Life Lately
There's beautiful crisp leaves on the ground here in Western Germany, fall has officially arrived. That means we've been in our new home almost three months. I've cringed a little as family and friends ask us, "How are you settling in?" When we first got here, a couple people told us it will take about 3-6 months to "settle in." Trying to process that statement, jet-legged and fresh off the plane, I thought they were crazy. Now three months in, I'm here to say that was exactly spot on. I'm chosing to identify more with the word "adapting" instead of "settling in." We are working daily on adapting to our surroundings. We are working on figuring out the best grocery store to get all our needs, arranging all our belongings in our new house, learning all the streets in our village from nightly walks, going to all the festivals we can and making some friends along the way.
Here's a glimpse at what our first three months have included:
We arrived right in time for all the festivals! Germany definitely enjoys their festivals--and we have learned, we do too! The weekend we moved into our house, our village Weilerbach, hosted their own Winefest on Aug. 19th. We have a great Marktplatz in the city center that serves as a great spot for community festivals. The Marktplatz was set up with vendors selling local Rheinland-Pfalz wine and food stands. There's typically a small glass that you pay a deposit of 2 euro to have for the night, then you can purchase small pours from different vendors throughout the festival. Some decide to keep the glass as a souvenir, but you can also give the glass back at the end of the festival and get the 2 euro deposit back.
Cochem Wine Festival: August 27
We'd heard great things about this town and their wine festival so when we saw it approaching on the calendar, we decided to make the drive and go! And we brought along a friend, Brittany as well.
Side story: Back in April when we found out we'd be moving our lives to Germany, we came across Brittany's blog via a Google search for "moving to Ramstein, Germany." I emailed her immediately and she was gracious to answer the multitude of questions I had prior to moving across the world. She has been a beacon of light for me (and Ara) as I've navigated all things Germany. Ara even dropped off our wine that we've "been aging" on one of his last missions through Ramstein with Brittany and she stored it for us in her basement until we arrived! She welcomed us to Germany with a sweet smile and a delicious meal at her house our first week here. It has been amazing to have a google search lead to such a sweet friendship that is only starting!
Cochem is about a 2 hr drive from our house, with beautiful scenery along the way with the Mosel River Valley as the backdrop. We arrived just as the parade was starting and had a great view as many vineyard groups paraded past us, complete with outfits and music. We wandered through the picturesque town, sampling wine along the way. I can't wait to explore Cochem again when it is less crowded!
Bernkastel-Kues Wine Festival: September 3
The first weekend in September, we ventured to Bernkastel-Kues, about an hour and a half from our house. Another beautiful wine town along the Mosel River Valley, the scenery was green and rolling with vineyards on steep hills. We had a bit of a hiccup getting into the town as we learned that Sundays are the days for the parades--and you need to arrive before the parade starts to be able to get into the town! We parked on the Kues side and walked over to where the fest was starting just in time to catch the parade. We were shocked at the amount of people lined up for the parade but then we learned why that was! The parade consists of all the area vineyards, each dressing up, complete with their own wine princess and sometimes a music component. The vineyards also bring wine and fill up parade goers glasses throughout the parade route. We also received brochen (delicious bread rolls) during the parade! We filled our little wine glasses, wandered through the streets and enjoyed some bratwurst before heading home.
The wine festivals remind us of county fairs back in the States--the town comes together to celebrate, usually includes a parade and plenty of food and drink.
Hitscherhof Pumpkin Festival: Sept 23
We've learned the german word for pumpkin--kurbis! I'm a huge pumpkin fan, I love sweet and savory pumpkin goods so I knew we had to make a destination of this festival--thank goodness Ara agreed! The festival was about a 40 minute drive southwest of our house. We sampled all things pumpkin including: pumpkin secco (prosecco), pumpkin bratwurst, pumpkin beer, pumpkin soup (their specialty of the festival), pumpkin cake and pumpkin cheesecake.
It hasn't been all festivals, all the time--despite what the pictures show! We've been living "normal life" and battling a few nuances through the transition.
If you asked me three months ago what I thought would be our biggest struggle when we moved here, I think I would have told you the language barrier. Turns out I was wrong. The answer is: getting wifi at our house. I heard whispers that getting internet could be tricky here and that was definitely an understatement. The story of our internet woes is entirely too long to type in this blog post. Long story short--it took 2 months, many tears, days of enduring and three internet technician appointments for wifi to be working in our house. This past Tuesday was the magical day that will be known in our house as "the day we finally got internet."
We went Two. Months. In a foreign country. Without internet. In 2017. Do you feel the gravity of the situation yet? Because it felt dire! Stop and think about all the things you use wifi for in your regular life...
We had our cell phones with data on them, but the data was painfully slow and almost worst than no internet at all. At various times in the day, if we could be patient enough (I'm talking a long time), we could possibly scan social media. It was starting to do a number on us not being able to complete simple life tasks that we typically did using wifi. I would make a trip to the Library on base so that I could order a few things on Amazon or write a blog post. We had to get crafty for things that typically take no thought, like arranging to use a the wifi at one of our new friend's house so that Ara could do his Fantasy Football Draft (Thank you Marissa!)
Getting the wifi hooked up at our house felt like the biggest milestone. One that has helped me feel more "at home" in my home. I can stream Pandora now as I get ready in the morning, I can look up hotels or Airbnbs for our next trips and I can freely online shop for our necessities in the comfort of my own home.
Our household goods arrived the day after we got back from Paris on September 12th. It was a GLORIOUS day to see our belongings that had been packed away back in Tacoma. Our items were in transit for almost 80 days! It felt like Christmas morning when the movers started opening up all the crates! We've unpacked all the boxes and have arranged all the rooms to our liking. We're still trying to get everything hung on the wall--it's quite a bit of work to hang things on these walls made of cinder blocks.
We've also been doing some traveling! Ara had a work conference in Bucharest, Romania at the end of September so I decided to join. Then we just went to Prague for a long weekend over Columbus Day. Blog posts for those will be up next!
It's been fun to check out the local Farmer's Market in Kaiserslautern (about a 25 min drive for us) on Saturday mornings as well. We came across a butcher vendor and I was excited to get some bacon, but sadly my German was not so great in ordering the bacon. We had a long back-and-forth with the butcher, who spoke no English. We somehow ended up with a small package of thinly sliced bacon that he gave us on the house. I felt awkward after the whole situation, but felt blessed by the small token of gratitude of this man. Turns out the German bacon is entirely too salty for our taste, but we tried it out! There's also a great cafe that we like to head to after the Farmer's Market, called Cafe Susann. The atmosphere in the cafe is great--chic, modern feel, complete with a beautiful courtyard outside. It's the best thing I've found so far in terms of curbing my need for Pacific Northwest coffee with a great selection of well-made coffee drinks.
This past Saturday, our village Weilerbach, put on an Oktoberfest celebration. Ara's work group organized the outing--all together we filled two long tables. Many thanks to some friends (thank you Brittany and Michael!) for lending us the proper attire for the occasion: dirndl for me and lederhosen for Ara. Weilerbach has a great Marktplatz for festivals, and this one was the best one that we've been to yet that the village has put on! The Marktplatz was taken over by a large tent and made quite festive on the inside. There were live bands playing all night and plenty of good food and beer to enjoy. We had a great time at our first (mini) Oktoberfest!
We are navigating through daily life a little less clumsy these days, some days easier than others--but overall still enjoying this delightful journey we are on here in Germany.
