Not Just a California Thing

    Ugh! You guys! We've been out of quarantine for just over two weeks now. It genuinely feels like a lifetime. There is just. So. Much. But I have to tell you about yesterday, Friday, August 28th. To fully appreciate this story, you need to know a few things from our first week out of quarantine that I have not been over yet, and one of those was a significant oversight from Day One. 

    I mentioned our need for an IBAN in order to secure German cell service. Well, you also need an IBAN to secure housing, so once we had drivers' licenses and rented wheels, and had determined that we would need more time to secure cell service, we got down to the business of finding a place to live which would provide the much needed physical address we needed in order to procure an IBAN. It's like this vicious circle. 

    We had set up a viewing with a landlord on Day One. It was a very darling house, three levels, lots of space in a little village called Reichenbach-Steegan. As we drove out there, I had my reservations, especially as we made the final approach to the property, which was at the crest of a rather steep hill. It wasn't anything I was interested in driving everyday, and despite the availability of buses for school, I wasn't 100% sold on putting Quinn on the bus, especially if I'd have to put her in the car to get her to the bus stop anyway. So, anyway, the house was cute, but I was pretty sure I'd feel pretty isolated.

    Brandon, on the other hand, likely fueled by the need to secure housing, was breaking all the house hunter rules and was ready to hand over a year's worth of rent on the spot. I made several efforts to convince him to slow his roll, but eventually gave up knowing that nothing could be done right away anyway, because we hadn't completed all of the necessary steps with the housing office. I also knew that he would eventually see things my way. 

    He woke me up at 6:00 the next morning, telling me he had been up since 2:00 worrying about the house. Oh, you don't say! We agreed that he would go talk to housing, and I would make a list of other homes to go look at. And folks, if there is one positive thing I can say about COVID, it's that it helped us secure our housing! For the second time, in two times living overseas, we lucked into some very nice base housing. Due to the pandemic, everyone living off base with a current contract and on a waiting list for base housing was in a freeze, and all open base housing was set aside for newcomers only. As a result, there was a house available on Landstuhl, an army post in the KMC. It was two weeks ago yesterday, second day out of quarantine, that the lady at housing told Brandon that we could go check out the location and let her know. We got lost trying to get there. That wasn't reassuring, but once we got there, it was an easy decision. There was a maintenance guy working inside the house, so we actually got to look inside. It's across the "street" (I use quotes because it's more like a driveway to the school staff parking lot, so the speed limit is like, 5mph, excuse me, 1 kmph) from the elementary school, and there's a bus stop for the high school not far away, for all the other high school kids that live at Landstuhl. The search was over! Housing secured. Knowing our physical address was like finding that piece that connects the top and bottom sections of a puzzle. Now we knew which schools Jake and Quinn would attend, we could get the IBAN, we knew we'd be ready when our stuff finally arrives. It felt good. Now, it did seem a little strange that Brandon is assigned to Ramstein, an Air Force Base, but we're living on Landstuhl, an Army Post, but apparently, here, that's not so strange. There are lots of US installations in the KMC and I'm still trying to figure all of them out.

    Okay, so that's the first thing you needed to know before I tell you about the 28th. The next, is that I drove on the Autobahn on Thursday! While we had the rental, I left all of the off base driving to Brandon because he had done a lot more adventuring while trying to complete his in-processing, because you know all those installations I just told you about? Well, it seems like every step is at a different installation. So, I didn't do much driving, except for one trip from our TLF to the commissary, which is about a four minute drive, if it's that long. Anyway, on Tuesday, the 25th, we picked up one of our cars, the one we chose to ship ourselves, and that was a whole day process that I may or may not get into at a later date, but now that we had our own car, I had to drive the rental car back from the customs house to TLF, which was no autobahn, but my first time driving off base. I must like driving, because as I drove back to base, I started to feel more like myself than I had since we arrived. 

    So, we haven't moved into our house yet, and school started on Monday, the 24th, so we have been having to take Jake to his bus stop, and then Quinn to her school. It hasn't been too bad, but will improve significantly when we can start walking. Anyway, we got lost trying to find the bus stop on Monday, mostly because we were given terrible landmarks as directions, but we had given ourselves lots of extra time, so Jake made it on the bus. Seminary is virtual here right now, but that will be something we'll have to figure out once it goes face to face. Quinn was very excited to be meeting for school in person. Distance learning for the last half of 1st grade was alright, but she was glad to have the chance to be with kids her own age, regardless of how much she loves spending the day with her mom.

     So, kids are in school, housing secured, in-processing rolling along, and I even got to spend several daytime hours alone in my (temporary) home for the first time in a long time. Amazing! I felt like a new woman. Then, on Thursday, I drove to pick up the kids in the afternoon, with Brandon in the passenger seat. I figured I should practice, because, due to a scheduling conflict,I was going to have to take them and pick them up by myself on Friday, yesterday. And we've made it. Do you feel it? Can you tell what is about to happen? 

    I knew all week that I was going to be making this drive. I studied my map app. I paid super close attention every time we made the trip to and from Ramstein to Landstuhl. I drove it myself. I had my Jams playlist ready on my phone. I was ready. Jake and Quinn and I loaded into the car and set off. I turned at the German Burger King to get on the A6 (the autobahn). As I was driving to literally the next exit, I looked over and noticed, even commented, that the traffic going the other way was the worst I had ever seen it. Weird. Got off the 6 to get on the 62, and noticed the traffic was backed up beyond the exit I needed, again, literally the next exit after getting on the 62. Hmmmm. This seems really strange. And I'm starting to worry a little about getting Jake to his bus stop on time. Not to mention the betrayal I felt at having to deal with traffic. I thought I left that behind me in California.

    Luckily most of the backup was turning left off the exit and we were turning right. Phew! Now I can really get mov...we're behind a slow moving truck. Arrrrgh! I start to sweat as the fever nightmares I've been having all week start coming true. And of course, we follow the truck ALL. THE. WAY. Right up to the gate.

Source

   

     Jake's bus is supposed to be at the bus stop until 7:29. We pulled up at 7:27, but can you guess what I'm going to say next? There were no kids at the bus stop. It was gone already. So, after dropping Quinn off, I was going to have to take Jake to school. So, the next thing you need to know, is that Jake's school is on a completely different installation from the one where our house is and the one we are currently staying at, and the only way I know to get from where we were, to his school, was the A6, which, by this time, I had learned, was completely closed between Landstuhl and Kaiserslautern, where the high school is. And the route through town was practically glowing red in the map app. Okay, we'll try an alternate route. We can do this. It's going to be okay. Cut to me and Jake, on a beaten up, barely paved road through the forest, with Siri telling us to turn left every time we pass a muddy trail through the trees. This was after the terrifying drive through Bann, where 95% of the time I was pretty sure I didn't study the German driving guide well enough. There were tears. There were swears. I had already given up on getting Jake to school and was now just worried about being able to get back in time to get Quinn, because it was a half day, and I was staring to worry if we'd ever be found. We were still getting a phone signal, so clearly I was overreacting a little, but it was just the culmination of my living nightmares. 

See what I did there? It's from Lost. And I was lost. Trust me it's hilarious.

    Obviously we made it home. It took a while. We turned around and left again to get Quinn after about half an hour. I was giving myself LOTS of time. We didn't need it. After more careful study of a map, I have discovered that I could have figured out how to get Jake to school if I hadn't been in such a complete panic. We did hear today that the oral surgeon, who lives over by Landstuhl but works at Ramstein, spent two hours getting to work yesterday. It usually takes 15 minutes. That made me feel better. If the exact same thing ever happens again, I know exactly what to do. But it shouldn't be an issue. We move into our house next week, on Wednesday.  Now, when our household goods will arrive? That will be a story for another day, because we don't know when that is supposed to happen. Goodnight everybody!