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When You Are Stationed Overseas for the Holidays

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I love her books but haven’t read this one yet.

Christmas 2008, my friend and I took our kids out to the local Christmas Market. We lived in a small village and even they had a small Christmas market. I love Germany during the Christmas season. They go big. Every town square is decorated. Most towns and villages have their own Christmas markets and you can tell the whole country is ready to celebrate.

We spent 4 holiday seasons in Germany and each one was so magical. If you are lucky enough to be overseas for the holidays, take advantage of what is going on around you. Once you move back to the states you will no longer be surrounded by the culture. You want to take advantage of that experience.

What You Need to Do When You Are Overseas for the Holidays

So what should you do when you are overseas for the holidays? Here are some ideas!

Visit Local Events

Whether you visit the Christmas markets in Germany or the light displays in South Korea, be a part of the culture and embrace what the country does to celebrate. You will make fun memories and have a lot of good stories to tell people back home about your holiday experiences in another country. Sometimes your military installation will also have events based on where you live. See what is going on and what you can be a part of. Remember, people in the US pay a lot of money to visit these same places during this time of year. You are already there, embrace what your host country has to offer.

Adopt a New Tradition

Learn a new tradition that will work for your family that you can take back home with you. For example, St. Nicholas Day. This is celebrated on December 6 in Germany. Children leave out their shoes and St. Nicholas will come by during the night and fill them with goodies. You also will get a chance to meet St. Nicholas around German towns and villages. If you happen to be able to be stationed in more than one overseas location, you can turn your own family’s holiday season into a mix of traditions you have picked up from all the places you have lived.

Think Outside the Box

Sometimes you are going to have to think outside the box when you are overseas for the holidays. If your Christmas day has always included making a big turkey but your overseas apartment doesn’t have a big enough oven to cook one, think about what else you can do. Why not make a traditional holiday meal based on what the locals eat? Or, invite your neighbors over for a potluck asking them to bring their favorite dishes. If it seems weird to do the holidays differently, just think of the changes as a new experience and one you won’t be able to have later on down the road when you are back in the states.

Take Photos and Share

Take a lot of pictures of your holiday and what you did to celebrate while you are overseas. Family and friends back home would love to see what you did that was different from what they do back home. You could also make a special scrapbook about your holidays overseas. One that you can look back at years in the future or share with your children who might not have remembered those years.

Even if you do go home for Christmas, see what holidays traditions you can take part of before you leave. Embrace your tempory country and learn from the people who call the country home. Enjoy the holiday season and make new memories with your family and new friends.

What holiday traditions do you plan to adopt from the country you are currently living in?

22 Signs That You Have Been Stationed in Germany During Your Spouse’s Military Career

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I was recently added to a Facebook group for my husband’s first duty station in Schweinfurt, Germany. While the post has been closed, the group is mostly about our memories of our time there. My husband arrived there in late 2005 and me, and my son joined him in March of 2006. We lived there until May of 2008 when we moved to our second duty station in Germany, Grafenwoehr. We were there until we moved back to the states in 2010.

Spending four years in Germany was quite the experience. Sometimes I loved being there; sometimes I hated it. Sometimes I couldn’t quite believe we were living in Germany. Having a baby, raising toddlers, and having a deployed husband can make for a different kind of experience than we might otherwise have had.

As I think back to those years, I realize there are quite a few things about being stationed in Germany that will stick with you forever. That those of us that had the experience have a bond, one that can connect us over the years.

Here are 22 signs that you have been stationed in Germany during your spouse’s military career:

1. You can still recite AFN commercials, even years later. I mean, you did see the same ones over and over, how could they not stick in your head?

2. No matter how bad on post housing is now, you can handle it; you survived stairwell housing, you can survive anything.

3. You miss your beer truck. Enough said.

4. You are still finding Euro coins, in every corner of your house.

5. You have at least one child who was born there if not two or three.

22 Signs That You Have Been Stationed in Germany During Your Spouse's Military Career

6. “Ausfahrt” still makes you giggle.

7. The German section at your local Commissary simply doesn’t measure up.

8. You can talk about that one time when you flew nine hours on a flight with a one-year-old on your lap, trying to save $700 on their ticket. Not worth it. 

9. You get excited when ordering a soda and it arrives with ice in it.

10. German music still makes you smile.

11. Whenever you meet another spouse and hear they were stationed in Germany, you have to talk about your shared experiences.

22 Signs That You Have Been Stationed in Germany During Your Spouse's Military Career

12. You miss the community feel that you can only find overseas.

13. You get annoyed that you have to pay for a care package. You miss when they were free. APO to APO shipping was the best.

14. It takes you two years until you stop asking every store and restaurant if they take a card. Of course, they do silly.

15. You keep wondering why your waitress wants to rush you out of the restaurant, in Germany, they let you chill for as long as you wanted.

16. You still get super excited that you can go to Target anytime you want.

17. You cry when you break a dish because you know you can’t go back to the little German shop you bought it from and buy another one.

18. Your children have been to 10 countries already, and they are only six year’s old.

19. You swore you would never go to Taco Bell or Burger King again, but that only lasted three months.

20. The idea of being 9 hours behind your deployed spouse is crazy; you are used to just a couple hours difference.

21. You feel guilty throwing away anything that isn’t food scraps and wonder why your American city doesn’t recycle at all.

22. You have fond memories of your time there, the people you met, and the adventures you have. And you hope every military spouse gets the chance to experience something just like that during their time as a military family.

Have you ever been stationed in Germany? When were you there?

How a Small Duty Station in Germany Shaped My Military Spouse Experience

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How a Small Duty Station in Germany Shaped My Military Spouse Experience

17 years ago I got on a plane with my 18-month-old to join my husband in Germany. He had been over there for about 4 months, and we were finally joining him. The time apart was quite a whirlwind for me as I got used to the way the Army did things, slower than I would like.

The flight over was long. The leg from Chicago to Madrid was the toughest. My son’s car seat wouldn’t fit and he didn’t sleep a wink. Finally, as we sat down on our short flight from Spain to Germany, he crashed on my lap.

We met my husband in baggage claim at the Frankfort airport, sleepy and in a fog. Unless you count trips to Mexico as a teen, this was my first experience in a different country. This was my first experience in Europe. This would be my first experience on an Army post.

A few days later, I was walking my son in a stroller around the post. I stopped and just took everything in as a group of soldiers marched by. Up until a few months before, we had been a civilian couple, raising our son in a civilian family. But all of that had changed.

As the months went on, I started to become more comfortable with where I was. We were stationed in Schweinfurt, which was about two hours from Frankfort in Bavaria. I was 26 years old, and the interesting thing was when my mom was my age she also moved to Germany, as a DoD teacher near Ramstein. I grew up with photos and souvenirs she had collected during her time there. I was so happy to experience some of what she did, but as a spouse instead of a teacher.

I made friends pretty quickly as our FRG was very active. There was also a deployment coming up and all of us could feel it. So many of us had little ones and soon after we got there I discovered I was pregnant with my second little boy. There was a lot going on and a lot to take in.

After we had been there for about five months, my husband deployed to Iraq. We assumed he would be back within a year, or even nine months. But that was the deployment that kept getting extended and he finally made it home after almost 15 months.

During that deployment, I learned so much about myself. About who I was as a mother, a wife, and a military spouse. It was my “welcome to this life” baptism that I didn’t really fully understand until much later, after moving back to the states and experiencing more deployments.

Our little community in Schweinfurt was something so special and different. For one thing, the post was pretty small. We only had about 3,000 soldiers. Compare that to Fort Campbell which has around 29,000 soldiers. Pretty much every soldier, unless you were on Rear D, was deployed. Most of the soldiers went to Iraq and some to Afghanistan. But the reality was, the post was made up of military spouses, going through a very long deployment, far from home.

During the first part of the deployment I was pregnant, and as I got closer to the birth, that was my main focus. My amazing mom came out planning to stay two months over the birth and after to help. I can’t even tell you how much this helped me. My son was born just four days before his due date and three days before my husband made it back to Germany for R&R.

During those two weeks, my dad came over to join us and we had a nice family Christmas together. My parents left us for a week to travel and we had a week as a family of four before my husband had to head back to Iraq. That week was truly amazing. I can’t even tell you about what he did, other than sorting out my son’s birth certificate, but our family needed that time.

R&R was over, and my husband and I woke up before dark to take him to the train station to head back to Iraq. My husband stood over my son’s crib and said goodbye, thinking he would be back in about five months. In the end, he didn’t get back from another 11, missing almost his whole first year.

My dad headed home soon after, and my brother came to visit which helped with the after R&R letdown. In February, my mom and brother had to head back home, and soon after I ended up in the hospital with my two-month-old for RSV. I was so thankful for my military spouse friends who stepped in to help me during that week.

Winter ended, and it started to warm up a bit in Germany but our husbands were still deployed. We, spouses, worked hard to stay busy, and spend time together. We had Monday mornings at the coffee shop, we met for lunch and met up at the park once it was warm enough to do so.

During those 15 months, I found myself in a tight-knit military community with almost all of us going through the same thing. This isn’t something you find in a lot of places, but this was my introduction to the military world. I didn’t realize at the time how different it would be at a stateside post when units were all coming and going at different times.

I learned through other military spouses, what they had been through in the past, and the lessons they had learned along the way. I learned true independence as I would go so long without being able to talk to my husband, and just had to figure everything out by myself. I realized what was important about parenting and what to let go of so that I could be the best mom for my kids.

The military was 100% in our face during this time. Yes, you could go off post and I did. I enjoyed walking my kids around in the double stroller and visiting all the different German shops. I was able to travel even more once my husband came home, going on a few USO trips.

But still, the military ruled so much about my life then. From where I got most of my groceries, to where I got my mail, to where my son went to preschool.

When we moved to the states, I found this wasn’t the norm. But it definitely shaped my military spouse experience.

Looking back, I am so glad I had the experiences I did. I was a part of history. I was a part of the military community. And learned so much along the way.

The Army has left Schweinfurt. If we were to visit again someday, we would find the area a very different place. I think they have knocked down most of the housing and there is no longer any American military presence. But the memories will stick with me forever.

The Halloween party we had when I was super pregnant. The Thanksgiving potluck we military spouses had while leaving computers on in hopes that a husband or two would log on. The time after R&R as I thought we were in the final stretch of the deployment and then learned we had so much more time to go.

The lonely nights we made better by spending time together while our kids played. The tensions that arose during a super stressful situation. Homecoming day, when the deployment was finally over, and we could get back to almost normal life while knowing we were now different people.

All of us were going through something so difficult but we had to find the strength to make it to the finish line and we had to do it together one day at a time. I will never forget those years, even if some of the details are fuzzy all these years later. I am thankful for being able to experience life overseas, and I am even more thankful for all that I learned while I was there.

Arriving at that small Army post in the middle of Bavaria as a brand new military spouse is something I will never forget.

How PCSing Overseas Will Change You Forever

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How PCSing Overseas Will Change You Forever

How PCSing Overseas Will Change You Forever

We got on the train headed for our new home in Schweinfurt, Germany. I had never been to Europe before. I hadn’t even been to Canada. Only parts of Mexico back in high school. I was in another world, but one that looked similar to my own.

As we got on that train, filled with German businessmen and women, I realized something that stuck with me during our time overseas. That no matter where you live or where you grew up, people are people and just trying to do the best they can do each day.

Over the four years, we were in Germany, I learned so much about our world and even myself. Being over there wasn’t always a picnic, but I am so thankful that we spent the time we did overseas. I honestly believe that being stationed overseas will change you forever and that if you get the chance to go there, you should. Even if you are scared, even if you have never left home before in the past.

Going overseas will open your eyes

You will learn more, see more and do more than you ever would have if you had only stayed in your country. You will be challenged, and you will have some of your preconceived notions shaken out of you. You can’t help that as you see other cultures and realize that the world is a much bigger place than you ever thought it could be.

Going overseas will open you to travel

Traveling can be scary for some people. The PCS might be the first time you have been out of your comfort zone. Being overseas will help you get used to traveling. For one thing, you will have to make that long airplane flight across the ocean. For another, you will be more likely to travel and explore in your overseas location. You will take that traveling bug back home with you and will want to keep traveling as the years go by. There is so much to see in our world, and you will want to see as much of it as possible.

Going overseas will make you more compassionate

By spending time overseas, you will learn more about humanity and this will make you a more compassionate person. No longer will your own worldview be the only one you are exposed to. Military life will do this anyway but add in an overseas tour, and you will encounter even more people you would never have. This is a good thing. I believe that if more people could travel there would be a lot less hate in our world.

Going overseas will make you more creative

When you are overseas, you can’t help but notice the local customs of your host country. Some of them you will want to take home with you. You will also see how other countries do things and will want to work towards similar changes when you return home. Before you moved overseas, you might not have realized why other countries do the things they do or how they work out in real life. Now that you know, you can bring back some of those ideas into your communities back home.

Going overseas will make you appreciate home

You will miss a lot about the United States when you are overseas, and that can get difficult at times. Once you are back in the states, you will be able to enjoy what you missed again. Whether it is how close your family is or taking trips to your favorite landmarks, going overseas will help you appreciate where you come from.

Not everyone gets to experiences pcsing overseas when they are in the military so if you do, take advantage of your time over there. Learn what you can and bring that back home with you. A PCS overseas will change you forever, and that can be a magnificent thing.

Have you ever been stationed overseas? Where at?

Living in Hohenfels, Germany

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Happy to have this guest post by LeAnna on Hohenfels, Germany. Please visit my Duty station guest post page for posts on other locations or more information about how you can write a guest post about where you have been stationed.

Living in Hohenfels, GermanyHohen-Hells, Germany.  

Oops, I mean, Hohenfels; the Army Post in Nowheresville, Germany where the Commissary is often out of stock of the item you need most (like Pumpkin puree during Thanksgiving!), where it’s 30 minutes to the nearest big city and where you are thousands of miles away from family, friends and the nearest comforts of wandering aimlessly in a Target.

I suppose I can see the point of view of the people that have, not so affectionately, coined USAG Hohenfels as a “Hohen-Hells”. 

After all, the soldiers often work what seems like 24/7, there are the horrible rotation and exercise schedules, it has a small town community atmosphere where it feels like everyone is in everyone’s business and there are grey, dreary, rainy days that can last for months making you believe that the sun has permanently abandoned you.

Yeah, sure, this does sound like a miserable Army Post, doesn’t it??? So, who in their right mind would want to be stationed in a place like that!?

Well, me for one.  

Don’t get me wrong, my husband also has horrible rotation schedules, I miss Netflix and often dream of the conveniences of American life, like 24-hour Walmarts, just as much as the other members of the community here and yet, I often feel like I don’t ever want to leave Hohenfels.

That’s because I CHOOSE to see the positives.  I CHOOSE to realize how fortunate I am to be living in Europe!  I love Hohenfels, for all its faults and flaws, but more importantly for the endless positives it provides and everything that it has given back to me during this very brief period in my life.

The Beauty of Hohenfels and Bavaria

Close your eyes and think of Germany.  What do you see?  

  • Men holding beer steins the size of your head while wearing Liederhosen?

Check

Living in Hohenfels, Germany

  • Pretzels so big you can fit your arm through the loops?

Yup

  • So many Scnitzel varieties that you could eat a new one every day and still try a new one tomorrow?

Uum, do you need to even ask that!?

  • Cobblestoned streets lining the alleys of pastel painted houses so quaint and unique?

Photoshop and Filters not needed here!

Living in Hohenfels, Germany

No, these are not stereotypes of Germany…this is real life in beautiful Bavaria, where beer truly does run freely and fest season provides endless hours of polka music.

And not to mention the actual, physical beauty of Bavaria.  Spring time is like an artists’ dream come true when the canola fields bloom against the patchwork greens of the farm fields as the hills roll in the distance.  

Living in Hohenfels, Germany

Winter is like a picture out of a fairytale book as the soft, white snow drifts down on the castles and Christmas markets.

Living in Hohenfels, Germany

Summer hikes in the Alps or up a castle can leave you breathless, not because of the altitude or physical exertion but because you’ve rarely seen something so beautiful.

Living in Hohenfels, Germany

Sure, I never leave the apartment without an umbrella, but when you look past the clouds and when the sun does pop its head out, there is often nothing more stunningly beautiful than Bavaria.

The Community

The USAG Hohenfels Community:

What small town doesn’t have its nosy neighbors?  If you’ve ever lived in a location where stop lights aren’t needed, you know that you can’t often can’t even change your shirt without the whole world knowing about it.

But honestly, it has been the small community at the Hohenfels Army Garrison that I actually really do love.  For every person that complains about the Busy-Bodies, there are just as many, if not more, that say that they have made some of the best friends of their lives at this duty station.  And it’s clear to see how and why. 

Living in Hohenfels, Germany

Because there aren’t a ton of us here, that means we need to band together.  On winter evenings when black ice is making it dangerous on those steep hills, countless strangers get in their American trucks and SUVs and help out anyone stranded on a snowy incline.  If you are walking out of the mailroom with a box too large to handle, it’s only a matter of seconds before someone steps in to lend you a helping hand.  On the all too common rainy days, it’s not uncommon to see someone stop for a random soldier or spouse walking on Post to see if they need a lift.  It’s this small town feel that makes us feel like we have a tight knit community that sticks together in rain or shine (literally!)

The German and Off- Post Community:

No, not all foreigners love Americans (I know, shocker, right!?) but the German community, for the most part, is amazingly welcoming despite our loud, obnoxious talking in public, our giant SUVs and, what seems to be our inability to learn THEIR language. 

The German/American Kontact Club welcomes locals, ex-pats and military alike.  The schools and sports clubs on the economy almost always accepts any American child looking to learn more German and integrate more into the local culture.  The local farmers market Egg Man loves teaching me a new Bayerisch word every week as I purchase his farm-fresh eggs.

Living in these small Bavarian towns sprinkled around Post is like stepping back 50 years in the US.  You can leave your doors unlocked without fear of intruders.  You can send your small children down to the Backerei on their own for pastries without fear of abductors.  A fellow spouse put living in this idyllic setting so eloquently that I couldn’t have said it more beautifully, “I feel so safe in this little Bavarian Bubble and yet the world has never been more accessible.”  Which brings me to…

Travel

I don’t think it’s a hard concept to consider that the travel opportunities living in Europe are something most people only get to dream of.  Yet, many people choose to stay near the comforts of Post instead of taking advantage of all the amazing things this foreign world has to offer.

I get it, we have horribly bad work schedules here.  Kids’ school breaks don’t always align with the rotation exercises.  Rain forecasts dampen the mood to get out and explore.  The fear of what the world is becoming keeps many people from packing their bags.

But you know what all of these are? EXCUSES! Yes, valid excuses, but excuses none the less.

This is exactly the reason why I teach people in my book, “So You Got Stationed Overseas”  how to overcome those problems, take a positive outlook instead of a “woah is me” attitude, gain the confidence needed to explore a new location and learn to make every minute count of their short PCS abroad!

In the first four years of living in Germany, we were able to visit over 40 new countries, learn about cultures first hand I’d only heard or read about previously and made memories that I will cherish for the rest of my life!!!

Living in Hohenfels, Germany

Not getting out, not traveling while stationed abroad, as scary as it might seem at first, would be doing yourself, your family (and your photo book) a HUGE disservice! 

Living in Hohenfels, Germany

So, is it really a “Hohen-Hell?” here? Maybe.  I suppose it could be pretty miserable here if you choose to dwell on the negatives.   But what city, town or military installation doesn’t have areas to improve on?

Instead, I want to see at as a “Hohen-FULLS”.  Because USAG Hohenfels is actually so FULL of amazing people, full of beauty, full of adventure and travel and full of opportunities that can only come with living abroad and a unique community such as ours.

In fact, forget all the nicknames.  I’ll just simply call it “Home.”

About the Author

LeAnna Brown currently doesn’t know what she wants to be when she grows up, so to delay major life decisions, her and her husband, Andy, have decided to move to Europe and travel the world via Travel Hacking.  After almost 40 countries down in four years and only a few thousand dollars spent a year on travel, they have learned to penny pinch their way to a bare minimalist lifestyle to help them see and appreciate the world.  You can learn how to travel for next to nothing as well at EconomicalExcursionists.com or get your daily dose of travel tips, advice and motivation by “Liking” them on Facebook or following the EconomicalExcursionists on twitter @EconExcursion.

 

When Moving Back To The United States From Overseas Is Hard

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We have been back from Germany a little over six years now. It was quite the change to go from a small village in Germany to Clarksville, Tennessee and the USA. I was so ready to be back in the states after four years. I think I kissed the ground when I got off the plane. I was home.

When moving back to the US from overseas is hard

Being stationed overseas is a dream for a lot of people. A chance to see another part of the world, to explore and to open up to other ways of living. The military can send a family that has never been out of the midwest and allow them the chance of a lifetime. But hardly anyone can stay overseas forever. I have some friends that have been able to stay for five-ten years but most people do come back to the states and have to figure out American life again.

That first week back was like living in a dream. Nothing seemed real. Nothing was familiar. Everything was confusing and it took some time to get used to living back in the United States. I think it took about two years before I stopped asking if a certain place accepted a credit card. “Yes Julie, most places do.”

This can be a challenging time. Some people are able to bounce back rather quickly and others have difficulty doing so. If you are getting ready for a move back home from an overseas location, this is what you might experience:

The Culture

When you live overseas you learn to live in another culture. Even if you live on post and don’t explore as much as you should. It is still all around you. You get used to the slower pace, the way the people are, the things they value. You become a part of it as well. Then you move back and you realize how different it can really be. There is a thing called “reverse culture shock.” This is when you come back from another culture and have trouble getting used to the culture you were raised in. You can also struggle with missing certain things so much that you think they are better than they really are. Once you get home and have them again, there is a bit of a let down because you were expecting something a lot better.

pcs to germany

The Military Community

The military community overseas is very different from the military community stateside. Overseas is more tight-knit. It has to be. People are not going home on the weekends. It is hard to have a life outside of the military. You have to depend on the military for a lot of things like your mail, American food and even education for your children. If you live off-post in the states you don’t have to depend on the military for as much. If there is a deployment, the community really bands together to get through it. It is different in the states. When you move back you will feel that loss and it can be a hard one. You no longer have your community. The one that helped get you through your struggles, the one you had fun with and explored another country with, the one who understood what it was like to be so far from home. That is hard to get over and hard to get back into military life without as tight of a community.

Spending Money

In most places overseas you don’t have as many choices. When I visited California in 2009, I stopped at a grocery store on the way home from the airport. I needed to buy some diapers. I stood in that aisle for about 20 minutes because I had the hardest time with all the choices. Back in Germany, there were only a couple choices for diapers. In the grocery store I was in, there were, at least, ten, maybe more. I couldn’t even wrap my mind around what I was looking at. In the states, you have a lot more choices from where to shop to where to eat. It can feel so overwhelming and it is easy to overspend. You also lose your COLA which is your cost of living allowance that you get while stationed overseas. This can be hard for some families. They say not to depend on that money when you are getting it but most people do anyway.

Feeling too Busy

A lot of overseas living is much slower paced than in the states. Where we were in Bavaria most places were closed on Sundays and they had a lot of holidays. You were not even allowed to wash your car on Sundays. When we moved back to the states life felt so busy. There was always so much more going on. Some of that I think was because my son didn’t start Kindergarten until after we moved back but I think the other part was just how much more relaxed things can be in other places. This can take some time to get used to as well because it is just a different way to live your life. In Germany, if go out to eat you have to hunt down your server when you are ready to pay. In the states, most places want to rush you out as soon as they can. It is all very different.

stationed in germany

Coming back to the states from an overseas tour is going to be complicated. Give yourself some time to adjust. Try to remember that you will find your place even if it takes a while. We have been back for six years and although I miss parts of my time in Germany, I feel used to the US now. It took a while but we got to that point. I am used to living here again. And you will get there too.

Have you struggled coming back from an overseas tour? What was the hardest part for you?

On Living in Wiesbaden, Germany

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On Living in Wiesbaden, Germany

Happy to have this guest post by Rebecca on Wiesbaden, Germany. Please visit my Duty station guest post page for posts on other locations or more information about how you can write a guest post about where you have been stationed. 

I had the privilege of living in Wiesbaden, Germany from January 2008 through December 2010. This was my first experience living overseas and it was an adventure! Back in those days, military and their family flew on commercial flights, which landed us in Frankfurt. We were then bussed to an inprocessing center and then finally bussed to Wiesbaden Army Airfield. At that point we were escorted to a downtown hotel and I could, finally, sleep.

On Living in Wiesbaden, Germany

Now, families fly into Ramstein Air Force Base, about 90 minutes from Wiesbaden and they are housed in a nice, new hotel, conveniently located close to the commissary, PX, and housing. While it is nice that families with school-aged kids are close enough for their children to walk to school immediately upon arrival, we really enjoyed the hotel that was downtown. It gave us an opportunity to explore, walk around our new city, and, upon our departure, visit the Christmas Market each evening.

Housing in Wiesbaden was 90% stairwell apartments. We lived in a new two-bedroom, one bathroom third floor walk-up. Contrary to the stories my mother-in-law shared about her Berlin apartment building, we had government provided washers and dryers in each apartment, so I did not have to descend to the basement to do laundry.

On Living in Wiesbaden, Germany

I loved our apartment. I loved that we were on the 3rd floor and heard no one above us. I loved that there were only 3 families in the stairwell and no one ever walked past our door or came up to the 3rd floor unless they were coming to visit us. I loved our neighbors. This was the apartment where our house because a home. Where we bought our bedroom set, first couch, and more importantly, where we brought our children home for the first time.

I was pregnant when we arrived in Germany, and when we left, I had two kids. In Wiesbaden, all prenatal care is handled by off-post, civilian providers. I had excellent care and delivered both of my children at St. Joseph’s Hospital, just a mile or so from housing. For everything else we saw providers on post and had no problems with any of the medical care. My children used the CDCs on post, both for full time care and hourly care and we were always impressed with the quality of the providers there.

As seems to be our luck, there was a lot of construction going on during our time. Improvements were made to housing, the commissary, the PX and that resulted in some frustrating times. However, those improvements have been well received. Wiesbaden has grown tremendously in the past few years, and with all those people, these changes were necessary. I just wish we’d been able to enjoy them.

On Living in Wiesbaden, Germany

We were, incorrectly, told we would not need a car in Germany. Wrong! We ended up purchasing one there, that we shipped back with us. And we bought a second car, for my husband to use to get back and forth to work. Most people buy and sell the second car around PCS season, so it is easy to find something affordable and quick. You absolutely need at least one car, as most housing is not on the airfield.

We travelled as much as we could. With four deployments, one long TDY, and a high op-tempo, my husband didn’t have the time to travel. With two pregnancies resulting in two kids under 2, I didn’t have the energy. And with the exchange rate not in our favor, we had to budget accordingly. I was strongly encouraged by friends to save the COLA for travels and to not get used to living off of it. This was, and continues to be, good advice.

I did a lot of day trips with the Spouses’ Club, and we became very familiar with both Wiesbaden and Mainz, the university town across the river. We weren’t afraid to get out and explore. I got my license quickly after arriving and drove around a lot. It’s not as intimidating as some think. We really enjoyed the local scene and felt at home in the town.

We took a few bigger trips; Koln, Berlin, Portugal, Italy, and Munich. Berlin we did by train, which was so much fun. That trip was arranged for us by the travel agency on post. We drove to Koln for an overnight. We flew to Portugal for a four-day weekend and explored as much as possible. We took a longer trip to Nuremburg and Munich when family came to town. There were tons of USO trips, both day and weekend available, but with two little ones, we just couldn’t imagine those long days being fun. We did venture to Garmisch for a marriage retreat and I was so grateful to see Bavaria that summer.

Europe, like any duty station, is what you make of it. We did the most we could with the time and finances and kids. We made some of the best friends we could ever have. We grew into a fantastic family there. And we’d love to go back. We know it would be different, but we also know what fun we will have. I hope, that if Europe is ever an option for you, you embrace it head on.

 

mountainsRebecca Alwine has been a military spouse for over 8 years, traveling the world and learning about herself. She’s discovered she enjoys running, loves lifting weights, is a voracious reader, and actually enjoys most of the menial tasks of motherhood. She is an avid volunteer, most recently as President of the Fort Huachuca Community Spouses’ Club and has worked as a career counselor for transitioning service members. She has a Masters in Emergency Management from American Military University and a Bachelor of Arts in Geography from the University of Mary Washington. Her writing has been published both in AUSA’s ARMY Magazine, Military Spouse Magazine, on Many Kind Regards, and multiple digital magazines and blogs. You can follow her on Twitter and on Facebook.

Why You Have To Say Yes To A PCS To Germany

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Why You Have To Say Yes To A PCS To Germany

Even though the Military is shutting down some Military installations in Germany, people are still PCSing to Germany. Sometimes they have a choice, sometimes they don’t. Sometimes the spouse thinks about staying in the US.

Why You Have To Say Yes To A PCS To Germany

As someone who spent four years in Germany, I have to recommend that if you have the opportunity to go overseas, do it. I say this as someone who didn’t always enjoy being there, that missed the US a lot more than I should have, and who hated being so far away from everything.

It’s been years since we moved back to the states and because of that I can look back and see Germany for what it was. An experience. A sometimes really amazing one. A sometimes really frustrating one.

Being stationed in Germany was an experience I will always be thankful for.

So if I hear someone is trying to decide to go, I urge them to do so. Even though being there might get hard or be really frustrating at times. The experience is worth it, and living overseas will change your life forever.

Why You Have To Say Yes To A PCS To Germany

You simply can’t find that type of Military community in the states. Well, maybe you can but the community when you are stationed overseas is unique. For one thing, very few of the people stationed where you are can go home for the weekend. Why? Because home is 2,000+ miles away. Because of this, you spend a lot of time there and not as much time away.

You have to stick together because you only have each other. If you can speak the language, that will make things easier but at the end of the day, your Military friends will be your main link to America and you will feel the need to bond a little more than you do in the US.

The travel opportunities are simply amazing.

From taking a day trip to a castle to planning a post-deployment vacation to some amazing city you never thought you would ever travel to in your lifetime. I had little babies and toddlers when I was there. My kids were only 3 and 5 when we moved back.

Why You Have To Say Yes To A PCS To Germany

Traveling wasn’t easy but we did what we could. I took my two boys on a train to visit my friend in Austria, we went on a cruise to the Mediterranean, and I went on a few USO trips during my time there. And of course, there was Garmisch, one of my favorite places.

Another great thing about living in Germany is being around another culture. In some ways, Germans are a lot like us, in other ways they are completely different. Although this part of living there was frustrating at times, it really opened my mind to a different way of life and seeing the world.

For example, in the US, when you go out to eat, you are pretty much rushed out of the restaurant as soon as you eat your food. In Germany, you practically have to hunt your waitress down for your check when you need to go. Sitting, talking, and having a long time at a restaurant is expected. You are not rushed out in the same way.

With deployments, the time difference is only about 2-3 hours. That was hard for me when we had our first deployment in the US. Having just a few hours difference made life a lot easier.

Why You Have To Say Yes To A PCS To Germany

You can also ship things to your deployed spouse for free. That was another thing that kinda stopped me in my tracks. “You mean I have to pay for that?” Being a little closer to the war zone has its benefits. If something were to happen and they had to go to Germany, you are already in the country.

There is also the whole beer and flowers thing. Beer everywhere. We even had a beer delivery truck.

The festivals are so much fun and are a great way to spend an afternoon or evening. They seem to be happening all the time too. And the flowers. I used to buy flowers all the time. They were so cheap. I miss that.

As you can see there are a lot of great things about being stationed in Germany. So if you have the chance, do it. You will be glad you did.

Have you ever been stationed in Germany? Have you ever been stationed overseas?