It's Q & A time! We've had lots of people ask about our life in Germany. Mainly people want to see photos of our home. So I want to hit two birds with one stone on this blog post. I will answer frequent questions we receive, as well as post photos of our home.
Q: What's it like to live in Germany?
A: It sucks...well, maybe it's not that bad, but I do find it frustrating. I personally have an issue with consumerism in this country. Between the language barrier and poor customer service, I just don't shop in the economy. I stick to online shopping. Man, I love the internet.
The internet is fabulous, but we don't have any here in Germany. Another downside to living here. Don't get me wrong plenty of people have internet service in this country, but our subdivision has very poor signal. That is why it takes me so long to upload photos for family and friends. We usually have to go to the USO on post to get things done. It's very sad.
Devon's response is a little less critical. He says that he enjoys living here, but it's "challenging." Ugh. We’ve used that word here way too often.
Q: Have you learned any German?
A: Nope. Devon and I took a very short (roughly 7 days) course. It taught us the basics of the German culture and the German language. So other than being able to order a meal and ask for the restroom, we are hopeless. Thankfully, many of the Germans, the younger generations in particular, speak English very well. For example, my doctor spoke very proper English. I'm pretty sure her vocabulary is more extensive than mine-show off.
Poor Devon always attempts to speak German to the locals, and they always respond to him in English. That's how bad it is. At least he tries. He gets an A for effort! If we can't get our point across, there is always charades and speaking English louder in hopes they understand. Just joking...sort of.
Q: Do you live on post?
A: We do not live on post. We live in government housing off post. It's about a 12 minute drive to post. Our neighbors are Americans that are also in the service. It was an option for us to live in the economy amongst the German people, but we didn't want to do that. A lot of single officers choose to live in the economy. Some of Devon's friends chose to live in a city nearby, and their homes are very nice.
Q: What is your neighborhood like?
A: We live in a very small neighborhood in Mantel. It's full of condo-like government owned homes. So everything is "fair" all of our houses are identical. I think the only thing that varies is the size of the yards. Ours is small-we have like a strip of grass (well, it might be bigger than that). Others have larger lawns, but none are huge. We like where we live because it's nice and quiet. I certainly appreciate that. In college I had a very noisy neighbor, and was forced to call the cops on her on multiple occasions-annoying! There are probably about 20 families that live near us. Only a handful have children. At the end of our street there is a cute little playground. We're hoping Nellie will be able to get some use out of it someday.
Q: Do you get paid in Euro or USD?
A: We get paid in USD. On post the PX, Commissary, and food court use solely USD, but the smaller establishments, such as, the bakery, coffee shop, salon, spa, and local vendors except Euros and Dollars. There are even a couple of restaurants off post that will take USD. The surrounding economy thrives off of the Army post.
Q: What are some of the biggest differences between living in the states and Germany?
A: Recycling. It’s the law here. We have four different trash cans in our house: paper, plastic, metal, refuse. We’ve learned to be very conscious of what we are throwing away. For glass products, and yard items we have a community bin at the end of our street. We have to walk over there and drop it into the bin. A little annoying when we are throwing away our lawn clippings.
Some other differences….
-It’s not rude to stare at others.
-Eating out is an all-day event.
-You have to pay to use the public restrooms…this was an issue when I was pregnant. It seemed that we never had any change on us.
-Driving on the autobahn can be terrifying. Some areas really don’t have speed limits.
That's all for now...if you have any other questions just shoot us a message!
Now for the photos, please enjoy!
Our house is in the middle of the street.
Devon mowing the lawn.
Our first attempt of planting a garden.
No one told us that hydrangeas weren't sun loving flowers.
Take two. Much better.
Entrance
A peek into our home.
Family room.
Another view.
Office space
Our map. We pin where we've been.
Small dining space.
Penelope's room
Master bedroom
Another view
Guest bedroom-come visit us!
Another view
So proud of the headboard I made. :)
Upstairs landing
