I can't remember if I mentioned it before, but in an attempt to throw myself into the community and meet people I started volunteering with the US swim team here in Wiesbaden.  

The experience has been a good one so far and keeps me busy for a couple hours a couple times a week.  I coach the newest swimmers on the team, so my lane ranges from 6-10 year olds.  Today, however, I filled in for another coach with the most advanced group of high school students.  

It was such a change from the hands on experience of teaching little ones and gave me a flashback to my high school swimming days of endless drills (only I was on the side this time, and surprisingly a bit bored because they don't really need my help!).  High school students are so funny.  I think we all like to think we weren't as silly as them, but I know we all were :)

Our team has a meet against the NATO team next month in Brussels, which I think sounds kind of cool.  

I'm glad I volunteered, but I have to say it hasn't helped my goal of meeting people my age - in fact its done the exact opposite.  I know a lot of kids and parents, but no one really my age.  I'll have to be a little more selective with my next pursuit :)

As mentioned, we had a wonderful trip to England.  I can't wait to go back!

We spent our first day in London, and then spent the rest of the trip in and around Oxford.

Get ready to scroll because there were so many beautiful things to photograph, I found it hard to narrow down what photos to share :)

Prior to our trip to Oxford, I had a friend we met while living in Denver pass through Wiesbaden for the day.  Jason had to work, so I was entertaining on my own for the day, which can be a little nervewracking when you don't know the area yourself that well yet.  Besides some minor fumbles though, I think I pulled it off.  

I still can't figure out the Frankfurt airport, so I got a little lost picking them up.  Its such a cool, huge airport, but the signage could use some work.  I find it very confusing.  It wasn't a big deal though, and I picked them up fine.  

We then went back to our house to let them change, only to find upon arriving that they had completely torn up the entry to my parking lot so I was forced to parallel park on the street.  Already a little flustered, I accidentally parked in a no parking zone and a German man was banging on my front door within minutes to tell me exactly how ignorant I was.  He was awful and proceeded to yell at me in German while I tried to apologize and move my car.  I have a slight urge to egg his house now, but I'll refrain.  

Then we headed out to a town called Rudesheim that I had heard had a gondola that you could take to the top of a lookout that gave you a view over the local vineyards.  

On the way though, my GPS threw me for a loop when it told me to drive across the Rhine River as if there was a bridge - there was not.  I turned a corner and came to a harsh stop as a ferry came into view, not a bridge.  Luckily there was a man onboard waving me on, so I proceeded on faith that the GPS knew what it was doing and that this ferry was in fact going to my destination!  It all worked out, but I definitely had a minor panic at first.  

The view was every bit as awesome as people had told me and I'm so glad we did it.  

I've been in Germany for 2 months as of this week.  It has gone by fast, but honestly it seems like its been more than 2 months.  We're continuing to get settled into our house - something that I had hoped would be done by now, but now I'm just hoping it'll be done before winter - and get more comfortable in our surroundings.  

Jason has dove into work and is still figuring out his role and future, so we're "adjusting" all around :)

We spent the past 5 days in Oxford with our good friends that we met while stationed in Kuwait, and had such a great relaxing trip.  Oxford and the surrounding areas are as cute and quaint as you'd imagine and spending time in an English-speaking country was such a nice break.  More importantly, we haven't been able to spend that much time with our friends since we moved from Kuwait.  Hanging out with them helped give me a little taste of home and helped abate some of my homesickness.

I'll post more photos from our trip soon.  My laptop is still out of commission from the tea-spilling-incident.  We ordered a new keyboard, which we received today.  Hopefully I can convince Jason to install it tonight.  I'm anxious to get my computer back.  I feel a little lost without it!  

After living in Kuwait, I approached our move to Germany like it was going to be a piece of cake.  In almost all ways, its a thousand times better than Kuwait, don't get me wrong.  However, as we left Kuwait and the experience got further and further away the rough patches of time there faded in my memory and only the good memories stood out.  Rough experiences, including the roller coaster of adjustment that comes along with moving abroad - that I conveniently down played in my mind as I mentally prepared for this move.

While making the Kuwait adjustment, I remember being happy one day, completely occupied the next, depressed the next, and then excited the following.  It was a constant up and down and honestly I think it lasted almost the whole time we were there, but the roughest patch was obviously before we made friends.

I found an article yesterday talking about these ups and downs and describes them as the Four Stages of Culture Shock.  I thought it was interesting and sort of gives a glimpse into the experience.

I'll adjust and hopefully make friends soon, but the initial transition is hard - no matter what country you're in I think because its not home.  I'm over the honeymoon phase of just arriving and now feel a little lost.  I don't have a routine, a social group, we live far from town which feels a bit isolating, and our house is still a work in progress - so even that doesn't feel like "home" yet.

We have a trip to Oxford coming up in two weeks that I'm super excited for though.  Also, I hope to explore some the next couple of weekends and potentially make some more progress on the house.  Baby steps...

As I was looking for pictures to accompany this post, I went back to my old posts from when we had just arrived in Kuwait and thought I'd share:

I have wanted to compost for a long time, but doing it while living in an apartment has always seemed to difficult (and gross) for me to really pursue.  

I found the above compost bin and compostable liners on Vine.com recently, however, and so far its been great!  I've had the bin for a week now and have thrown everything from raw meat, vegetables, and coffee grounds into it and it doesn't smell.  When the bin starts to get full, you tie up the little liners just like you would a normal trash bag in a trash can and throw it away.  The liner will eventually compost and so will its contents - therefore not adding to a landfill.  

I just wanted to share in case anyone else was interested in composting.  Click the link above or the image to check it out.

Kurbis means pumpkin in German and with the Labor Day weekend over, I'm starting to see signs of Fall pop up around town.  We attended a Pumpkin Festival over the weekend.  It was in the middle of a plowed corn field with a beautiful view of the surrounding countryside.  The festival itself was just ok.  There were a lot more things to do for the kids than there were for the adults, which I expected, so we did a lap, got something to eat, and Jason humored me while I filled up a bag of gourds to put around the house :)

After the pumpkin festival, we drove to Darmstadt where a co-worker had told Jason about a giant beer & wine store that had a huge selection of beers from all over the world.  Most shops here in Germany only carry the major German brands.  Besides this shop, I have yet to see any beer sold that was not made in Germany.  

It was a hit, as you can tell & Jason stocked up for winter :)  Thank goodness for tax free forms!

On a final note, our transformers finally arrived and I was able to have coffee from our Keurig this morning.  It was glorious.  I'm convinced that my coffee is superior to all others.

I was so desperate for my coffee that I don't really even mind the huge transformer that now must sit our counter.

Its been an uneventful week and weekend.  After a busy day of movers, I've spent most of my time since just unpacking and getting things situated.  I'm in a little bit of a rut though, most things that can be unpacked/setup have been and the rest is waiting until we buy wardrobes, the movers come back to pick up the boxes, we figure out how to hang things in concrete, and our transformers get here.  

Its always a little unsettling to be in a new city without friends or an agenda.  There's a lull while you figure out what you're going to do with yourself and before (hopefully) you make friends.  

Sometimes too, when you're not sure where to go, exploring can be a bit challenging and walking around by yourself is only so much fun.

We ended up not going to Dusseldorf this weekend, but maybe next!