Week One

Our first week in Germany has already flown by and we cannot believe it!  This past week has been jam packed with all sorts of things that needed to be done!

  Over the past couple of days we have viewed six houses and only two have been good contenders.  The housing market here in Ramstein is pretty fast and competitive especially during the summer.  The summertime is PSC season so people are moving in and out of the area.  There have been several houses we were interested in but were already taken when we called (we called the same day the house was posted on the internet).  Craig and I have been scouring websites and newspapers looking for new listings that are in our price range and allow pets!  We had heard that you wouldn't have trouble finding a house with pets especially since Germany is so dog friendly.  However, we have been turned away by several landlords because we have two small dogs.  It has been very discouraging.  We love our dogs and cannot wait for them to get here.  Hopefully, by the time they get here (next week), we will have house! Keep your fingers crossed!

This weekend we were able to explore the area surround Ramstein more and visit Burg Nanstein.  Burg Nanstein is located on a hill above the city of Landstuhl. We went on Sunday afternoon and it was a clear, sunny day.  The views from the castle ruins are beautiful and show the hilly area of Ramstein and the surrounding villages.  Craig and I were able to walk through the ruins and Craig managed to hit his head on one of the stone archways in the castle.  I guess it's a good thing he wasn't born in the medieval times because he is too tall for the castle door ways.  After exploring the castle ruins, we ate a the cafe at the base of the castle ruins where we enjoyed traditional German food.  Visiting this Burg Nanstein was a perfect way to spend our Sunday afternoon and we plan on taking all our visitors there, too!

On Tuesday, we set up our phone accounts. We both go iPhones! Yay!  It was definitely a new experience setting up a phone plan in a German T-mobile store.  The salesman who was helping us spoke a little English, but did not talk much at all.  It was a little intimidating to have all the salesman talking to each other in German while setting up our account.  I hope they weren't talking about us! Once we got our iPhones, we were hooked! How did we live life before having an iPhone? Kidding! They are really convenient!  We have been able to check house postings and stay up-to-date with emails when communicating with landlords.  Plus, the map on the iPhone has been incredibly helpful since we have been navigating around the area with just a paper map-old school.  Right now, we are working on getting an App that lets us text message to the states for free.  That way we can keep in touch better.  If you have any suggestions let me know!

Today have been a very long day!  It started at 7:15 am which was the time Craig scheduled me to take the European drivers license test.  He states that 7:15 was the only time they were administering the test.  Despite the early time,  I passed the test so now I can drive in Germany which is a good thing since our 4Runner finally arrive!  We were so excited to pick it up since Craig has been driving a manual car for the past week.  My neck is so sore from whiplash! Actually, he's done really well!  Our excitement about picking up our car quickly diminished when we found out that our car would not pass the inspection because a small chip in the windshield.  The chip had been repaired prior to us purchasing the car and in Germany you cannot have anything that could possibly obstruct the drivers view.  In our case, the chip (that had be repaired! ugh!) So the 4Runner is going to get a new windshield.  I also forgot to mention that we have to take the tint off the front windows as well. Great.  Thankfully, we have a full month to get everything done.

After all of the morning activities, Craig and I saw three houses.  We absolutely loved the first two!  The first house is large and open.  Our only delimma with this house is that the landlord is hesistant to rent the house to people with dogs! Agh! We are waiting to hear if she will bend the rules for us!  The second house was located in the heart of a little village, but had no yard or grassy area at all.  I would have to walk the dogs down the street to a park every time the dogs needed to go to the bathroom.  After thinking about doing that in the rain and snow, we ruled it out.  We are hoping everything with the first house goes through!

Craig and I are completly exhausted and are looking forward to a slower day tomorrow.  Hopefully, we will have some good news to post about the house!

tschüss

~Craig & Jenna