Zwoelf

We've settled in to a bit of a routine here...off to the park in the morning, to the bakery and grocery store to pick up dinner and a dip in the pool in the evening. I'm really looking forward to creating a new routine, once we find somewhere to live...but until then, we're enjoying our time. Especially Bug, who would like to place an order.


I can haz duck?

Yesterday, I was too busy wallowing in self-pity to post about the houses we went to look at in the morning. We looked at two houses in a town I absolutely loved. It had a large stadt-mitte with bakery after bakery, eis (ice cream) cafes, tons of stores, and charm to spare. It was much bigger than the villages we had looked at previously, connected by bike paths to the next city over and The Man's work and really, just perfect.

The first house we looked at in the town had so much going for it. This playground was directly across the barely traveled street from the house. I mean, I could see it from the kitchen window!



The views from the master bedroom were amazing!





The layout of the house was great with a second entrance on the very bottom floor, to make bringing in the bikes very easy. Lots of storage, plenty of bedrooms and slightly less perilous stairs than we'd seen previously.

In fact, the only problem with the place was the flooring. I can't believe I didn't manage to catch a single picture of the carpets, especially with the realtor urging me to "make a picture" every third step (and I was worried she wouldn't let me take pictures!) It wasn't dirty or anything, but it was carpet. And some rooms were blue and some were reddish. It wasn't good. Every other house we've looked at had the light colored wood flooring and very modern (Ikea) fixtures and appliances we've come to associate with the area. This one just hadn't been updated in a while. I asked the realtor if the landlord would consider replacing the flooring and working the cost of it into our monthly rent, but it doesn't sound good. Is it stupid to hold back from a place that's perfect in every other way just because it isn't my style inside?

The second house we looked at had been thoroughly updated, had a rooftop terrace and a yard. That's practically unheard of here. The bedrooms were very small, but that's fairly common here. It had the coolest wine cellar EVAH.


Them's some pretty big bottles of wine.

The house was built in the 20's. Hence, the awesome wine cellar. But, also it sported the cut off and disjointed layout and teeny tiny rooms somewhat typical to the period. All in all, though, it was a fantastic house, very close to the city center and the landlord - though he speaks even less English than we speak German - was very, very nice.

I wish I had taken some pictures of the third house. It looked like it belonged on the set of the first half of Casino. If only I were into 70's retro. It would have been perfect! It was also in a smaller (MUCH less charming) village, slightly farther away from the cities than we would prefer.

If there's any chance either of the first two houses are still available when Housing approves our request, I think I could be happy with either. Neither is exactly perfect, but I keep telling the realtors that the location is much more important to us than the design and I need to follow my own pronouncement.

Technorati tags: Germany, house hunting, dog

Elf

Today is Day Elf...sounds like it should be happy and small and festively dressed, right? But, it's not. Frowny face.

Today was not a good day. We've been trying to file our request for an exception from the mandatory on post housing policy for what seems like for-ev-ver now. We put one together, had it signed and submitted it about a week ago. But, it was kicked back to us by Housing because when they told us they just needed The Man's command to sign off on us living off post, they didn't really mean that. We've since gotten the paperwork together exactly as they've requested this time and have been waiting for his command to sign off again. Hopefully we'll get it back and be able to submit it next week.

After another fun visit to the Housing Office this morning, I got to trek over to Finance to learn that we'll be paying a full 30 days of hotel stays (at more than €150 per night) before we see any reimbursement at all from the Army. On top of the travel costs we've already incurred and in addition to the mortgage we're paying on our vacant house back in the states. Just to pile on a little further, The Man is traveling back to the states pretty shortly here for some training. So, we'll be paying for two hotels. They know what they pay him! I have no idea how they think we can cover all this at once.

And the most devastating news of all is that the information already given to us was completely wrong and, in fact, if our request to Housing is not approved, they will not pay a monthly housing allowance and we will be effectively forced to live on post. For civilian readers, the way the Army pay system is set up is that soldiers are paid a "base pay" and a separate "housing allowance". If we decline the on post housing we have already been offered, they will not pay him the separate housing allowance and that would be the same as your employer deciding to cut your paycheck in half because your family had the audacity to think they might have some say in choosing where they live.

All of this has me feeling a little defeated today, and now I feel bad for puking that out all over all of you. But, now that I've indulged myself with a whole day and an entire blog post feeling sorry for myself, it's time to focus my energy on our request for an exception. What you put out in the universe is what comes to be, and I want more than anything for that request to come to be approved. So, it's time to believe with every fiber of my being.

And on that note, here are a few pictures of things that are happy and small and festively dressed and seen en route to the bus stop yesterday.

Zehn

I can't believe it's been zehn (10) days already! With all this walking, my Converse and Roxy sneakers aren't really cutting it. So, last night, I was all over the Internet looking for cute but comfortable walking shoes. In fact, I spent so much time at that, I didn't get to post neun until this morning. I got very familiar with several European brands of shoes and imagine my surprise when I walked in to the PX today and found an entire store dedicated to European walking shoes! I picked up a pair of Josef Seibel green mary janes, but I can't decide if I'm going to keep them or not. They are really not me, but, they are very Germany.

What do you guys think?  Can I pull them off? I don't know...

Whether or not I keep them, I think I'll also pick up a pair of sneakers like these:

With the weather as beautiful as it's been the last few days, I'm almost thinking I should skip right past shoes and go for sandals.  But, I think the cold and wet is coming back in at the end of the week.

Today, we had to go on post to take care of a few more administrative things. I really should have checked the bus schedule before heading out, but I thought the public transportation system was so good, at worst we'd just have to hang out for a half hour or so until our bus showed up. Unfortunately, it would have been a 5 1/2 hour wait. !! The public transportation really is great, but the problem is that the post is way out at the end of town and I imagine there aren't a lot of people that catch the bus out there.

Having walked a mile to the bus stop, it only would have been about another mile and a half to just walk to our destination, but Cheeseball travels on tiny little four year old legs and I thought that was a little too much for her. Not to mention, it would take forever. Of course, we had to walk a mile back to the hotel, but it was all downhill from the stop and, of course, that's much easier.

We ended up taking a taxi, and I think what we really need to do is pick up a bike. I'm being indecisive, though, about what to get for Cheeseball. She's too old for a trailer, by local standards, but she's never ridden a bike before. And, straight up the hill from the hotel would be difficult for any teeny tiny. What to do, what to do... I guess I'll keep waffling for a while and in the meantime I'll start working out the best place to buy that bike around here.

Technorati tags: Germany, bicycle, bus