Grüß Gott (“may God greet you”),

As January disappears, Happy New Year from Germany!

Hopefully by the end of our time here, I won’t need to google German greetings to make my blog post titles seem more authentic. Needless to say, Rosetta Stone and I will become fast friends.

Griff and I arrived in Germany on December 28th, 2016, and just passed a month of being here. The chaos of travel and moving has made time seem to evaporate. So, without further ado (and in an attempt to not let this blog fail before it begins), here is a quick glimpse into life in our little German town:

As expected, Germany is absolutely beautiful, and the travel opportunities are endless. In less than a month, we have already been to a couple castles and ventured to Prague and back. We are adventure junkies as is, so living in the middle of Europe makes us feel like kids in a candy shop.

Upon arrival, however, we were greeted with subfreezing temperatures, weeks of jet lag, and a million details to figure out. Not quite as whimsical as medieval castles and a quick train ride to one of Europe’s most historic cities. Especially for someone who despises the cold. Thank you L.L. Bean for your insulated boots and Amazon for your warm coats. But mostly, thanks Mom and Dad for warmly gifting them at Christmas.

As our first order of business, we set up a phone plan and German bank account, and applied for German driver’s licenses to get us up to date and in the know. Goodbye US phone numbers for now, hello WhatsApp!

Next on the to-do list: find a house, a car, a job (for me), internet, and other essentials to life (like coffee). So far, not too bad.

We have a cute little house that looks out to a nature reserve. Unfortunately, we were assigned housing, so we didn’t have much choice in the matter. But we love our little place (that is actually bigger than our last house), and it’s just a short drive from the train station and Griff’s work. More importantly, we live across from snow camels. Yes, SNOW CAMELS! They are technically called bactrian camels, but I like the sound of snow camels better. Certainly not the first animal I expected to see in Germany! Apparently these guys can withstand both the extreme heat and cold, and often eat snow to stay hydrated. I sincerely hope they are either part of a circus act, or retired Silk Road travelers. If not, I’m perfectly happy seeing them every morning as we drive out of our neighborhood with their fuzzy beards and yawning walk. You simply can’t have a bad day when you are greeted by the sight of snow camels.

We have also finalized our decision on a car! It’s about a third of the size of our truck, and I just picked it up this week. It is much better suited for the smaller German roads and parking spaces, allowing us to travel and have a bit more freedom.

The job situation is still pending for me, as there are fewer options for non-German citizens. But on a positive note, Germany provides tuition free schooling (even for international students!), so I am beginning the application process now and hope to start graduate school in the Fall.

Internet is a lot more difficult here in Bavaria, being a more rural area. So, after a long process of deliberation and research on different companies, we finally made a decision and got it set up. Praise God our phone plans had a free trial of unlimited data for the first month.

We are still waiting on the majority of our household goods (they are currently off the boat and ready to be delivered), but look forward to having everything in order. At least I have lots of coffee to enjoy while we wait and figure out the details. Coffee may be rationed here, but Griff doesn’t drink it, so I get double rations – one of the many perks of being married to him!

We love it here so far, and can’t believe we get to experience such a rare opportunity.

Tschüß,

Liz