Welcome to our life!

Hi, I'm Allison! I'm a thirtysomething, freshly baked, stay-at-home mom. I'm originally from Connecticut, now living in Germany, hence the name of the blog. I live in southern Germany with my German husband and our baby boy. Life has turned out to be nothing I ever expected, and am so incredibly happy with it! We certainly do have a lot of laughs! I hope you will enjoy following our new experiences raising a little half American/ half German in a little German town.

Mittwoch, 28. März 2007

Running out of walls to climb

I have changed quite a bit since moving here. No doubt about that one. I remember telling Joern that what I would find most difficult in marriage would be a lack of independence! Since moving here, I have slowly let my independence be chipped away. Because I didn´t learn German right away, I have come to depend on Joern in many social situations, at the doctor´s office, and well, any situation involving speaking German (besides ordering dinner and beer.) I found out in October that I was officially no longer employable by the US Government, for stupid reasons. Instead of blazing the trails and looking for a new job, I rolled over and became a "stay-at-home-wife," or as the Germans love to say hausfrau .

The worst thing though in becoming so entirely dependant was the loss of my license. I was among the group that had to get my license as soon as I turned 16. I was afraid to drive here for about a month, until I discovered the joys of driving without a speed limit. Because I started working on the military base here 4 months after moving, I received a driver´s license through the Armed Forces and never thought another second about getting a German license. Unfortunately, I didn´t know that you have three years from when you move here to get your US license switched to the German (for a CT driver, that meant only taking the written exam, in English.) We found out about this rule after I was here 4 years, when it was too late. So, since October, when I lost my US mil. id card, I also lost my permission to drive here. I now have to take the written and practical exams, which I am not looking forward to. The people who give the driving test here are not known for being the kindest, most forgiving, or speaking English. Joern has really been draging his heels about setting me up for the testing (see above as to why I cannot do this alone either). And now, we´re in a crunch because my CT license expires in June. If I try to give them an expired US license here, I will have no hope, and be required to take driver´s ed - an expense and hassle I don´t need!

It wasn´t until October that I realized how much I valued driving. It is so embarassing to have to be driven everywhere. And in this country of great public transport, I live in Transportation-less valley. It takes me 40 minutes just to get to the train to bring me into Stuttgart. Argh! So, despite my need to go shopping, here I sit in my living room, writing this post and sorting laundry. It´s enough to drive one crazy!

Dienstag, 27. März 2007

Grrrr

I went to work yesterday with Joern. He made a big deal that I go to work with him because he would be down by the Swiss border, and I absolutely love it there. It was great, especially since we drove through the Black Forest, and they still have snow. Probably one of my last snow sightings of the season. Hmpf!
I know it sounds like I´m bragging, but I´m really not... Joern took a wrong turn in order to avoid going to Switzerland (because if you enter Switzerland with commercial samples- like salt, you have to pay a huge fine.) Well, turns out our wrong turn put us on a bridge to France. So, Joern decided to make the best of it and go grocery shopping in France! We actually haven´t gone to our favorite French grocery store in a while, because we buy too much and then eat too much. So, we promised ourselves we would only buy a few items that you can´t get in the grocery stores here, and some wine.
When it came to buying wine, we were stumped. As you can imagine, French grocery stores have an aisle that runs the entire lenghth of a usually very large store for wine. We always are confused about what to buy, because of course, the labels are only in French, and even if they weren´t, French wines aren´t classified by grape type- no Syrah or Cab. Since it seems that the French export all their cheap wine, no bottle is less than 5 euro (Joern refuses to spend much more than $7 a bottle) so we are always at our spending cap from the beginning. We ended up with only one bottle, which was oh so sad.
And of course, what happened today? I opened my Martha Stewart magazine, that I am proud to recieve in Germany, and there was an entire article on French wine! The types were beautifully described! Argh! The kicker was that I had the magazine in the car with me yesterday, I just failed to open it! It will be nice to have it for our next French grocery outing- which won´t be for a while :(
On a completely different note- I´m nervous about class tonight. Last week, I skipped both classes. I hate going into class after I´ve missed one, and now, it´s two! I will be really happy when I speak German and don´t have to do these classes anymore!
But I guess it´s really time for me to open my books and try to figure out what I missed. Must break myself away from the computer!!!

Freitag, 23. März 2007

New try with a new blog

I figured that FINALLY starting a blog would be a great idea. I have been keeping a blog on myspace, but then, you need to be a Myspace member to read that one. I also tried one with The Nest, but that was pretty unsucessful as well. This way, I figured everyone could see what we´re up to! Plus, I can post pictures here, and links, as opposed to making everyone sign up with Kodak just to view pics! 5 years is a mighty long time to have gone without a blog...

I guess I should start out by saying that Joern, Leo, and I are great. Life in Germany is fine. Today, we had a lot of snow. Okay, not in Neckartailfingen, but definately in the Swabian Alb, which is where we spent the day. They had about 6 inches of snow just today alone. This weather is not really normal for Germany at the end of March, but like CT, you never know!

I talked with a woman today about a job, which is always exciting! She runs an English speaking club here for adults, and is looking for someone to take on teaching kids ages 6-10 in an after school program. I loved her concept, especially her deisre to focus on spoken English, versus what you learn in school. It sounds really exciting, exept of course, I would only be working a few afternoons per week. She did say that she thinks with my experience I can get something much better. This sparked Joern and I to get cracking on the job hunt. I have to spend this weekend working on a CV, resumes, and putting together a portfolio. Maybe I can find something meaningful with pay!

Otherwise, things are fine. I am going to Ireland on April 9th for a week with one of my friends from my old job. We´re both incredibly excited!

Joern´s well. He still loves his job with SudSalz, and loves the fact that we have enough salt for the rest of our lives! He also loves the fact that he´s "in the know" at grocery stores all over our state!!!

Well, I guess that´s it for now. This blog should improve in the upcoming weeks. I just figured that if I waited for the blog page to be perfect, I might never get this off and running!
I miss all of you, and hope you´re all well!