New Country, New Home!

So here we are – a week to the day that we got off the plane and moved to Frankfurt Germany. And it has literally taken just about this entire week to get adjusted to local time – and something that will more than likely take a few more weeks to adjust! Thank goodness for the dark shades on the windows! We’ve been walking around like zombies! I thought THREE hour time changes were hard! This is nuts!

(Frankfurt Airport)

We LOVE our apartment! And all the stairs we have to travel to get up and down our apartment a few times a day will hopefully get us into shape by the time we're done here! (Besides all the walking we are doing here already!) Throughout the home is 18th century style furniture. Two levels with a beautiful turnaround staircase dividing the upper and lower floors. Kids are really enjoying their own rooms. As soon as the front door closed behind us last Monday, they were off and running to explore our new home and all three of the oldest kids claimed their rooms on the upper floor. Kitchen is so nice and spacious and has a TON of storage space along with a washer and dryer! And it looks like I’ll finally be able to leave out my Kitchen Aid mixer on the counter. Speaking of household goods, we should finally be getting our shipment by the end of this month. And our express shipment with clothes and toys should be here even sooner. This house will feel even more like a home after we have our things to personalize it. Kids are bored to tears with hardly anything to do around here. We get them out often – taking them on walks to nearby parks and neighborhoods to explore, have gone on the u-bahn (underground train) to downtown and pretty close by is a playground. The people we have met here so far are really nice! And the kids have made some really cute friends. Not being able to speak the native language or pronounce even the street signs is making me go a bit crazy so I will be taking a class here soon to learn German. John remembers a few things from when he was stationed in Germany before but is a little rusty and would like to relearn the language. We will be teaching the kids as well. I figure why not? We’ll be here for awhile! We’re getting a bit of America’s own taste as well. When people come to the U.S. from other countries, we expect them to a certain extent to speak and undertstand English. (And now I know how they must feel not knowing what people are saying. It can be a bit frustrating!) I don’t want to sit by the side and not take the opportunity to learn something new and as well as helpful.

To back things up a bit, we had quite the experience when we got to the Dulles Airport a week ago Sunday – the 31st of July. We checked in 13 pieces of luggage, each had a back pack, the camera bag, diaper bag and my purse. Oh, and the THREE car seats!!! Can you imagine?? What a workout that was hauling all that stuff through the airport along with Andrew on John’s shoulders and Landon in my arms. I am SO glad that part of the trip is over!! We had saved our phone calls to family back home for when we were all done and checked in. Thing is though, that John accidentally left his phone in our friend’s car so we were without. I quickly got some change for the nearby pay phones. No dial tone! Seriously, I felt defeated as all odds seemed to be against me. We followed each other onto the plane. John had bags on his back as well as two car seats in hand while ushering Jocelyn, Andrew and Aubrey into their seats. I had my bag, diaper bag and Landon asleep in his car seat. So after I shuffled my way through 1st class uncomfortably…I set down his car seat in the aisle AS SOON as I was passed 1st class. I couldn’t go any further. I literally hit my breaking point and stood there about to cry! It was hard enough knowing we were leaving our amazing friends and family behind for the next three years! When people spotted that Landon was in the car seat, a gentleman stood up and offered to help me. I was so close to crying, I couldn’t even speak! So he carted Landon to our row. I kept thanking him over and over. It's so nice to have people about that are so willing to help others in need. Once we got settled in our seats (girls on the side row and John and I and the boys across from them in the middle row), I reached into my bag to get out some magazines before stowing my bag in the overhead compartment, I found a card and box with my name on. I opened it up and it was the sweetest letter from one of my best friends, Heather, and a beautiful beaded friendship bracelet. I laid my head on John’s shoulder and shed a few tears. What a hard and long day! This is going to be a great adventure, but I’m really going to miss back home and all my friends and family. We’ll make the best of it and the home sickness we were stung with once arriving, is getting at least bearable. And I’m sure we’ll also find some awesome friends here too – but not replacements of the old ones we had to leave behind. The more the merrier, right? :)

The plane ride over was a night flight. It didn’t, however, allow us to get a good night’s sleep. Obviously – I knew there’d be noise, lights on in the cabin and uncomfortable seats. But the kids were restless just as much as I was. For me it was all the nerves and emotions from the day that wouldn’t allow me to turn off. For the kids, it was trying to get comfortable sitting upright and sleeping, especially through the noise of people ordering food and drinks or whatnot. I got about 2 hours of sleep! The night flight did however seem to go by fast and we arrived in Frankfurt on Monday August 1st at noon. Everyone had to walk off the stairs of the plane to hop on a bus that taxi'd us over to the gate. Oh – that was another adventure of its own. First, we were the LAST off the plane with flight attendants helping us get our things transferred over. Then, we had to board the already packed full bus. Everyone squeezed together for the 5 minute ride that seemed like an hour. We were expected to meet people from John’s work so it was a bit of a scene like Home Alone rushing through the airport. It was the first time we saw German police as we were passing through Customs. We got to the baggage claim just in time to meet two gentlemen to help us get our things into the van. Once we dragged all of our stuff into our new home, we were given a few hours and then someone came and picked John up and took him to get some groceries. We also got the privilege on Friday to ride the train into town and have dinner at a German restaurant that was built about 500 years ago. Had some really good schnitzel! More on that later. We took a trip to the local grocery store and got a little dose of what we’re going to expect being over here. High prices (Euros are about 70 some cents to our dollar!) and words beyond recognition! A cute older German couple came up to us and I’m assuming how they were talking and smiling at my kids that they were saying nice things but I had NO idea what was being said and it literally frustrated me. All I could do was smile. I am now on the receiving end of what people must feel when they come to America and don’t speak English. I think our family is still like deer in headlights – we’ll have a great time here and have some awesome experiences…just dealing with an obvious culture shock! I have however picked up a few key words like bitte (please), heute (today), siedlung (neighborhood), u-bahn (train), polizei (police) and a few more that I can't remember at the moment. I can’t wait to learn more!

Aubrey’s enrolled into middle school. Jocelyn is unfortunately unable to attend Kindergarten due to her birthdate being in the middle of September and the cut off here is the 1st. So one more year. I’ll do some things at home to get her ready! We are studying to get our German drivers license. The weather has been on the cool side. A few really nice warm days but mostly in the 60s and rainy. Time to seriously bring out the coats! Once we get our car in a few months, we’ll be able to do more travel. We’re relying heavily on public transportation and walking. Even when we DO get our vehicle…it’ll on be for long distances. More to report soon. Right now, we’re waiting on cable, internet and phone to be hooked up so in the mean time, communication and updates are limited. Even loading pictures are SLOW so bear with me. I'll show you around the inside of our house soon.

Next up: A trip to ENGLAND!