10 October 04
Well... as always, in spite of good intentions, it seems like these pages go a while without an update. Lots of pictures added this time, and a few pictures taken off in order to make some of the women in the house happy. We have pretty much settled in here, though we still have a lot of boxes that haven't been unpacked. I guess we'll get to them when we need something out of them. The nice thing about a house this large is that we have all of the boxes down in the cellar, so they are out of sight. Pam is back to work and the kids are in school. Both of the girls have made friends pretty quickly, though they really miss their friends back in California, not to mention family.
The weather here is starting to turn cold and gray, pretty typical for this time of year in Europe. I think the highs have been in the 50s, with the overnight lows getting into the low 40s... snow will be right around the corner. We are looking forward to next spring as we are making plans for a trip to London during the girl's spring break. It is at the top of the list for places Pam and the girls want to go to. Hopefully we'll run into Austin Powers while we're there!
18 July 04
I have officially been here 10 days now. Seems like it has been longer, though I don't mean that in a bad way. I've been extremely busy since I arrived, between both work and inprocessing. We have a house, a second car, a new bike... I just want my computer! AAaahhhh! We shipped our hold baggage shipment from California on 11 June and it still isn't here. Not sure what I'd do with it since I'm staying in a hotel, but I'm sure I'd find something. Thank God for the laptop. I'm staying at a nice little hotel in Ramstein-Meisenbach, about 2km from the base. They have a computer in the lobby that is connected to the Internet, plus, if you have a laptop, they have a second connection that can be used. Pretty nice. If someone is reading this page that might be getting stationed at Ramstein Airbase, checkout the following links for the hotels owned by these folks. (www.hotel-pirsch.de and www.hotelamerica.de). I get my temporary driver's license tomorrow and will have access then to the office vehicle. Will probably schedule my test for my regular license within the week. More inprocessing to do this week, along with a trip to Stuttgart. I'll probably bring the camera and take some photos along the way.
12 July 04
I found a house! After going into the housing office this morning to make a final plea to get into base housing scheduled for renovation at the beginning of 2006, I proceeded to get another listing of available houses to start my search. There were about 10 new listings from the one I received last Friday, including a listing for a brand new duplex. My office chief, who speaks German (Thank Gott!), contacted the landlord and scheduled an appointment for tomorrow... about 15 minutes later, the landlord called back and said he'd actually be at the house in 20 minutes if we were interested in stopping by. Immediately upon entering, I knew I didn't need to look any further. The duplex is brand new, and in fact, still isn't finished. The rent is only going to cost us about 30 Euro out of our pocket, but we should break even based upon what we receive for utilities, which should be a little more than we need. The apartment is four stories including a fully finished basement. A small backyard has room for a garden and a place for the dogs to run around. In total, the apartment is approximately 1900 square feet and has four bedrooms, 1 3/4 bathrooms, a full washroom, a living room, a huge storage room in the basement, and the attic is also completely finished. To say that I am ecstatic would be an understatement! Follow the Photos link on the left to see photos.
10 July 04
Well... I've been here for two days and have been extremely busy. Found out that family housing on any of the bases around here is not readily available, in spite of what we were told before I arrived here. So, I'll be spending the next several days hunting down a place for us to live off-base, which we'll only be in for about 3-4 months. Check out the updated photos by checking out the "Photos" link on the left.