The Latest Lowdown on Life Overseas

Hey everyone. Things are starting to pick up here in Germany. A few things have happened that I thought I would update you all on.

• I signed up for German classes! It's an 8 week course on base that teaches you the basics of German. I've learned a little German through some mobile apps I have but I want to communicate better with the locals so I figured it would be a good idea to take some classes. I start the first week of September!
• I also signed up for a "Welcome to Bavaria" class next week on base. The class is designed to teach newcomers about Bavarian traditions and culture. And on Friday, I'll be taking a day tour with ACS (Army Community Service) of a town nearby called Weiden. 
• I'm applying for jobs. So far I've applied for three jobs and I'll probably end up applying for some more. As an Army spouse living abroad, jobs are few and far between. Honestly, our best option is to work on base. Most places off base in the economy require a work visa, which I don't have. I used to work at the Child Development Center on post back at Joint Base Lewis McChord but I'm trying to get a job where I won't have to lift children as often since I hurt my lower back and recently finished physical therapy. 
• My best friend from San Francisco, Stephanie, just arrived in Florence, Italy yesterday. She's spending four months studying abroad and has even started her own blog as well! Check it out here: Tanti Baci from Firenze . I'm so excited to meet up with her and hopefully go on some adventures together.
• I started a Facebook page for my blog so people can be updated through that page instead of me taking over their news feeds with my "NEW BLOG POST!" statuses on my personal page. The link will be added to the sidebar under CONNECT soon. 
• I went to an FRG meet up the other night. I wasn't really active in the the FRG back at JBLM (mostly because I was so busy with work) so I thought I'd put myself out there and attend some gatherings and make some friends. FRG's usually have a reputation for being filled with drama but I'm hoping that won't be the case with my FRG. So far, so good. 
• Did I mention that our Honda CR-V finally arrived? About two weeks ago we were able to finally pick it up. I feel so "free" having my car again. And it's automatic so that is definitely a plus! 
• Our household goods shipment arrived last Friday. It's so nice to have our stuff again, especially our king size bed. Nick is really enjoying having that back. The only downfall about the move was that the movers in Washington took apart some of our furniture to make more room in the shipping crate, and now some of the furniture we can't put back together because it's missing screws and also we don't have the instruction manuals. Some of the pieces are two or three years old. Who saves instruction manuals from that long ago? Not me. We're still unpacking though. Our little kitchen is so crowded with appliances and other essential items. I'm definitely going to donate some of our non essential items and put the least used items in storage.

Day 1: Unpacking the kitchen

Remember when I mentioned in a previous post how pretty the scenery was on the trails near our house? Well, today I went out and took some photos so I could show all of you how pretty it is. I'm still learning to use my DSLR camera so forgive me if some of the photos are slightly out of focus or blurry. I'm working on learning more about aperture, shutter speed and ISO. I'll end this post with a couple of pictures from my walk today. Enjoy!