A Sleepless Night in Germany

In early September 2016, my husband got the news that he was being transferred(reassigned) to an Army base in Germany. He was very excited while I took a detour of panic on my way to getting excited. Ready or not, the Army told us we had to be in Germany by December 10^th.

With less than three months to plan things, we had a lot on our plate. If you have never gone through a military move before, they are wonderful and crazy all at the same time. There’s nothing quite like them. The Army takes care of shipping and storing everything up to a certain and reasonable weight. Movers come in and pack up everything – well minus liquids, opened

food, anything flammable (to include candles and lighters), any kind of jewelry (even costume), plants… I’m sure I’m missing something.

We then packed things – too many things – we would take with us on the plane, including our dog, Harry. Our plane left from the BWI airport at 2 am Wednesday – where we had a terrible last American meal.

We then landed around 3pm local time the next day in Ramstein, Germany. As the plane was landing all I could see were vast fields and frozen trees. My only thought was “Oh god, what desolate place has my husband taken me to?”

After a lot of confusion – a lot of move here and wait, now move here and wait (at one point the Soldiers were separated from their family members, very nerve-wracking) we were told that we would be spending a night in Ramstein. Although the woman that told us, made sure all of us were squared away and she was telling jokes the whole time – about how cold it is, how out in the country we would be, how we were spoiled in America with all the 24 hour places and how much she missed them.

Thursday morning we were on a bus by 9 am…. There were multiple pit stops along the way to Hohenfels. But the first was at a gas station and where did we choose to eat? McDonald’s – yes, we were that American cliché. Sadly, as soon as we were done, we went into the gas station and realized our mistake. Inside the gas station was a traditional German restaurant with delicious looking sandwiches and some amazing smells.

It was dark by the time we reached our destination of Hohenfels. But we had the best welcome once we got there. Chris’s sponsor met us, put our stuff in his car, drove us to the hotel (where he had bought us snacks and beer – of course), and then took us out to dinner with his wife to their favorite local restaurant for our first real German meal. They even knew the owner of the restaurant and made introductions. The owner was George, a sweet soft spoken man with a warm smile, who we were told spoke perfect English but to my ear and Chris’ not so much.

We spent all of Friday checking off items on an in-processing list to ensure that everything was completed. We walked around base to get things done as we don’t have a car here yet. We were so busy checking off our list that we missed the Commissary (the grocery store on base) by an hour and had to eat at Burger King. No offense to the King, but I would have loved to have gone to a German bakery – so many good things.

So here I am – unable to sleep at 2 am in a hotel room in a foreign country starting the next chapter in my life. And I have to say – I’m loving the ride thus far. I can sleep when I’m dead.