Thoughts on Germany..

My first impressions of Germany and the Army posts where we will live....

LOVE:
1. The endless meadows of green and yellow flowers
2. Forests with huge beautiful trees
3. You want to take a picture of EVERYTHING!
4. The old historic buildings and cobblestone ground
5. The smallness of the town we live in.

DISLIKE:
1. The ridiculous cost of the taxis. We took an 8 minute cab ride to the marketplace and it was a WHOPPIN 13 Euro... which is even MORE in USD. That's just one-way. Back in Korea, you could take a 18 minute ride to the airport and it would cost you about $10. We definitely need to get our car here before we go broke trying to get around by taxis.

2. The Army bus system on post. The bus stops running at 6pm on the weekdays. 6pm! After that, well, it's up to you to find a ride. And there are no On-Post taxis. So it's not like you can just call a cab to pick you up when you have a handful of groceries and 2 babies like we did today.

You have to walk all the way off post just for a chance that there is a cab waiting. And on the weekend, the bus stops running at 5pm. So if you need to go post to post, forget that.
I guess I am just frustrated because this is a big issue if you do not have your own vehicle. And since we do not have our own, the bus is our only means of transportation.

Today started out to be very awesome since we went to church. Afterward, we took the bus to another post and went grocery shopping. Well, afterward, we needed to take the bus back to our hotel on yet another post... and we had to wait more than an hour for the bus. We were both carrying bags of food as well as the babies and they were crying, we were figuring out what to do.. there are no taxis on post.. so we walked toward the gate to see if there were taxis outside waiting... no taxis. Should we wait here an hour for the bus? Babies are screaming at this point. We have cold milk that will go bad in this heat. It's too far to walk to where we needed to go. So we go back to the grocery store and I start asking people if they could spare a ride. Finally we meet this really awesome woman who gives us a ride! Saved the day!!

This is a problem for families or single soldiers who need public transportation.. the bus should NOT come every 1 1/2 hours. It needs to frequent more than that. And the bus should continue to run well after 6pm. How can the Army not provide this? Especially for new people as well as out-going people who do not have cars. Ahhh!

Despite my ranting, I really do love how beautiful this country is. It's hard to say "I love it" yet.. because it's still really new and foreign to us. We are living out of a hotel room and do not yet have something to call 'home'. Give us time. Give me time. Lord please help us to adapt.