The Eagle has Landed

Hello! Yes, we have safely arrived in Deutschland and are very happy to finally be here. Trip over went as smooth as can be expected and Kooper arrived in one piece. We’ve spent the last week doing a LOT of administrative items: obtained ID cards, opened bank accounts, found our mailbox on base (seriously it has a combination lock similar to a high school locker- we're very out of practice), viewed a bunch of rental properties, took a driving class and passed our driver’s test – so we are now both licensed to drive in Germany – scary right?

We’re currently staying in the town of Mainz in a hotel until we can find an apartment in the Frankfurt area. We have fallen in love with the daylight hours here – it is daylight until 10:00pm every day! (although this does nothing to help our body clocks, which are still in Baltimore!) Other things have been a bit difficult and confusing– for example, remembering to switch your hair dryer to 220V before plugging into a German electric socket. Oops! We’re also not exactly experts (we’re barely novices) on our German menu lingo – so half the time we order we have no idea what is going to come out! But lucky for us, the food here is excellent and it is hard to go wrong. A lot of places in Germany do not take credit cards so we carry cash now – to anyone who knows us – this is quite a change! Yesterday after dinner I tried to order 2 ice cream cones with one scoop of chocolate each – I ended up with one cone with a double scoop – lucky I didn’t end up with 2 dinners. We were also forcibly removed from the equivalent of a Walmart last night because we didn’t realized they were closed and we were still shopping. Things are still new and exciting but it is a comedy of errors.

Thanks to all who were concerned – but yes, I have gotten my hands on the 7th HP book! As soon as we hear about an apartment We’ll be in touch with pics. Take care!