Homecoming!

It is Saturday and Collin is already back at work. But first of all, let me tell you about the homecoming.

I had another sleepless night from Wednesday through Thursday because I was expecting THE call that night and therefore couldn’t sleep at all. Yet there was nothing. Just like Wednesday I decided to take a day off school on Thursday as well because I just couldn’t concentrate on anything else but checking my emails to see if the flight manifest would show up and staring at my phone to avoid missing the important phone call. Around noon on Thursday, my girlfriends and I decided to get some lunch because we all just couldn’t stand being at home waiting. Lunch was great and as soon as I got back home, I went online to check my emails and there is was: the flight manifest. All of our husbands names were on there. I started calling everyone and everyone started calling me. We were so excited. The flight was supposed to come into Nuremberg around 530pm. Around 8pm the buses finally went through the gate and passed the PXtra (shopping center) where we were standing to cheer and welcome them home.

Link to the videos of the buses passing us (part 1 and part 2).

About two hours later around 10pm the 5-min (Thanks God it was only five minutes long!) welcome home ceremony took place. After that… let’s have the pictures tell the rest!

Yesterday Collin had a day off that we spent in Nuremberg. Today he is already back at work because there is lots of reintegration paperwork that needs to be done. He will only have half-days throughout the next week which will be nice.

It is so great to have him home! It is so great to do everything together! I finally feel married again! Hehe. Thanks everyone for your wonderful comments!!!

Getting everything ready.

I have less than 100 hours to get this house cleaned and ready for Collin to come home. Time has been flying these past few weeks. School has kept me really busy and it seems like there is always something going on on the weekends. Last weekend my girlfriends and I went on a shopping spree to Nuremberg. I ended up with a bunch of new clothes that I desperately needed after I had cleaned out my closet a couple weeks ago.

Just now I got back from post where we decorated the barracks of my husband’s company. We put a set of sheets, pillows, toiletries and other much needed things into every room and decorated the doors and the hall ways. It was a lot of work but I am sure the single soldiers will appreciate it very much since all their own stuff is locked up in storage and this will be the only stuff they will have for a couple days.

I actually wanted to clean the bathroom right now but I need a nap so bad. Getting everything done in the barracks wiped me out and I am so tired. Tomorrow will be busy as well. I need to get groceries. I want to start baking cookies. I want to get everything ready for Collin!!!! It is so close!

10 months left.

Yes, that’s right. We have a little less than 10 months left in Germany. I heard the news today and since I am a big planner, I already came up with a rough schedule for the next ten months until we are heading to DC. My main concern is school. I need this degree so bad in order to have a foundation for the next years to come. The big question was and somewhat still is: How am I going to finish my last semester (of classes) next summer since we have to be out of here by next June when I will still be in class? Well, some of you might think that I can just stay here a few more months and then follow Collin to the States a little later. It is not as simple as you might think – not when you are in the Army. I am ‘attached’ to him and his contract. We came here through the Army and we need to leave through the Army. It would be a lot harder, more time consuming and also more money consuming if I wanted to stay in our current appartment for a few more months. We NEED to move together.

My plan as of now is to just take a maximum of 14 days off for the move. However, I would miss two weeks of school but since there is no attendance requirement in German colleges, this is not a problem. Also, I am taking as many classes as possible next semester which will add up to a total of eleven classes and thus eleven finals. This means that during my last semester of classes next summer, I will only have four more finals left to take which is not very much at all. I would fly to the States with Collin, set up our place, fly back to Germany to take my finals and then fly back to the States again to start my internship. While in Germany, I can stay at my best friend’s who lives near Nuremberg. This is my rough plan so far considering school, which, to me, sounds pretty manageable so far.

On the other hand, there won’t be a German wedding that I have dreamt of and longed for for so long. I have been planning it in my head and have been setting money aside but this money will be needed for the travelling and the extra expenses that might occur while in Germany because I won’t be able to use the convenience of having a military post near by since those are only for those currently stationed in Germany.

Back to the States. At least for three weeks.

So instead of spending $2000 on two new bikes, we just spent $2000 on two fabulous paper e-tickets to the States. Actually it was ‘only’ $1912 for the two of us, which I am very happy about, because finding tickets for Christmas for less than $1000 a person from Germany to Seattle is almost impossible.

Initially we wanted to spend a quiet Christmas alone here in Germany but because of certain rumors (regarding the Army) that have been going around and that I can’t discuss here right now, we decided to spend Christmas with Collin’s family in the States. Collin won’t have seen them for almost two and a half years by then. It wasn’t hard to convince him that it would be a good idea. He, himself, mentioned it one day and I just decided to go ahead and book two tickets. We will be there for almost three weeks, which will give us plenty of time to spend time with family and friends.

PS: Thanks everyone for your comments regarding my immigration issues. I sent a letter to the California Service Center where my application is being processed. I am fed up with the US Consulate in Frankfurt as well as the USCIS hotline because neither of them seem to have a clue how filing from overseas works and how this issue is being treated. I know about the stamp and I hope that Frankfurt issues those stamps as well. So as for now, I am back to waiting.

All I want is some reality TV.

Ever since I moved into our new apartment, I have been living without any cable TV – not even German cable TV – even though we actually have a German and an American satellite dish on our roof. I never bothered getting a German receiver but today I finally got an AFN [Armed Forces Network] receiver, because Collin will be home soon and I know how much he would enjoy watching American TV shows. And I will enjoy it too, of course. I can’t wait for American Idol, Lost, Prison Break and so on. Anyways, I tried to set up the receiver today but failed miserably. I was so looking forward to some reality shows. But it is midnight now and it still doesn’t work. It is receiving a signal but the signal is locked. I will call my friend Catie tomorrow because she recently set up hers and can hopefully help me or maybe the satellite dish is pointing in the wrong direction but I will need the help of our landlord for that. We’ll see. Either way, I am hoping to be able to watch some good American TV by the end of next week. And with finals being done, I totally deserve it.