We made it to Germany!

We have finally started a new chapter of our life in Germany. Collin and I flew into Frankfurt Monday morning. The flight was long but good. The first day was hard for me, I kept thinking why did we move here? Hardly anyone we met spoke English and it was very lonely. I was also really tired. We checked into our hotel apartment, which is really nice but also very unique. They showed us about 10 different rooms to choose from. A lot of them had private saunas. We are staying in a city called Shwetzingen, which is where Collin is working. They have very good breakfast and it's large but also in a rather small town. We have a separate living area and bedroom. You can see pictures from the link below as well as a few pictures from one of our visits to Heidelberg.

http://picasaweb.google.com/collin.marisa/FirstFewDaysInGermany

We rented a smart car yesterday and today is my first day to venture out on my own that includes driving it - I hope my experience on the autobahn goes well. We finally are done with most of the in processing and I have an ID card so I can get on base without Collin or one of his co-workers.

I'm about to drive to Heidelberg and try and find the place to get laundry done. We bought a GPS yesterday, so hopefully that will help. I really don't know how to use it, but I hope it's pretty easy. I don't have an address to where I'm going to today, just a hand drawn map with no street names...that could be trouble. We do not have cell phones yet either, so this will be interesting, back to the 80s and 90s before cell phones were popular. Strange as it may sound, this will be my first time driving without a cell phone, but at least I have the GPS and my hotel is in there in case I get really lost and have to give up and go back to the hotel. But since I have all day, I may just end up on a long journey until I find it.

The food is very good here. Water is a luxury, but worth every penny. The building do not have A/C and it's a little hot. Yesterday when we were doing in processing I spoke with a few other Americans who have spent most of their lives living overseas, but at least they spoke English and that was nice. We are still looking for a place to live and could not get an appointment with the housing office until next Monday.

Let us know how things are going in Texas. We miss you all.