All spiffed up for the Bandit Ball.

The First Email

Hello to all! I think I owe everyone a lengthy email since I promised that I’d be writing all the time once I got here. My disclaimer is that not only do Sam and I not have the internet hooked up at our place yet, but we have also been super busy since I got here. There’s a lot to tell, though, so I’ll quit making excuses and just get started.

First of all, let me say that I am happy. Despite your excitement for me, many of you were (understandably) a little concerned about my making this huge move—not because you didn’t trust my judgment, but just because it’s a pretty big undertaking to pick one’s life up and move it to another continent for love and a little adventure—but I can assure you that all is well so far and I am loving being in Germany and most of all loving just being able to be with Sam every day. It is so amazing to be able to see so much beauty and learn so much each day—about him and about Europe.

Anyway, I flew into Germany on the 18th and Sam was there waiting for me with arms wide open. We made the 40 minute drive from the Frankfurt airport to our new home in Echzell and had time for a little catching up and a quick tour of the house before he was off to work again, and that pretty much set the pace for how things have been since then—busy, busy.

I’d call the place we live a “house” because it’s so much more than an apartment. Sam kept downplaying it before I got here; he said he figured if he prepared me for the worst then I wouldn’t be disappointed. Good thinking I suppose, although it was totally unnecessary…our place is great and will be even better once we get all out stuff settled in. It’s one of two apartments that—along with the landlord’s business office—make up a huge house which sits on the edge of the village of Echzell. We have two levels. Upstairs (the main/floor level) is a huge entry hall, beautiful kitchen, living room, half bathroom, and walkout patio. We also have a little yard with a clothesline and everything. All the floors upstairs are tile and it’s a very open floor plan and it just has a really neat look to it. The downstairs is separated from the main level by our own little marble staircase—how cool is that? Down there we have our bedroom (which is ridiculously large), a second bedroom, a big bathroom with a stand-up shower and separate tub, washer and dryer, and the office. It’s all carpeting down there and both levels have plenty of big windows so there’s a lot of natural light, which I love and which works out because we don’t have any light fixtures! That’s one of the crazy things about Germany—when people move out of their houses, they take everything with them, including the entire kitchen, all appliances, and (apparently) the light fixtures. So we’ll have to work on that—for now we make do with what we have and just kind of rotate the lamps to wherever we happen to be in the house.

Some random free association about Echzell—it’s your typical charming German village. Being in Germany (outside the big cities of course) is like stepping back in time fifty years. A lot of people on bicycles (and scooters), and you can still buy your bread at the bakery and your meat and cheese at the deli. They really take care of the towns and there’s not whole lot of yucky buildings or cars or garbage lying around. That’s another thing about Germany—the people are very conscious of the environment and you do not see trash on the sidewalks and in the ditches like you do in the states. Just a lot of green vegetation, rolling hills, and fields stretching in between the towns. Sam and I have a little creek that runs by our place and there are always ducks and geese and even a pair of swans swimming lazily around in it. Also next door there’s a pasture with sheep that just hang out every day. It sounds “country” but at the same time, there’s a little grocery store right across the street. Kind of weird but it’s all quite charming. Another plus about where we live is that there are several hiking/biking trails right by our house so I have been making use of them by going for a run almost every day. Also Echzell is located close to Frankfurt and only 10 or 15 minutes from Friedberg, which is where Ray Barracks is located (where Sam works).

Daily life for us—Sam gets up for work around five o’clock every morning and takes off shortly thereafter not to return until seven or eight at night (at which time he’s dog tired and ready to sleep again), and I occupy myself in between. That probably sounds worse than it is…Sam DOES have to get up early and work every day, but that’s a given in army life and we both know it. I guess he said these past couple weeks have been his craziest week at work yet, and he hopes to be home by six o’clock most nights from now on. We’ll see. All I know is that they work that man hard and he is constantly running; I don’t know how he does it. Right now he is a medic platoon leader so he has to run the day to day activities of those guys, but he is also on the battalion staff so he has to coordinate, oversee, and guarantee execution of the medical care of the entire battalion. That means he has to track, flag, and get hundreds of soldiers up to date on immunizations, dental work, physicals, etc. Needless to say, although he does an excellent job, I think it will be a nice change for him to start his new job as a clinic administrator this winter—at least the hours might be better.

So what have I been doing? I try to make myself sleep in until around 930 every morning so the days here by myself aren’t so long, but I do feel sort of guilty sleeping so much more than Sam when he is the one doing all the hard work. Anyway, the first week was spent unpacking the stuff I flew over with me, as well as sorting through all the household goods Sam had shipped over. Since then I have just been sort of getting things somewhat organized but until we get some shelving and the rest of our furniture in place there’s not much else I can do. I am also waiting to decorate until I get my things and can merge the assets, if you know what I mean. What really worries me is that ONE box out of the seven I shipped almost three weeks ago has made it here. I really hope the rest get here soon, not only for my peace of mind upon their safe arrival, but also so that I have some thing else to DO!

Otherwise I’ve been working out and exploring the town a little bit every day—and YES, I admit that I’ve recently given into my urges to watch Sex and the City and do crosswords and go out for a cappuccino once in a while. Not a bad existence but I am getting a little bored and have developed a list of things that will make me feel a little better and/or help me to be more productive. First off is learning German. I need to do it, plain and simple. I think there are classes offered on base so I will look into that. Second is getting my driver’s license (I am taking my test this week) so I can drive and actually go get groceries at the commissary, or light fixtures at IKEA, for instance, and not have to rely on Sam to take me when he gets off work. I may not have a car yet (and may not get one EVER if my car at home doesn’t sell!) but Sam has said he’d entrust me with his Jeep long as I give him rides to work, which means a lot to me because that Jeep is his baby. Also I need to get a job—for the sake of curing my boredom, yes, but also because I came over here totally and completely penniless and I can’t STAND living off of someone else. I am trying to work my connections over here with some of Sam’s friends so hopefully I’ll hear something soon. A couple other things on the list that are important are getting a temporary residence permit and work visa, and getting things all set in stone with the Army Reserves over here. Wish me luck…

Reading back over that last section I wrote, I realize that Sam may come off sounding like a neglecting workaholic, which is not the case. He does put in long hours right now, but that’s just what his job requires of him and I understand that. It’s weird to hear him and his friends talking about how much harder their jobs are here in garrison than they were “downrange” in Iraq. I guess there they had a specific job to do, they knew what was important, and they went out and did it; here it’s like they get fifty things thrown at them a day and have to try and decide what to spend time on, plus they have to look over the daily personal/professional issues with their troops. Anyway, if I come off sounding neglected at all it’s just my own wanting-to-be-with-him-every-second-of-every-day selfishness! So please don’t worry about me—I am not neglected, just a little bored and a little frustrated with not having my own stuff to do but that, too, will pass in time as soon as I get a car, job etc. And let me tell ya, just getting to be there when Sam gets home at night and wake up next to him in the morning makes it all worthwhile.

This damn email is so long already and I haven’t even begun to tell you about our trip to Italy. I will try to be brief, I promise!

Friday the 22nd (also my mom’s birthday) was the “Bandit Ball”, which was the military ball for Sam’s battalion. We got all snazzed up and had drinks and dinner and sat through all the ceremonial things and I got to meet some of Sam’s friends (fellow officers) and also some of his soldiers (medics) who I’d heard a lot about, so that was awesome. I think we made it home and into bed at about midnight, then we were back up again at two (yes, that’s two AM) to pack our bags and take off for our weekend in Florence, Italy. That’s when the traveling fiasco began…

We got discounted airline tickets out of a smaller airport outside of Frankfurt, which took forever to find and which resulted in our pulling up to the airport right as our plane was taking off. This posed a dilemma because we HAD to be in Florence by four that afternoon for a wedding and the next flight to Florence didn’t leave until that evening. So we changed our tickets, flew out two hours later to Milan, took a hundred dollar taxi to the train station and rode the “rail” to Florence. We got to the hotel at about 315, just as the other guests were leaving for the villa where the ceremony was to take place. So we quickly got our room and got ready at warp speed and then took our own taxi to the villa. Let me tell you, the entire “Planes, Trains, and Automobiles”-like fiasco was worth it to be at that wedding, and in addition we got some useful experience in international travel.

The wedding…the bride, Erin, was the sister of Sam’s old roommate, Mike Cullen, who is currently deployed in Iraq. Erin was a staunch supporter of Sam’s (via hilarious emails now and then) while HE was in Iraq and named him a guest of honor at the wedding. She and the groom were married at the Villa di Maiano, which a famous historic villa and operational olive farm right outside of Florence. It was all so elegant and yet relaxed at the same time. There was a moving ceremony, champagne punch and appetizers on a lawn overlooking Florence under the sunset (see the attached pic), a three hour long delicious five course Italian meal, and dancing with a live band right inside the grand old dining room of the villa. I could go on an on about this place and the ceremony but it wouldn’t do it justice. Suffice it to say it was a gorgeous place, we were in excellent company, and many memories were made. The entire ordeal was simply amazing.

After Sam and I finally made it back to the hotel (which was adorable) to SLEEP, we had all day Sunday and most of Monday to explore Florence, which was absolutely beautiful as well. We walked all over, saw a lot of famous art and toured several museums and churches, did some people watching, ate lots of delicious food and drank some unbelievable wine. I think we were both struck time and again how crazy it was and how damn lucky we were to be there together, taking a weekend jaunt down to Italy and being able to see and do all those amazing things. We took a lot of pics so hopefully we’ll send some your way and you’ll see what I’m talking about.

I don’t think I could choose the best part about that trip, because it was all amazing, and getting to share it with Sam made it even more so. I think the only thing that put a frown on my face was walking by the Prada, Gucci, Roberto Cavalli, etc stores and knowing I had better not dare set a foot inside and pull out my Visa or my credit would be ruined forever. But that’s just me and a result of my relatively recently developed interest in fashion.

Getting home was much easier than getting there, but we still didn’t make it in until nearly two AM and then Sam was off to work again at five that Tuesday morning and worked all the way through until almost ten that night. Talk about crazy! This past weekend we were able to hang out a bit and go to a movie and yesterday we actually made it in to the commissary to buy groceries. Sam had 24 hours of staff duty starting Saturday morning so two of his good friends took me to one of the bigger bases to do some shopping for the house, which was great of them. I had a really good time and it was nice to get out of Echzell for the afternoon. Anyway, hopefully things will slow down a bit soon so we can do the little things like get light fixtures…

Anyway there was a ton more that I wanted to talk about but I guess this is a start. Hopefully you haven’t turned into a zombie after reading all this! Thanks so much to everyone who has emailed Sam and me so far and I am really sorry about not writing back until now but it’s been tough to get access to the internet. FYI, I think for right now the best method of communication would be to call my cell phone (since that’s all I have access to at the moment), then email, then regular old snail mail. I will put the contact info below.

I miss you guys like crazy already so please give me a shout when you can. And seriously, if anyone’s considering a visit please talk to us. There’s plenty to do and we’ve got plenty of space here for guests. Take care and don’t worry about me—Sam and I are taking good care of each other. I know he wants me to send his love and best wishes to you all; please know that you’re in my heart and prayers every day as well. Talk to you soon! Jenna

PS: Much thanks to my fan club in Four Lakes, congrats to Elizabeth on her extended DAY SHIFT contract at the hospital, and if you’re reading this in Iraq—be SAFE, damn it!