After landing in Germany, we got some burner phone cards and were met by Kevin's sponsor and already in the car in less then an hour after departing the plane. This was so much faster and better than landing in Korea. We had so much in-processing when we landed in Korea that we about lost all the kids to meltdowns of fatigue and pure tiredness. This was a completely different experience. We walked right through as if we already lived here, it was wonderful. It was in the middle of the day, so we didn't have a problem staying awake as we drove to Ramstein-Miesenbach, where our interim TLA was. When we went to book a room onbase at Ramstein, they didn't have anything available until 7 days after we arrived, so we had to find an off base approved TLA to stay in for a week. We found one only about 15 minutes from the base in Ramstein-Miesenbach. It was a cute three bedroom apartment in a cute blue house.
Kevin's sponsor got us a welcome basket along with some food. We were also blessed to have friends from San Antonio here also, the Lunds, who brought us a few days worth of groceries and dinner from PF Changs for the night. We visited with them for a while, ate dinner then sent our exhausted kids to bed. Germany has these AMAZING window coverings called rolladens that cover the windows completely on the outside. It was pure darkness, which was perfect because it didn't get dark until after 11pm. We all slept great and woke up at a normal hour ready to explore Germany.
Our first stop was at the base so we could start in-processing. We had fun exploring the base and getting into the DBIDS so we could have base access. Ramstein is so huge compared to Osan!
Living in Germany is so hard without a car. Holy Cow. The kids and I were stuck at TLA all day, luckily Kevin was able to catch a ride to work with either Erick Lund or with his sponsor. The week passed pretty slow with only Netflix and colouring pages to keep us company. But passed it did. Kevin was able to pick up his car that we bought in Germany, and we moved into the TLA on base at Ramstein. This apartment was more dog friendly and much bigger then our TLA off base. There were so many breakable things in the TLA off base that I was worried Monster would break something I would have to pay for it. We also went from a three bedroom apartment to a four bedroom apartment, so that was nice. Plus we were on base so we were much closer to everything we needed to in-process and to Kevin's work. We originally were in the top floor of the apartments, but we were only there for one day, because we found out a first floor apartment was coming available the next day, so we moved to room 111 on the bottom floor. This was to be our home for the next month.
Big Sis and M&M shared a room, Little A had her own room and Monster had his own room. Sadly, on base did not have rolladens, so the sun kept waking Monster up super early in the morning. That was why he needed his own room, so he didn't wake Little A up. Little A is not a happy morning little gal, she's a huge grump if she doesn't get enough sleep.
We had a good sized kitchen with all the necessities that we needed to cook and make meals. The apartment also came with a huge kennel, so Bailey was able to have everything she needed. She loved running around the house, but since we were on the first floor, she had to be in the kennel when we left so she wouldn't run out if housekeeping came. TLA on base was super frustrating. One of the house cleaners kept stealing from us. First I noticed our Bose bluetooth speaker was missing. Then my running watch went missing. Our room safe was broken, so we weren't able to lock anything away. It was frustrating and nerve-racking to leave the apartment. I left a note for housekeeping asking to return the speaker and luckily the next day they returned it. I never got my running watch back, and that was super frustrating.
Since we only had the stuff we brought with us on the plane and the boxes we mailed to ourselves, there wasn't much that the kids could do during this summer break. We went to the park down the road a lot, and did some exploring, but they were still bored. Luckily, Aunt Lisa sent a package with activities for the kids and crayons and colouring books. It was fun getting a care package.
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