Weinheim, Germany

Monday, Monday...lah, lah, lah, dah, dah. You know that song? Monday, Monday.. anywho. Monday was a pretty good day. I went to the clinic to get the second round of the skin test that I needed as part of the pre-employment packet. That packet is intense. The assistant in human resources said that my 7 year background check should come back sometime in the next two weeks. Great. I feel like I am living in this haze, where everything is gray. Nothing can be black and white. What happened to the land of certainty? Apparently I left that in America. Anyways, it could be another two weeks until my paperwork back, but he is not for sure. I can't start actually working at the CDC until all of the paperwork is returned, so I won't start working until mid March. It is a good thing that I applied for the job the second week I got here. Yeesh! After the clinic Lenea and I went to the USO to sign up for a day tour to Weinheim for Tuesday. It was only 10 euro. Yippee! After the USO we went by the gym to pick up a schedule of the classes they offer. There is a spinning class on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Did I mention it is free? Oh yes. It is free. Can you believe that? The government is offering free classes. I know. Shocking. You can pick your jaw off of the floor now. We are going to start the spinning classes, especially since they are free!! We lucked out, because we had the car today to run these piddly errands. The weather here has been pretty gross, so having the car allows us to get out more frequently and en. A lot of drizzly rain, which is the worst kind of rain. It is not quite enough rain for you to pull out your umbrella, but then you get soaking wet and you have no idea how. If you pull out your umbrella for the drizzly rain, then you look like a pansy because it isn't really raining. Luckily I have succumbed to being a pansy and I now use my umbrella whenever I feel the slightest hint of rain. It is no fun walking around wet. No fun at all.

Tuesday- Weinheim! I ended up going alone because a Vodafone technician was going to come to our apartment and fix our internet and phone. I was kind of excited because this was one of the first opportunities I had to meet people on my own. I knew that most of the woman were going to be army wives and probably older than me, but I was okay with that. We were a small group of 6 women, but I liked it. It allowed for a more personal tour where I was able to talk to every person in the group. They were sweet women, and all married with children. It was a fun day, but I can't see myself calling any of the women to hang out. With that being said, this is what we saw:

Once we departed from the train we had to trek up the hill to get into the heart of the city.



We turned from the above road onto this cute little street.




That little street turned into the walking district, which you see below. It is a lot more charming than the walking districts in Mannheim and Heidelberg. Weinheim is a much smaller city, so it offers the ideal feel of a quaint German town.

This is a plaque for Jewish families who were torn from their homes in the Holocaust. The plaques are all over the walking district in front of stores. They have the name of the families who were pulled from the homes above the stores. The plaques represent the every day family. They weren't extremely wealthy or poor. These were just average families who were trying to survive in trying times.

There are ugly parts of Germany too, but just beyond the construction are the two old castles in Weinheim. If you look closely at the top of the mountain in between the two red construction poles, then you will see them.

Once you walk farther into the heart of Weinheim (pronounced vine-hime), you reach the MarktPlatz (market area). This area is where local farmers will bring their produce certain days of the week to sell to the community. Farmers will setup their stands in the large open area where the truck is parked. Along the storefronts you will find cafes, restaurants, and shops.

Another view of the MarktPlatz. We were told that cars are not supposed to park in those areas, but apparently they didn't feel like following the rules that day.

If you walk past MarktPlatz, then you will find this tower. This was a knight's tower. Almost everywhere you stood in Weinheim, you could look up and see the castles. This tower was in a pretty central location to allow knights to keep an eye on both the castle and the common folk. Notice the rectangular box next to the window towards the top of the tower. Do you see it? It kind of sticks out a bit. That is the toilet. There is no bottom of the box, so the excrement would simply fall down to the ground. Now use your eye to travel down the column. What do you see? The door. Why would you put the opening from the toilet right above the door? What a wonderful way to welcome your guests.

This is the entrance to the "new" castle. When referring to the castles of Weinheim this would not be one of them, because this castle was built much later than the original two castles of the city. This castle was built to house a princess who was not allowed to mingle in the city because she was unwilling to sleep with her husband. She was given an ultimatum by her husband: this castle or sex. Well...we know what she chose.

The tower of the "new" castle.

Not too shabby eh?

Ginormous tree in the "front yard" of the castle. Look how small the person is standing next to the tree.

Memorial tombstones to the family who loaned the Weinheim people the money to build their castles. Did I mention this is in the front yard of the new castle? Creepy.

Just beyond the new castle is this tower.

What is missing? The door. What else is missing? The box that sticks out of the side for the toilet. Who would stay in this tower? Prisoners. Wouldn't that be the pits...no door and no toilet.

This is the park that extends from the new castle. The pond is completely frozen over!

View from the park looking up at the old castles.

This shrine is in the public park. The Weinheim government took care of this at one point, but now they ran out of money and it just sits in the public park.

This golden beauty is hidden under dome of the shrine. If this is on the outside, then can you imagine what the inside looks like? We couldn't go inside because it is now closed to the public.

Me :) I wanted to get a picture to show myself in these places, but I couldn't hold the camera far enough away to get a decent shot. This is what I got.

Another tower, but this one was for witches. If a young woman was supspected of being a witch, then she was held up here until her trial. The trial was brutal. Germans believed that waters was one of the most pure substances of our world, so they used it in witch trials to test the character of a young woman suspected of being a witch. They would take the woman and throw her in a lake or large body of water. If she sank, then the water accepted her and she was pure. The only downside is that meant she had to drown to prove her purity. If she floated, then water rejected her and she was a witch. Then they would take the "witch" and hang or burn her.

These rocks with red stripes are scratching posts. They lined the corners of buildings in the low income part of the city. Carriages were apparently very reckless and would often times run into the sides of buildings. If buildings had scratching posts, then the carriage would run into the posts and ruin the carriage wheels instead of scratching or ruining the sides of peoples' homes.

Pathway into the lower class of the Weinheim society. Weinheim is one of the only cities that still holds close to a leveled society. The higher up the mountain you live, the more money you have; the lower down the mountain you live, the less money you have. Most people who lived in this part of Weinheim were tanners.

Does this not scream Germany?



To the left of the doorway is a coat of arms. The family who lived in this house worked with swords, hence the crossed swords on the coat of arms. :)

I really like the way this blue door pops in the black and white. One of my favorites of the day!

The smallest house in the city. Yes...someone lives there.

Someone's awesome gate. Look at that face. Love it! Germans are crazy.

More crazy German architecture...

Monument from WWII...

Crazy ticket booth. This is where you buy your ticket to get on the train. Public transportation is outstanding here!

I really liked Weinheim, but then again I have liked everything so far!

Wednesday: Laundry. This may seem silly-to blog about doing laundry, but we don't have a washer/dryer in our apartment. There are 5 washing machines and 5 dryers in the basement. It is cold and smelly down there. It is not my favorite thing to do. Once the laundry got going, I had to walk to the clinic to get a physical as part of the pre-employment package. I passed, but I am still waiting to get my 7 year background check back. Yeesh!

Tomorrow I am going to walk Lenea through the city to show her all of the goodness of the city. Hopefully I can remember it all!

Rainy Weather

Thursday, February 18 I was June Cleaver. I made beds, cleaned house, and did laundry. Lenea was not feeling good, so I decided that I would take over household responsibilities for the day. So far everyone has taken turns with some kind of nasty cold. First it was Paul, then Lenea, and now Elizabeth. Somehow I have managed to go unscathed, but I have a feeling I have just jinxed myself. My next post will probably mention something about how crappy I feel. For the moment I am feeling fine. I will have to make sure I take all of my vitamins and thwart off any bad juju. Where was I? Ah yes...sorry for the rambling, but I was talking about my June Cleaver-ness. Paul had a training on our barracks where our apartment is located, so he got off of work early. He came and got me so that we could go check the mail which of course is on another barracks that is 20 minutes away. I love the army. Nothing is convenient. :) My mom sent Elizabeth and I a Valentine (I got a cute v-neck from old navy and my favorite mascara-that is the one piece of makeup I absolutely could not live without) in the cutest valentine package. It was a padded envelope that had hearts and flowers all over it. Precious I tell you. Precious. I love getting mail here! It is exhilerating to get mail overseas. I don't know why. It just is. I think mail is fun, as long as it is not attached to a bill of some sort. That kind of mail I just want to stamp "return to sender," because I certainly don't want it.

Friday I wore my new shirt :) I am a girl. I am surprised I didn't put it on immediately when I got it. Lenea and I had errands to run which were a lot easier with the car. We currently only have one car which Paul drives to work everyday. It is a '94 BMW staionwagon. It is fantastic. the right rear passenger door does not open from the inside. If you accidentally take this seat, then someone must open the door from the outside to let you out. We didn't find out about this little gem until the Howards came to pick me up from the airport. One more bonus... it doesn't have a radio. This might sound miserable at first, but it is actually quite nice. No radio means that we must actually talk. GASP. Unheard of eh? Anywho...we had the car today because Paul still had his class in our barracks. We went to the commisary to get groceries, housing to get lightbulbs for the bathroom, Bauhaus (which is like Home Depot) to get some green plants for the apartment, and a couple of other places to get out of the apartment. It was a pretty nice day minus the rain. It was the drizzly rain that you convince yourself isn't that bad because it doesn't seem like you are getting very wet until you look down and you are completely soaked. Grrr. I was having a good hair day too until the rain. I have been in search for a small compact umbrella. Something little enough to carry around with me, but kind of cute. I am in Europe. These kids are trendy. I can't seem to find an umbrella for less than 20 euro. My last umbrella was free from Home Interiors. It would shield myself and a small army from the rain. It was huge. That night we ate a family dinner and then Elizabeth and I went to the movie theater to see Dear John. The movie theater on the barracks only offers one movie a day during the week, while on Saturday and Sunday they offer two. Instead of showing previews for upcoming movies they play the National Anthem. Everyone stands and salutes our country. It is pretty cool. Reminds us of why we are here and able to have the freedom we have in the States. Putting all political mumbo jumbo aside, there are a lot of people who willingly serve our country and put up with a lot of crap to do it. These men and women deserve a littl more recognition for what they sacrifice in order to serve our country. Okay. I am off of my platform and back to the movie. Dear John was good. Typical girly romance. Love, pain, anger, and reconciliation.

Saturday it was gorgeous outside. We decided not to waste such a beautiful day since they are so few and far between. We showered, hopped on the train and headed to Heidelberg. Of course once we arrived in Heidelberg it started to rain. Whomp. Whomp. We ducked out of the rain for the first time and found a delicious Chinese restaurant. Oh my goodness it was fantastic! We knew it would be good when we looked behind the counter and saw only oriental friends working. It was legit Chinese food. Mmmm. After lunch we had to walk off the mounds of fried rice, low mein noodles, and sweet and sour chicken we ate. Of course we walked through that nasty drizzly rain again. Boo! At this point we started going in more stores simply to find shelter from the rain. We ended finding our second oasis at The Dubliner, which is an Irish Pub. I know. I am sorry. You could have figured that one out on your own :) Luckily for us there were a few soccer/football games to be seen on TV, so we had a good time. I enjoyed a nice glass of german beer and a lot of people watching. I like soccer, but sometimes people watching is a lot better. Pubs over here are a lot different. 1. Children are welcome. In America we call that redneck. In Europe this is common practice. Children run around and play while mom and dad drink. Sitting across from our table was a man holding a baby. At one point he was holding the baby's hands as the baby walked across the bar. I tried not to stare, but I think I gave myself away. 2. People bring their pets to pubs. Let me rephrase that. People bring their pets everywhere. Let me list some of the places I have seen pets where I have thought, "Hmm. That is kind of strange."
-the mall
-grocery stores
-restaurants
Those would be my top three where I could have thought of several better places to take your dog rather than bringing them there. After a little time at the pub we decided to venture out into Heidelberg some more. Then we got really cold and realized that we needed something to warm us up and keep us a little drier from the rainy drizzle. That is when we found these.

All of them are very unique, not your everyday hats. Elizabeth's hat is a pig. The shop also had monkeys, mice, and pretty much any other animal with ears. Mine is Dr. Seusical. It has a brim, which I love, but it also is very large on the back of my head. Lenea's is just Lenea. It is very simple in the style of the hat and the color, but it is very intricately woven to create some crazy designs. Paul decided he didn't need one.

Today we ate Greek. We were going to introduce some of our neighbors to Greek, but they bailed on us so we went alone. Totally okay with us because we ate Greek anyways. We are regulars now. Not a week has passed that we haven't had Greek. The restaurant is run by a woman who serves as hostess/waitress, her husband the chef, and her brother who is a waiter/bartender. We love it because it feels like they are inviting us into their home. They know what we want to drink. They know what sides we choose to go with our meal, and they always come to talk to us after our meal is over. They are great people who serve AMAZING food!

Fasching Parade!

Well folks, we did not go to Frankfurt on Friday. Whomp Whomp! Paul came home Thursday sick as a dog. He slept almost the entire day Friday and Saturday, only waking to take more Dayquil. He is totally okay now, but it seems that his illness is spreading through the apartment. Elizabeth is now feeling a little under the weather. Must love living in small quarters. :) Needless to say our four day weekend was a little underwhelming, but restful. Friday Elizabeth and I ventured downtown to check out the Fasching festivities. I am not really quite sure I totally understand Fasching, but I do know that it is a mix of Mardi Gras/Carnival/Halloween-ness. Thursday they setup some random booths and games in front of the water tower downtown that stayed up until yesterday. We just explored, but not for too long because we were cold! Not so much our bodies as much as our noses. It is the type of cold where your nose looses all sensation and you have no idea that your nose is running until it is dripping. I know. Grody! We were able to catch a few movies. We saw Everybody's Fine with Robert Deniro, Drew Barrymore.... good, but sad. The movie ended and I was still crying. Surprisingly enough, that was the first time that I have cried since I have been in Germany. I think all of my bottled emotion came out in that movie, but man it was a good cry.

Walking district...must love the lights!

Tuesday Lenea and I rode the train to Heidelberg. It is an adorable city! It has a small town feel to it, but it is a pretty good-sized city. We took scenic route on the train, so it took us about 1 1/2 hours to get there. If you take the direct route on the train it cuts the time down to 45 minutes.

This is Heidelberg. I don't know what those trees are, but I seem to find them in every city in Germany.

A random little cove off of the walking district in Heidelberg.

While we were waiting for the parade to start at 2:11 (I kid you not. This was the time the paper said that it was going to start. 2:11. Random. Why not 2:10?), Lenea and I explored the city. This is what we found...

People were starting to get ready for the parade. Apparently Fasching is a regional thing. Not all parts of Germany celebrate it. The cities that partake in the festivities essentially close down. All businesses closed in the city and people were everywhere!

The parade begins... Yes. These are men.

Not only do parade members dress up for this, but several audience members as well. I don't really know what some people were dressed up as. It seems to me like anything goes. If it was bazaar, then people were wearing it. Men in dresses? Of course.

Who doesn't love Elvis?

What was crazy about the parade was that it had such a small town feel to it. Local Bands played like this one below, and local organizations were displayed on the floats. The floats were not handing out beads, but they were handing out candy. Little kids carried bags as if it were Halloween, and people who live in the apartments above hung umbrellas from their windows to catch candy that was thrown from the floats.

Yes this bike is awesome, but not nearly as awesome as the guy in the upper righthand corner of the picture. Do you see him in his creepy white mask? Yeah. Creepy.

This gentleman was shooting confetti at people in the crowd. His little shooting contraption could be lowered just above someones head and explode massive amounts of confetti. It was fantastic.

More local bands.

Random people walking.

This kids costume was AWESOME! I had to creepily sneak his picture, but I really wanted to find a headdress of my own that looked exactly like his.

After the parade, people filled the streets and just followed the floats along the cobblestone street.

While following the crowd we ran into this guy. Is that not fantastic? Too bad the closer we got the smellier it got. He was not so clean.

From here we found a local pub to warm up. We were freezing cold! Nothing like a little heat and alcohol to warm you up. I had my first German beer yesterday! I chose one that was local to the Heidelberg region. It was pretty yummy, but very strong. I would say that German beer makes Bud Light look like water. It didn't take much for me to warm up quickly. The reason for the delay in beer exposure is due to the fact that we are in the wine region of Germany. Go figure. At the pub we talked to some locals. They had no idea why they celebrate Fasching, but they love it. They said it was a time for all Germans to celebrate together. All walks of life come together for one night of....well, drinking really. It was fun to be able to mingle with Germans and be able to communicate. It wasn't that my German is so great, but almost all Germans know English. It was fun. A good time indeed.

Last but not least... I have internet! No. Vodafone has not fixed our internet/phone, but our downstairs neighbor is letting us use their internet until ours works. I can skype! Yipppeeeeee!!!!!

The Picture Post :)

Alright folks... hop on the train so I can take you on a virtual tour of Mannheim (the condensed version at least)!!

The Mannheim Watertower. It is pretty centrally located in downtown. Apparently when there isn't snow on the ground the lawn is covered with flowers.

The university in Mannheim. I am pretty sure at one time it was home to some sort of royalty.

More of downtown Mannheim. Germany is one of the few European countries that drive on the same side of the road as us. Score one for the home team.

Now the next series of pictures are of our apartment. Keep in mind this is military housing. It is the equivalent to living in college dorms.

This is Elizabeth's room. She essentially condensed her old Kentucky bedroom (3 small rooms) into this dorm room.

As you can see, she has a lot of .... stuff, but it is all uniquely Elizabeth. :)

The snowy view from my bedroom. This is all housing. The outside of our apartment looks just like those. Beautiful is not the first word that comes to mind, but it's home for now :)

This was a couple of days ago as I was walking to the USO/Education area. I walk down this path until I get to the church and pass the clinic to the gate and take a left to cross the street. On the right is the area where the USO, Bank, Education building...pretty much everything is. Round trip is about a mile.

...and this is where I want to live. It is nicely located in the heart of Mannheim.

My bedroom! I finally picked out a duvet cover to match my curtains. I have decided to go with black and white pictures on the walls.

Ahhhh. I do love James Dean. Notice my dorm closets. Feels like Kerr Hall all over again :)

The living room. On the right hand side of the picture is a bookshelf with curtains hung on it to act as a divider from the living room and office area. This is the first thing you see if you look to the right as you enter the apartment.


The office on the other side of the bookshelf. Pretty cozy.

Quaint kitchen area and dining room.

Today it snowed. I know that is no surprise, but this is what I walked through just to get on the computer. It may not seem like much, but the windchill is COLD!!

All of the sidewalks are cobblestone or brick.

This is where all of the computers are located. The building straight ahead is the education building, which is where I am now. The building on the right beyond the square P parking sign is the USO. In this same area is the MP (Military Police) station, Mr. Donaldson's (the man who helped Elizabeth get into school and started my installation pass paperwork) office, Housing, and the bank.

Hmm....what is missing from these pictures? The sun. Whomp. Whomp. While I love the idea of waking up to fresh snow, I am not crazy about the idea of having a day without sunshine. It is very rare that sun and snow happen on the same day. Well, so far it is very rare to have a day with sunshine at all. We have had some crazy weather.

Lenea and I bought train tickets to Amsterdam today. We will be taking the ICE which is a very fast train. It will be a four hour ride instead of the 7 it would have taken if we chose anything else. Yay! Lenea is going to go early with me so that I can be in Amsterdam when Kristin, Rachel, and Angie come in. I am so excited for friends to come over!! So very excited! Now that I have purchased my ticket I feel very official! It is only four weeks away!!

Now I will give you the highlights of last week:

Saturday (Feb. 6): Elizabeth and I explored the walking district on our own, and we happened to run into this one man band/show. I was pretty impressed. It reminded me of the Dr. Seuss characters riding their musical bikes with crazy horns and drums coming off of the sides.

That night for dinner we had GREEK! Mmmm!! It is so good! I wish I could send care packages of all of the yummy food for you guys to try! After dinner we headed to Ikea to buy my awesome duvet cover. We spotted an awesome black and white photo of Amsterdam where the only color in the photo is a red bike. I loved it. Paul and Lenea picked it out as a Valentine's present for me. It is pretty over the top for a Valentine's present, but I'm not complaining. Who needs chocolate?

Sunday (Feb 7): We went to go eat at Sushi Circle with a woman who was in the German culture class with Paul and Lenea. She happens to be a dentist at the clinic on post. She is so sweet! She is in her fifties, single, and she has traveled the world. She is a doll! She also was telling me about one of the young doctors (well let's be honest... he's not a doctor, but a dentist) who is single, 27, and wants to meet people his age. I was pretty excited, until I met him. I will explain more about that in a minute. This Sushi Circle place was so much fun! They serve the sushi on a conveyer belt and you just grab whatever looks good. The plates are color coordinated according to price, so they can just tally up your bill at the end. The sushi was just as good in Germany as it is in the states. Yummy!

Monday (Feb 8): I had to go to the clinic to get a PPD skin test as part of the pre-employment packet to work at the CDC. While we were at the clinic Lenea and I decided to go to meet this dentist that I was told is cute, young and single. Let's just say he was not for me. I was very polite, but made sure to leave the situation without giving him my number. After that, Paul came home for lunch to give Lenea and I the car to drive around and explore a little. We really didn't do much, but it was fun to explore some more of Mannheim that I hadn't seen in the comfort of a cozy warm car.

Tuesday (Feb 9): I finished my 7 year background check for the CDC. This packet was intense. I had to list every place I have lived, every job I have ever had (well that part was not too bad- I have only had three legit jobs if you don't count babysitting), any tickets if the amount was greater than $150 (there were two. I know. Lead foot.), and a lengthy list of references. Don't be surprised if you get a phone call :) and thank you in advance if you do! Also, I got my fingerprints done today. The woman who did them was a German and she loved to talk. I did a lot of smiling and nodding. Her accent was really thick, so I caught about 70% of the conversation. :)

Wednesday (Feb 10): I had to go to Human Resources and type in my 7 year background check. It took 11/2 hours. Yeesh. While I did that, Lenea drove up to Vodafone. I think we will be cancelling our service with them and switching to TKS. Turns out they have not put in a service request yet. Go Vodafone. In Germany, Deutch Telecomm runs a monopoly on the phonelines. They rent out the lines to different phone providers such as Vodafone and TKS. Since the jack in the wall is not working, Vodafone must call Deutch Telecomm to put in a service request. When Lenea found out they had not done that yet, she flipped. Rightly so. It has been 4 weeks since they told us it would be turned on. Aye yaye yaye!

Today: It has taken about 2 hrs to upload all of the pictures on here, which is why I can't wait to have internet in our apartment. My computer is so much faster than the public ones in the education building. That's okay because I am in a pretty good mood today. I have some country theme songs playing in my head.... "Feeling Good Again" by Robert Earl Keen and "I'm Alive" by Kenny Chesney ft. Dave Matthews. I also bought my train tickets to meet my girls in Amsterdam, then Germany and end up in Paris, France. Oh my goodness I am excited!!!!

Tomorrow: We are going to take a day trip to Frankfurt. We found a ton of museums located along the river so that we can stay warm in this crazy snowy weather! I can't wait to explore. Until next time..... I LOVE YOU GUYS!!!

Doctor Appointment

Yesterday I had a doctors appointment so that I could get a new supply of insulin. It was crazy! One of the medical liaisons from the military post setup my appointment, calculated how much it was goign to cost, and would potentially act as a translator if need be. He scheduled my appointment for 9:15 because German doctors only take appointments until noon, and then they make their rounds in the hospital. Before I could see the doctor, we had to go to the international patient office to make a deposit for the doctors appointment since my insurance is not covered overseas. Grr. That still makes me mad, but now I have a job so I will soon have good insurance again. Yay! Anyways... The liaison wanted to meet at the main entrance of this ginormous hospital at 8:30. Lenea and I had no idea where the main entrance was and figured it would take us a little while to find it, so we planned to get there early. We left our apartment at 7:30 AM to walk to the train. Luckily the train has a stop right at the Mannheim hospital so we didn't have to wonder around too long. Did I mention that it was raining and we only had one umbrella? Yeah. A doctors appointment with a new doctor that I am having to pay a fortune for isn't enough, so let's add some terrible weather in the mix. Yahoo. By the time we got inside my feet were soaking wet. I was wearing my Tom's and whool socks, neither of which dried until I got home. I did learn something interesting...

As we were walkig up to the hospital, we saw two girls talking/smoking so we asked if they spoke english. Luckily one of the girls did and she helped us find our way through the maze of the hospital. She was telling us that she was going to be a nurse or a doctor, but that she really didn't want to be either one of those. We then asked her what she wanted to be, and she said that she had no idea because it wasn't really her choice. Lenea and I looked at each other very puzzled and continued to ask the little girl questions. She was only 16 and was doing an internship at the hospital. She then told us that in Germany, the parents and teachers of the kiddos decide what a child is going to do for the rest of their life when the child is in fourth grade. My jaw dropped. Kids go to school from first to ninth grade, and after ninth grade the child starts an internship. Every child does an internship for three years. This little girl had a three year internship at the hospital to decide if she was going to be a doctor or a nurse and then she was going to attend an university to further her education. If it was decided that a child was going to be a salesperson, the child would finish school, do their three years of internship, and then begin working. Crazy. Man I love the freedom of being an American and getting to see all of these beautiful places, but still have the freedom to decide what I want to do. Back to the story...

Through a series of doors, staircases, ramps, and sliding doors we made it to the international patient office at 8:05 AM. At 8:45 we decided to enter the office and start the paperwork without the liaison so that I would not be late for my appointment. As we are sitting down, the liaison strolls through the door deeply apologetic for being so late. I told him it wasn't a big deal, but that we had started on some of the paperwork. It was all simple stuff...Name, height, weight, address, phone number...yadda, yadda, yadda. I then paid the 500 euro. I got a reciept and was told that it would be two weeks until the invoice was processed in order for me to receive any money back. Great. Then Michael, the medical liaison, walks us to the endocrinologist and talks with the receptionist about my appointment. We then walk to the waiting room where Michael informs me that the doctor speaks great english, so I shouldn't need him anymore. I looked at him, and calmly told him that I would appreciate it if he waited just in case I needed something else. For instance, what if I had to go somewhere else to get my insulin because the doctor did not have a supply in the office. He looked dumbfounded that I asked him to stay. I didn't have to wait too long and the doctor escorted me to the room for my appointment. She was awesome. She asked what I was going to be doing in Germany and how long I would be staying. Then she asked me about my family and where I was from. She truly got the time to get to know me. I didn't feel rushed at all. I felt like she genuinely cared for my wellbeing by getting to know me. From there she did her doctor thing... looked over my numbers, discussed my diabetes care in the past, etc. She then gave me two months worth of free insulin. She was amazed that my insurance did not cover me overseas and she wanted to do whatever she could to cut down the cost of my appointment. She told me to call her whenever my insurance kicks in to schedule another appointment to do bloodwork and all of the doctor stuff. She was incredible! I could not ask for a better doctor. I felt like she knew what she was talking about and cared about me.

Today I walked to Human Resources to pick up my pre-employment packet so that I can start my job. The weather today is gorgeous! The snow has melted and the sun is actually shining. I am loving it. I was actually excited to walk all over this place to find the building, until I got there and no one was there. The entire bottom floor was deserted. The rooms were filled with stacked up chairs, desks, and lamps. It was kind of spooky! Then I called to see if I was in the right place, because it definitely did not feel like it. Apparently all of their offices are now located upstairs. Yeesh. This place makes everything way too hard. I have already filled out tons of paperwork just to get my interview and now that I have the job I have to fill out even more paperwork to start working. Oh well. It is a job that pays well and gives me insurance. I am a happy camper! Now I am going to search for some cheap tickets to travel over spring break. First stop Amsterdam, then to Berlin/Frankfurt/Mannheim, and finish up at Paris. I am pumped!!!