Apartment

we are officially in our apartment, have our vehicle, both are legal to drive in europe, received our first load of things (2 more weeks for the majority), and we have even bought a few odds and ends (stools for the counter, rugs, glasses, plates, etc; ikea is a great place). we both feel like we should be out doing something, since we are in germany, but it feels great to just be lazy in our "home", to have a couch to nap on, to have more than one room to be in, so we went to a movie on base tonite, i actually have now been to 3...they are only 4 dollars.
i have not talked to the job guy yet, i have been busy being home, waiting for this delivery or that delivery. we had our internet connected, as well as, cable...unfortunately, the internet isnt working right and i am forced to rely on my wireless picking up on the neighbors connection :) hopefully I will get to talk to him this week to get things moving forward for the new year, that is if the office is open. It’s hard to know which places follow which calendar, there are german holidays, American holidays, and federal holidays…every place you go to does it a little different.
I went about a mile off base today with a girl from my class, she helped me buy our cell phones. They are much cheaper off base, but you have to face the language barrier. We were lucky and the girl who waited on us said she knew a little English, she was wrong she was pretty fluent…next we went to a mall, where I quickly learned you need cash (euro) to be able to purchase anything (on base you use usa cash), I had to borrow because all I had was usa cash and plastic…also you have to bring your own bag or basket for your things…
The next day andrew and I ventured out to find ikea, a nice gentleman at the place we picked up our car drew us a lovely map…we found it without trouble, spent two hours there, used our whole giftcard (thanks girls) and than some…we ended up in a line where the girl couldn’t speak English and we didn’t have a eurocheck card, so we backed the line up…I was able to say im sorry in german, after the interaction she had a coworker tell me in English that it was her fault…we both felt bad, and kinda stupid…ahhh, time to learn a few more things/rules…luckily she was sweet about it, and luckily we had a cart to take our things to the car, no bags…
We are headed to my sister’s friend’s sister’s house for dinner Christmas day, she is from waterloo, iowa…she works on base as a civilian/lives off base, her boyfriend lives on base here, he’s in the air force. After that we are headed to my friends apartment for a little more social time. Not sure what else we’re doing, everything pretty much shuts down on Sundays and holidays, which is a good thing BUT not when you have nothing to do.
While in the states I would always order water because I like it better than pop and it’s free, but here water is more expensive than pop, and pop comes with no ice, in a tiny little glass, and costs more than a huge beer…no wonder beer is so big, its cheap…
Well, id better get going to bed…you all are just getting started and im ending it here, have a lovely day weekend etc…