I guess I should rewind a little bit and tell you guys about our long journey here. You see, we actually arrived almost four days ago. And let me tell you, it was not easy.
On the morning we departed Colorado, it was so cold--we were told about -7 degrees. At that moment, my biggest fear was confirmed--we would have to leave Lucy with my parents. The airlines don't fly any live animals at temperatures below 20 degrees. We didn't even want to take the risk of putting her on a plane and having her not make it. So as much as we hated to leave her, it was for the best. I cried...and cried, and cried. I miss her so much. But after the disasters we encountered on our flights, we're so glad we left her. I don't think she could have handled all of the delays we had. Yup, delays. Not cool.
Our first flight out of Colorado took us to Dallas-Fort Worth. On our way out of Dallas, we sat on the plane for three hours for maintenance issues. We were hungry, thirsty (you'd think the flight crew would have at least offered us something, but no), and just miserable. We barely made our connecting flight in Baltimore.
On our way out of Baltimore, we sat on the plane for another four hours for maintenance issues and the de-icing of the plane (as it was snowing heavily). Again, no food or drinks (until about 3 hours into the waiting), and they had to turn off the air on the plane during the de-icing, which took about an hour. The plane was full of deploying Soldiers and other families being stationed overseas. Miserable.
So you can you imagine having Lucy sit in the belly of a plane, in the cold, for all that? She would have freaked out.
The only high point about the entire trip was that our baby girl, Sina, was perfect the entire time. She slept through pretty much everything--even all the delays.
When we went through customs here in Germany, we saw the other dogs that made it through (they must have flown from warmer states) and thought of Lucy. She would love it here with all the grassy parks and lawns they have around here. And of course, you can take your dog pretty much anywhere here, including restaurants. We are definitely going to bring her here either sometime in the spring or early summer.
Anyway, we were picked up by our sponsor, who has been so gracious to us since our arrival. I tell you, I have not had to make any arrangements since I've been here--my most stress-free transition ever. Our hotel reservations were made well in advance. We are staying at the Panzer Kaserne--one of 4 bases that make up the post here in Stuttgart, home of the United States European Command. The Panzer Hotel was just opened a month ago...so we're staying in a brand new, very contemporary place, in an extended stay suite complete with a kitchenette and living room.
Before coming here (almost two months ago), our sponsor had placed us on the housing list, so now we're pretty much at the top. We are looking to have a place in about two weeks. We could actually move into quarters immediately, but what we were offered is on another base across town. We took a look at three different places today and they are all great. But we're looking to get into a place on the main post, called Patch Barracks. The place we're being offered at Patch just went into maintenance and won't be available until the end of the month--which means we'll have to remain in lodging for that time. However, the trade off is that there would be no commute from home to work. I could literally walk across the street to my office. And it's close to everything else on the post, and the thought of getting anywhere near the audobon right now just freaks me out.
I start my inprocessing this Wednesday. All of my appointments have been made for me, so I'm all set. The process will take almost three weeks and includes everything from housing and finance briefs to all-day German training (with tours around the city) for both Malu and myself. The entire post has a long weekend because of the MLK holiday, so I have a few extra days to relax; which is great, because I've been sick ever since we got here. In fact, one of the first places we visited was the clinic on post. I'd lost my voice and am now slowly getting it back. And I still have a nasty cough and sinus congestion. It has not been fun.
In any case, sorry to ramble, but all is well and I'll continue to keep you guys posted on our progress here. We've seen a little bit of the city here and there and we just know we're going to love it. However, we're still in "home" mode and are missing our families (and our Lucy girl) back home...terribly.
