go up to the fortress in Wurzburg (so before coming to visit me you better get in shape!!)
Monday we rested up and no I wasn't AS sore as I thought I would be (but I still hurt!). We went back to the housing office where I tried to argue them into letting us live on post. Ok so tell me how this makes sense..they reserved all the on post housing for the 44ESB coming in from Mannheim. Matt is 44ESB and was supposed to go to Mannheim. But we can't have that reserved housing. I asked WHY- that doesn't make sense! I was told well because you came from the states and you are in the hotel. So I tried "Well if I move out of the hotel will you put me in housing? What about when my 30 days in the hotel are up? Then do I get housing??" Nope. They were trying to get us to take the apartments we looked at because in their words we had to hurry up and get out of the hotel before our 3o days were up. Ok but we've only been in the hotel for less than a week at this point! Seriously? We were going to take the first apartment that was very cute but far away and the guy told us to rent a car for Matt to get to work lol whatever we set up the appointment to sign the lease for the next week. Better than nothing right? Ha... That night Adri and I got nostalgic and talked about old times and listened to old music on itunes and laughed until 1am when Matt came out of the room in a tiffy hehehehehe
Tuesday Adri and I went to Rothenburg ob der Tauber (on the Tauber river is what that means, apparently there's serveral Rothenburgs..). It was SO cute! Most of the building had been there since the 1400s. Lots of shopping there as well! And a HUGE Christmas store WITH museum! I wish they had let us take pictures in there- words can't describe!! That morning it was raining and so we called a cab. It tooks us 3x of calling a cab and explaining where we were for one to actually show up! So we missed the train we initially wanted but caught the next one. The train to Rothenburg requires you to transfer trains in Wurzburg then again in a small town but there you get on a small shuttle type train with only one car that takes you into Rothenburg. We were so excited because after the announcements came on in German they played it in ENGLISH! Oh the small things...
Then that night after we rode the train back we thought we'd beat the rain because we were walking in the direction of the light and the storm was behind us so we skipped the taxi and walked. Lesson learned- don't be a tight wad, if it looks like it's going to rain just take the taxi! We were 5 minutes into the walk and it starts POURING. I had bought umbrellas at the train station that morning. Oh well the luck continues when first my umbrella pole came off, the umbrella kept blowing out the wrong way, and then the string fell off! Within 2 minutes of the rain we were soaked from the wind, etc and FREEZING. All you could do was laugh otherwise lie down in the puddle and cry. So we just sang "If you like Pina Coladas- and gettin caught in the rain" most of the way! An hour later (twice the time it should have takin if we could have walked normal, both of our pants/shoes weighed 2olbs from all the rain!) we got to the Askren gate where the guards were of course rude and it stopped raining! Go figure.
Wednesday was a down day. Adri and I slept (Matt was in his German Headstart classes) and then we all went to the library on post where we checked out some movies and books. Adri and I had been hearing about King Ludwig so much in these towns (he built tons of palaces and was called the "Fairy Tale King" for his beautiful castles including Neuschweinstein-sp?- which is the castle Walt Disney modeled Cinderella's Palace after) so we got a movie about him. Turns out the movie which is about German history and has German stars is all in Italian! It had an Italian director so...yeah makes no sense. So we watched the first 2 hours (first disc) with English subtitles. Wasn't really doing it for us though...very confusing plot (the subtitles weren't a big deal just a very weird style of movie) so we called it quits and went to bed.
Thursday Adri was leaving. She packed up and we had to go to Ledward first so she could print her boarding pass, hostel directions, etc so we had to walk there with all her luggage. Yes the wonderful way visitor stuff is set up we were never able to get her a long term pass so we had to do the sign in/out thing the whole time which meant she couldn't ride the shuttle between the posts! Bah! So we walked to Ledward (not too far, but feels far when you're dragging or carrying 50lbs!- oh and it's raining, AGAIN!) Adri's poor suitcase was soaked. After she printed her stuff we got a taxi to the train station (see- we learn!) The train to Frankfurt requires you to stop in Wurzburg and transfer but we managed. Frankfurt was neat- the old mixed with the new but everything was closed because it was a German holiday (Corpus Christi- apparently they don't know why they celebrate it...or at least that's what we understood when we googled it). Then the time came to say goodbye...Adri wasn't flying to London until 1opm or so so she put me on the train before heading to the airport to hang out. She started to tear up but I didn't want to cry yet so I hopped on the train and told her to stop haha and I held it in the old train ride and taxi ride home...then as soon as I sat on the couch back home the tears came...for awhile haha it just felt like my last link home was leaving (Matt doesn't count lol)
Friday was a hang out day and Matt had off so we just ran to the px and commissary.
Saturday we took the bus downtown to Rossmarkt and without knowing it we caught the Volksfest parade! That was neat. Then we walked around and did a little shopping (clothes at H&M for me and a new cell for Matt). Ate at McDonalds (they really are every where lol) Ich Liebe Es! (I'm Lovin It!) then we came back home where I napped until 8pm and we ate dinner then went to Volkfest. Its a big carnival and luckily its right across from where we're staying! So we walked over there and rode a couple rides then we each had 3 drinks over 2 hours or so while walking around and just people watching and talking. 3 beers for Matt (3 liters) and 3 glasses of wine for me (1.5 liters). Now anyone who's drank with us before knows that we can handle more than 3 of anything. Well apparently not german drinks! We were pretty schnockered! We stumbled are way back home (is there such a thing as walking under the influence??) and drunk dialed a few people on the computer (it was about 4pm back home so they thought was hilarious). Ate some food, watched part of a movie, and crashed!
Yesterday we just recovered. Matt was way worse off than I was which was funny. Just hung out at home all day in the PJs and watched movies! Very nice.
Today Matt still had off but I started my Spouse Newcomers class at 9am and it was supposed to last until 1pm but we finished at about 11am. Met some very nice women and the instructor was super nice as well. I even met someone without a kid! And she's a teacher! Super exciting!! The ladies and the instructor all told me not take the apartment that was 3o minutes away. The instructor who is german said that the traffic is too bad for Matt to drive in by 6am and its horrible in the winter. All of these women got off post government leased housing with a week or two of being here! Even the one's with dogs and the one without kids! So there's no excuse! So unfair...I hate the army lol. There were two women who's husbands are in Matt's unit and one of them had her husband call the housing lady (apparently she likes him hehe) and talk to her about our situation and she just recommend we decline the far away apartment and wait for something to come up that's closer. Meanwhile we stay in the hotel which the army pays for up to 30 days. That's alright with me because we won't have our household goods until July some time! After calling and cancelling the apartment Matt and I went to eat and two of the women sat with us and we talked some more. Oh Army life.
Wow ok so this post took FOREVER- like over an hour and a half! Definitely not letting it get that backed up again! If you actually read all this then props to you! Anywho more to come (and sooner this time!) Tshus! (Bye!)
21:30
Keeley Barr
