Germany-- Week 23 Fun in the snow, mail box problems and gas rations

Germany-- Week 23  Fun in the snow, mail box problems and gas rations

Dear all:

This week started off with Gregg repeatedly saying he could not open the mail box.  He just couldn’t get it open.  This has gone on for months.  I gave him the combination and every time he would pick me up at school unsuccessful. Checking the mail got to be a real problem as I worked and did practice after school so I didn’t always want to have to go and get the mail.  Finally I went with him to the mail box.  As I did the combination he was constantly saying yes that is how I do it but it doesn’t work.  Finally I opened the mail box and he looked at me dead pan and said and I quote.  “You have to turn the button to open it. “  Yes he had been trying to pull it open for months.  Go figure!  LOL

Another issue was gas.  Since we are making four trips to and from work as Gregg beings me and comes home and comes back to pick me up and we went to Luxembourg this month we ran out of our gas rations.  We have been told that we can ask to get it upped since we are using most of it for to and from work so we will check into that next week.  That doesn’t mean that we get no gas we just have to pay those astronomical prices that the Europeans pay.  YUK!!  Anyway there are some rations for a few things over here like coffee, tobacco and liquor. 

We did not have internet for two days and someone told us to unhook and hook the router back up—this worked for a couple of hours then it went out again.  So I spent 3 hours on the phone with the internet people trying to figure out how to get it hooked back up. This was comical as I would get on the phone and the computer would talk German so I would just hit 0 until I got a person then just said English till someone who could speak English came on.  Anyway after about 10 lost or disconnected calls I finally got a lady who had to translate to the technician.  But between about six of us we got the router re configured by me trying to read to them in German from my screen what it said.  It was hilarious. But in the end success and we all cheered.

After that we went to the Kontackt club dinner.  It is a club in which German and Americans get together and they travel some and try to learn about each others’ culture.  I have to admit it was great fun and delicious.

We had no snow at the beginning of the week although Gregg got out and made a snow ball and hit it like a golf ball, see picture number 1. But Friday night we had snow again and yes it was different kind of snow.  This snow is like powdered sugar so I will call it floating snow.  The problem is that it does not stick together so no matter how hard we tried we could not get it to roll to make a snow man.  We walked around the neighborhood and I got some pictures-- note the picture of the yellow church that is right down from our house-. Picture of snow shoveling, skiing,  hoards of firewood, etc. We had some neighbor kids out skiing and sledding down the hills around our house.  So we got out and came down the hill by our house in  our blow up snow tube.  We figured this we could handle.  We were also able to make snow angels.  It was loads of fun.  We sure had to get bundled up – I even wore long johns.  Lol

Saturday we also went to Neumarkt again and I took some pictures of the church there.  The last picture is a building in the town next to us- Velburg.

With that I will close for this week- planning on a lazy day.

Hugs from Germany and  have a great week,

Susan

Germany week 22—Snow delay and enough basketball to last a lifetime

Germany week 22—Snow delay and enough basketball to last a lifetime

Dear all:

On Thursday of this week we had a 2 hour delay for starting school and work because of icy road conditions.  They called everyone and amazingly enough everyone came in exactly 2 hours late, buses, workers everyone.  An amazing feat!!! It was nice coming into work late, but it didn’t matter I still had to stay late for practice.  I have posted some pictures of the snow around our house.  We had actually planned on making a snow man today and sliding down the hill beside our house but it rained all night and washed away the 3 inches of snow that had built up, but  I am sure that I will have another chance later on.

Did not get a chance to go anywhere this weekend as I am cheerleader assistant coach and we had games at school all weekend. 8 games Friday night and all day Saturday--Thirteen hours in all.  Then we came home and watched the FSU-Duke game—YEA!!!  FSU—It was impressive that the FSU game was chosen to air-- AFN only chooses the best TV, but it was a lot of basketball all at one time.

 Seems that these schools have to travel so far that they just put them all in a weekend.  Friday there was quite a delay as the bus couldn’t traverse a large hill.  That is one thing with driving in snowy conditions you have to pay attention to hills.  You don’t want to get stuck in the middle not able to get up it or going out of control on the way down and falling in a ditch.

One more observation about the Germans.  They take their snow clearing seriously.  People of all ages sweep sidewalks and walkways clear and roads are cleared almost immediately.  They have it down to a science.  I have added pictures of our house snow covered and the roads cleared.  Enjoy.

I discovered one more kind of snow.  Dipping dots snow.  It looks like dipping dots.  Like Styrofoam balls landing on your lawn.

Anyway we are off for the movies at the base.  Have a great week.

Hugs from Germany.

Susan

Germany week 21 Luxembourg, Patton’s grave, Ramstein, and different kinds of snow

Germany week 21 Luxembourg, Patton’s grave, Ramstein, and different kinds of snow

Dear all:

This week we had some more snow.  I’ve noticed something about snow.  There are different kinds.  There is the mini snow which I have seen a few times in Florida.  There is the small to medium kind of snow-I’ve seen this in Reno and Vermont.  There is the snow whip- that is the snow that beats you up as it comes down.  More commonly known as the snow storm.  I’ve seen it a couple of times too—not in Florida but other places.  But here in Germany is the first time I have seen fat snow.  This snow looks like it needs some time with Jenny Craig.  It is lovely and floaty and what all of the paper snowflakes that I made as a child have been patterned after.  I have to admit out of all of the snow—fat snow is my favorite.  One more picture below.(#1)

The latter part of the week we were disappointed as the military trip to Luxembourg was cancelled.  Not to be discouraged we decided to try to get a last minute reservation at Ramstein (#2 Gregg at golf course) and yea!!! we were successful.  We thought it was about time that baby car got to go on the autobahn for an extended period of time.  Baby car did great and by the way got 45 miles to the gallon.  Gotta love me some baby car!

On the way we found the rest stops. They are labeled as P for just parking and P WC for Parking and water closet which is Europe's fancy way of labeling a bathroom.  Anyway at one of the water closets Gregg went in and found two bullet holes shot through the door from the inside.  Guess that guy really had to go.  lol

We shopped the mall in Ramstein and I found the cuckoo clocks I’ve been looking for and also the German part of my Christmas town.  We went to the Macaroni Grill because we could get the free refills on the sweet tea something I really miss.

Then on to Luxembourg. I thought there would be a border check. We had our passports ready and everything but alas there was just a sign much like the signs announcing your entrance into the next state in the U.S.

 Of course the Garmin took us once again on an obsolete road that was under construction with a large ravine to one side.  It was so steep the some of the barricades had been hit and were in the road but the road was so narrow that I had to get out and move them before we could continue.  We decided that we would just keep going until we ran out of road but the Garmin got us there.  We asked the caretaker at the Cemetery for an easier way out which he kindly told us.  The American Cemetery in Luxembourg is an ominous site and Patton’s grave although not elaborate was a highlight of the venture.  Very moving with a wonderful chapel area. My Dad served under Patton so this was one of the places he wanted us to visit.  I will let the pictures tell the story below. #3-#8

Next we took a sightseeing tour of Luxembourg.  It is a very small country but had lots of public parking and one way streets and yes our trip would not have been complete without one trek the wrong way on the one way street, but we survived and went on to see the buildings and the tour said that there were 480K people in Luxembourg and that they took the best of Europe.  They had a lot of French cuisine and a large financial district which also included their version of the twin towers.  If you get on a bus tour in Luxembourg don’t worry about being late since the bus driver will just run red lights to keep his schedule.  Lol  See pictures below. #9-#13 The last two pictures are of the Rhine and a nuclear power plant on our trip home.  #14-15

An example of one drawback of living so far from home happened this weekend as we were traveling.  Dad fell and hurt his hip.  Fortunately nothing was broken and we are hoping for a speedy recovery.  But it does make you feel a little helpless to help.  Get well soon, Dad!!! And with that, I will close until next week.

For now, hugs from Germany.

Susan

Germany Week 20—Snow!!! Snow!!! And More Snow!!! Regensburg and Neumarkt

Germany Week 20—Snow!!! Regensburg and Neumarkt

Dear all:

Week 20-- wow that seems like a long time. Got back into school on Tuesday, I was happy we had Monday off so I could catch up with my jetlag.  Enjoyed going back to school and brought my students T-shirts compliments of Sue Semrau’s FSU basketball team.  Thanks, Sue!! See below the picture (#1) of some of the students.  I edited it to protect their identities. 

The next part of my news is snow.  We had to leave school early--no afterschool buses-- Thursday because of the snow.  See pictures below.(#2 at school--#4 across the street from our house)   Gregg drove to me very slowly and he always moves over to let other cars go ahead of him to pave the way.  We are still travelling the autobahn most of the time as it is the better driven and clearer path. We have seen quite a few cars smashed up or on the side in a ditch from losing control of their car.

Friday was a big holiday here as it was Three Kings’ Day.  Most places were closed.  We had half a day at school and spent the rest of the time doing in-service.

We decided to go to areas around here this weekend.  We took the train to Regensburg (#8) Saturday it is only a 20 minute ride away to the mall and had a blast.  I was looking for after Christmas decorations on sale trying to find a German building for my Christmas town with German writing on it but it seems that they put up all of their Christmas stuff or it was already sold.  It was very crowded but we had a good time looking and yes -of course- I found something to buy. lol

After that we decided to venture to Neumarkt (Pic # 5 & 6 of the town) —it is only about 10 miles from our house.  We were very surprised with that town.  It was huge with lots of stores that are floors and floors up like it was in Taiwan.  Had a good time exploring.

Our weather has been erratic- in a 20 minutes span we went from sunshine to 30 miles an hour wind gusts with rain to lightning, rain, sleet and snow all at the same time.  I have put some pictures of the snow and Gregg’s picture (#3)with only shorts on – he wanted me to caption it--  “We’re not in Florida anymore!!”  Of course, I know that it has been very cold in Florida this week.  But you guys warm up to 60 or so-- we don’t-- what we start out as, we stay.  But I have enjoyed seeing the snow fall and even went outside to catch some flakes on my tongue.  (#2)  See Gregg at his golf course covered in snow. (#7)

That’s all for this week.  Hope you have a great week!

Hugs from Germany,

Susan

Germany week 19: Back in Germany--Happy New Year 2012

Germany week 19: Back in Germany--Happy New Year 2012!!!!

Dear all:

It was so great being home.  See Dad and sister Judi pic below. I got to do some of my traditions after like Christmas sales where I didn’t buy a whole lot since I did not get a chance to get out any of my Christmas stuff from the year before, but of course I did manage to get a few things. Lol  My family went to see Sherlock on Christmas day and Amanda and I went to Mission Impossible so I got to catch up with some movies, too.  It was fun.

I got my dog a haircut (See pic below) so she could be a little more groomed then bought her some sweaters to keep her warm during the winter months.  We watched the Florida State Seminole game against Notre Dame and was thrilled that we came out a winner.

We ended up flying out Friday which put us in Munich on Saturday December 31. Our flight was a bear but I caught up some more with movies watching 3 on the flight- it makes the time go faster.  A small world moment in the Amsterdam airport as we saw and talked with  a girl from Wakulla.  She said, “Go Noles!” after noticing Gregg’s FSU jacket.  Pretty cool, huh?

We took a train to our car from Munich and got on a train car with about 20 or so college students who were going to party all night on the train they were heading to Prague.  (See pic below) They expected to get there around 3am and they were going to stay up all night and leave the next day at 9am.  Oh to be young. But their excitement was contagious and we felt after the hour with them on the train that we had had our New Year’s Eve party.  They loved that we were real Americans.  Lol

We got home last night and the ground was covered with snow and stayed up till midnight then the real fun started.  Outside on our porch we watched a fireworks show that rivaled Tom Brown Park. (See pic below) A lot of houses shot off massive fireworks for about 30 minutes.  We cheered our neighbors and thoroughly enjoyed it.  It is weird with so many rules here.  They seem to turn their head about fireworks rules. Lol  We got up this morning and  of course we brought back the warmth it was green grass all of the snow melted and it was downright warm about 53 degrees today. But let me tell you all of the trash was cleaned up today. These Germans are serious about getting rid of their trash. 

We went to the post today to get my mail and to get some milk from the little PX.  I couldn’t hold that for two weeks.  We ate at the dining hall but obviously they did not know about the black eyed peas and greens tradition since they had none of that.  But no worries since Gregg made us black eyed peas, greens, rice and hoecake for New Year’s so we wish you all a great new year.  We are continuing on our European adventure through 2012.

Happy 2012 to all and hope it will bring you great happiness, good health, positive luck and may all of your wishes come true.  I feel very blessed.  With that, I will close.

Hugs from Germany,

Susan