Our first week was similar to our last night in the States, there were ups, downs, and periods of confusion. On the second day, Julie went to get a tour of her new facility and I was left with the task of picking up our rental car. Lacking familiarity with the area, I packed a backpack with my ipad (screen shot of map), water, and our GPS (to find my way back home). Locating Hertz proved to be easier than expected, however, the same cannot be said of the return trip. When reserving our car, Julie had asked if I have ever driven a manual - the short answer, "yes." Although, in hindsight, the long answer may have been more prudent. I should have divulged that my experience was singular and I drove for approximately 20 minutes.
A Hertz employee drove the car around to the front, he spoke German and pointed at things in the car that I should be aware of: the reflective vest, emergency kit, traffic triangle, and what type of gas to put in the car. The moment of truth finally arrived, I entered the car and I was ready to test my "skills," fully aware that I was likely to stall upon leaving the parking lot. As expected, I stalled just as I pulled out of the parking lot. Fortunately, I had awkwardly sat in the car for several minutes setting up the GPS and acting like I was typing in directions. Thus, allowing the Hertz employees to resume their normal duties, in hopes that my embarrassing escape would go unnoticed. Knowing the trip back was going to be painful, I found a parking lot down the road where I could spend my time refreshing my memory of what I learned for twenty minutes...fourteen years ago.
I spent a significant amount of time here and driving around the area, avoiding major roads, while passing the same people and buildings at least fifteen times - including the Hertz office. I must have looked crazy, it was obvious that there was a GPS on the dashboard of my Ford Fiesta (Fifi), but I drove in circles for an hour. Once I garnered the confidence to drive to the apartment, I entered the address and was ready to go, but a new adventure unfurled. The first direction dictated a right turn at the light and then proceed to make a U-turn. Much to my chagrin, this was a physical impossibility, the GPS had me turn onto the on-ramp for the Autobahn. While merging, I cursed the navigation system with every possible combination of profane phrases I knew and prayed that the Flying Spaghetti Monster would bless the car with his noodliness. Luckily, an exit was only a few kilometers away, I turned around and merged back onto the Autobahn and soon was back on my way. I finally reached the apartment parking lot and as I rolled into the spot, the car stalled one last time. The car was parked at a peculiar angle and realizing it took me 15 minutes to walk to Hertz and nearly an hour and a half to drive back, I was done driving for the day.
The rest of the week was far less exciting than driving on the Autobahn as your my first solo drive with a manual car. The majority of our first week was devoted to establishing a new routine and figuring out how to live in Germany. The single most important thing we learned was to get a German bank account - without one, getting a cell phone, apartment, or paying for any bills is a almost an impossibility. To our advantage, Dante's 8th circle of hell (BX/Exchange) has two branches and we went with the logical choice, the branch with the shorter line. Our next step, return to a semblance of normalcy and get cell phones, with limited options - choices range from; horrible coverage, poor coverage, or acceptable mediocrity. We now had a means of transportation and communication, next on the list, explore our surroundings.
We had the convenience of living in downtown Landstuhl and we had a 30-day per diem to take advantage of, therefore, maximizing this privilege is of the utmost importance. It didn't take long for us to establish our favorite lunch/dinner locations - Barbarosa for lunch, Garabaldi's for dinner. Barbarosa is similar to a Panera/Starbucks hybrid, but better, and Garabaldi's is a great Italian restaurant run by twin brothers who will quickly learn your orders when you eat there three times a week.
All in all, our first week was akin to an obligation to complete a ridiculous scavenger hunt; we really had to figure everything out on our own, yet our accomplishments were rewarding. We were starting to settle, however, we only had 23 days of per diem remaining and we were told our household goods were to arrive the following week. Now the pressure was on to find a permanent residence, a fun and frustrating process.
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