That One Time My Parent's Came to Visit 'Ausfahrt'

Yup, so, I am one lucky girl! After being in Germany for only a little over a month I got to see my parents! Talk about helping with being homesick. My parents celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary [wahoo! how awesome is that?!] earlier this month. So they planned a two week trip of a lifetime to Europe. They stayed mostly in England and visited beautiful placed like Bath, London, and Salisbury. Once RC and I found out we were moving to Germany, my parents altered their plans a little bit and made a pit stop in Deutschland. We had two full days together and had such a good time!

Now onto the title of the post... the lengthy explanation will probably take away from the humor, BUT when you're in a foreign country and especially ones that don't speak English road signs can be a little tricky. 1. they don't look like signs in the States, and 2. the obvious one, they aren't in English. So distinguishing between directional signs (one way, exit, etc.) and city signs (Wipfeld, Niedernhausen, etc.) can be a little challenging. 

Case in point: AUSFAHRT 

Looks like it would be one of those crazy sounding German towns, right? Wrong, it means exit!

And apparently its a mistake a lot of people make. So I was blabbing to my parents about how wonderful ACS is, how helpful SNAPS was, and about another newcomers class they offered titled "Ausfahrt is Not a Town: Living and Driving in Germany". Then I noticed the silence [which is uncommon] and the blank stares. Then the hysterical laughing. Apparently my parents had been making potty jokes [I think you can see what "aus" and "fahrt" would break down to?] about this "stinky town" their entire drive down from Frankfurt. :)

Back to their visit...

The first day I just showed them around the city we are living in and then we went to the Volksfest. 

On the second day we went to two somewhat neighboring cities Rothenburg ob der Tauber and Wurzburg. 

ROTHENBURG OB DER TAUBER

Rottenburg ob der Tauber quickly became one of my favorite cities. Granted we haven't seen THAT much of Germany, but it just has the cutest feel to it. Rottenburg is a walled city that has been able to preserve much of its medieval history which makes it popular for tourists, producers of major movies like Harry Potter, and [back in the day] Nazi ideologists who revered it as a quintessential German home town. 

Fun little story about Rothenburg: (thanks Wikipedia)

During WWII the Assistant Secretary of War ordered American troops to take over the city WITHOUT artillery because he knew the historical importance of the city. [Later he was named the 'Honorable Protectorate of Rothenburg.] On the other end, the German military commander defied Hitler's orders of "fighting to the end" and relinquished the city to the Americans. Essentially saving the city from further destruction. I just found this so interesting that two sides were willing to compromise to save a historical town. Anyway.

So if you're ever in the area, and by area I mean Germany, you should definitely check out Rothenburg. It's a neat tourist town that isn't overly "touristy". I'm already planning on going back to do some Christmas shopping. They have the cutest stores that AREN'T filled with crappy tourist trinkets that are made in China.

 Also, read Rick Steves' review on Rothenburg here.  He describes it perfectly. 

WURZBURG: FESTUNG MARIENBURG

I already blabbed about Wurzburg in this post if you want to read more about the city. Because we only had one day to cram in BOTH Rothenburg and Wurzburg we were only able to see the Marienburg Fortress and ran out of time to see the residence. I really enjoyed seeing the fortress for the second time because our visit was during the week. So it was much less crowded than when RC and I went. 

TSCHUSS! 

Update from Deutschland!

It's hard to believe that as of today we have been in Germany for a whole week!

Here we are in the Baltimore airport where we waited NINE hours for our flight to Germany. 

Why so long? Well this guy decided to make a trip to Afghanistan so air control had to delay all traffic coming into the AFB. For us it was a 3 hour delay. Apparently this time his arrival was so top secret and no one knew he was even coming until Air Force One was in the area. Crazy, huh?

QUICK RECAP OF OUR TRAVELS

• Monday:  drove from Atlanta to Columbus, dropped off our car to be shipped, stayed the night in Atlanta & spent time with RC's family
• Tuesday: flew out of Atlanta, arrived in Baltimore, waited and waited and waited, flew out for Germany that night.

DETAILS OF OUR FIRST WEEK

• Wednesday: ARRIVED in Germany, missed our shuttle from Ramstein to our new home, stayed in a German hotel, experienced German food for the first time, and slept!
• Thursday: at 3 am we were introduced to jet lag and didn't go back to sleep, took a 3 hour shuttle to our new home, met our sponsor once we arrived, checked into our hotel, and ate downtown!
• Friday: Got prepaid phones, a Community Bank account (which is so helpful when paying rent!), and our APO mailing address. Anyone want to send a care package? ;)
• Saturday: Continued our battle with jet lag and slept from 3 am to 1 pm. Took a taxi downtown. By this point we were tired of schnitzel at German restaurants so we went to an Italian restaurant in the marktplatz which is where their historic townhall is located. I don't have many pictures of their downtown area yet, but I'm working on it!
• Sunday: Found out we had a kitchen in our hotel and started cooking dinner there instead of eating downtown.
• Monday: RC began in-processing and I went to SNAPS, a newcomers awareness program that ACS puts on every month! It was perfect timing and I am becoming such a huge fan of ACS (Army Community Services). They are so incredibly helpful! 
• Tuesday: Same thing... in-processing and SNAPS. Found out Ross is officially deploying.
• Wednesday: 
• Skipped SNAPS TO TAKE MY DRIVER'S TEST! And I passed. So I can now drive in Germany! Now I just need a car to drive, ha! Our's shouldn't arrive until mid-June so we will probably be renting until then.
• Went by the housing office and picked 2 apartments to go look at! AH YAY! Due to RC's rank we have to live on the economy (in actual German neighborhoods), aaaand there's a shortage in housing/apartments here right now since their economy is doing so well. So I'm interested to see what the apartments will be like. We're wanting to stay as close to post as possible so we know we'll be looking at less square footage meters. Fingers crossed that we can find something quickly! Some people stay in the hotel for a month until they find something, and we just don't have that much time before RC leaves. Wish us luck! 

January Recap/PCSing and ACS Info.

RC is in the final weeks of his BOLC training which means lots of time in the field! It's crazy how fast time has flown by. It's definitely been one of those weird circumstances were it has seemed to drag on in the moment and then the next second you look up and wonder where the time has gone! I am so proud of RC and how well he has performed during BOLC. He is going to be such a great leader and officer. Plus, I know he is so ready to finally be in what I call "the real Army" and get out of GA! We only have to get through ARC and Airborne... then Germany here we come!

So what have I been doing while RC has been gone all this time? Well, working first of all. We've been trying to save all of my paychecks (our "fun" money) for traveling in Germany. Although at times I get frustrated sacrificing weekends with RC to work, I know having that extra money in Germany will be wonderful! I've also been trying to plan as much for Germany as possible. I've gone through the medical screening, received my tourist passport, applied for my no-fee passport, and now we're just waiting to receive orders with my name included for travel!

In the beginning the process was very frustrating. RC went to a briefing and received some paperwork to begin the process. But it was very scattered and somewhat unorganized. Most of the phone numbers I had been given were wrong numbers and everything required an appointment. How exactly are you supposed to schedule an appointment when you can't get a hold of anyone? But with a little patience everything worked out. Through my process I've definitely learned some information that I feel may be helpful to share. From my experience the Army isn't going to hand hold your hand through this process. You have to go out and figure it out yourself! The resources are there, you just have to utilize them!

Here are some of the resources that have helped me:

1. Get on Facebook and "like" your local installation's FMWR page! They are frequently updated and can keep you in the loop with things going on if you don't live on post. I found out about a PCS briefing on-post from the FWMR Facebook page, not from someone in the FRG or on post. 
2. Reach out to ACS! Army Community Services (ACS) hosted the PCS briefing and look at how helpful they were! ALL of this is information about going through a PCS as well as information on PCSing overseas. This information has been a lifesaver! I think your first PCS is going to be overwhelming, let alone PCSing to a foreign country; so I am a HUGE fan of ACS right now for providing all these resources. So what did I come home with? Maps of European countries, multiple translation books, a menu translator, tips on living and working in Germany, a packet on the process of shipping your POV, contact information to schedule our move, the drivers manual for Germany (hello, I need to study!),  how to request a sponsor, and a lovely 74 page packet on our new installation. And all of this was FREE! To say the least I'm a little relieved right now. I received a ton of information and no longer feel out of the loop. I was surprised to find out that I was on track and actually ahead of the curve with moving overseas. So maybe being a control freak isn't so bad! :)

Guten tag, everyone!