Hyatt's Heart: March 2013

Oh What a year

One year ago on March 26th, Ryan and I embarked on quite the Journey.

BWI airport

talk about baggage

We packed up our lives in Tampa, said goodbye for now to our friends and family and flew across the pond to Germany. I remember being a wreck the weekend we flew out. We were staying with Ryan’s parents and visiting family for a fast and furious sendoff. Trying to enjoy everything “American” before we left…Starbucks, Mexican, Nordstrom’s and professional sports. Little did we know what a tricky transition it would be: more so for me then Ryan.

My experience in being a military spouse was minimal at this point. So the cattle call at the AMC terminal at Baltimore was slightly traumatic. My identity no longer mattered, I was still trying to memorize Ryan’s social security number as my own, while showing four different types of identification along with our PCS (Permanent Change of Station) orders and marriage certificate. I am surprised they didn’t draw blood and finger print me. Needless to say, the military rotator plane that flew us to Germany was very nice. I am flying Lufthansa in a week so I will do a full, unfair comparison at a later time.

Oh hi, will you date me? Oh hey, will you marry me? Oh and by the way...let's move to Germany.

I was trying to get inspired to write this blog to think back and reflect as to what I have learned, what I would have done different and what I would/wouldn’t have stressed about so much. I have summed up a few thoughts.

One…TARGET!!!! If I knew my selections would be limited to Globus/Cora (not that they are awful…I will get to that), but I fully miss the opportunity to just browse and walk down aisles at Target. The options of OPI nailpolish colors, the inexpensive yet trendy shoes for great prices, the house ware department and the holiday décor section on permanent display…how can you beat that? Not to mention the dollar bins up at the front of the store. Total Awesomeness.

Two…STARBUCKS!!!! To all you jerks who drank your pumpkin spiced lattes this fall while I was left to the fake stuff over here, when it wasn’t sold out on base…I am still healing and licking my wounds. Yes, Starbucks is overpriced yuppy coffee, but the point is…it is easily accessible and coffee shops here in our region are NOT! Coffee is considered as important as dessert, it is a late course in a meal that you have to wrap up the dining experience. Often served with a cookie packet, creamer (the good stuff), sugar (even better) and a fancy whipped frothy design. There is no such thing as straight black coffee. They pride themselves on Mochacinos, Macchiatos, and Milche Café. Fancy smancy. My mom and mother-in-law would be in heaven with this experience. I am more of a get it now and go. I have a remedy, which I will also share later.

Three…Ease of Communication. The one thing I was worried about right away was how to “phone home”. Communication is something I would like to think that I no longer take for granted. My lapses in it have caused loss of wonderful friendships and I refuse to go down that road again. However, with the ease of buying cell phones, wifi and such…I have still felt the tension of not communicating as much with the people I love back home. I hope that I make a good enough effort with phone-calls, postcards, gifts, blogs, emails and streaming. I know it is hard with the time difference. With people having busy lives, but I can’t help but think that some people just don’t make the time either. Kind of annoying to always be the one to do the initiating. No one is perfect and it requires effort on everyone’s part.

Yes, I am a total brat for complaining about not having Target, Starbucks and my nearest and dearest friends/family, but I assure you…living here has not been all that bad in the last year. There have been many journeys, laughs, cries and additions to our life. I will parallel my top three to the above now so you can see my balance.

One…CORA!!!! Cora is a French version of a super Target. It is AWESOME in every way. Just a short drive over the border…yes, I can drive to a different Country to get groceries…jealous? You should be. Cora is a trip in itself. You walk in and the smell of freshly caught seafood smacks you in the face. Do not be afraid, it is worth every whiff. The tea/coffee aisle, the biscuit/cookie aisle, HECK…the butters oh the butters…amazing!!!!!!! But that is just the tip of the iceberg. Head back to the bakery, deli and seafood section and you will never look at Meijer (Michigan Grocery Store) the same. EVER. Ryan and I bought a lobster (just caught in the Atlantic the day before) and also bought 2lbs of fresh mussels from Holland that were also caught the day before. FRESH FRESH FRESH. Fresh salmon, cod, seabass, you name it, they have it. You can even sample oysters from different regions and countries to see what you prefer. It makes a Saturday at Costco look like child’s play.

Thank You Cora!!! 2lbs of fresh mussels from Holland.

Two…WASGAU. So, Starbucks is out. The closest legit one is in Heidelberg or Frankfurt Int’l airport. I am not that obsessed. Wasgau is a wonderful void filler. They are a small (on base that is) little coffee and pastry shop. They have full markets in many villages around us, but I often go to the one in our “mall” since I tutor my students there. Wasgau makes a mean hot chocolate or caramel macchiato. They sprinkle real chocolate powder on top and freshly steam milk to a frothy deliciousness. You can tell it is true chocolate, not oiled down substitute. I love going there. I am happy there and relaxed. There is often a line out the door all day long for their schnitzel sandwiches, their cheese pretzels, donuts and black forest cake slices. My favorite is a flaky pastry twist stuffed with speck (ham) and cheese and then baked. melt in your mouth goodness. They also have donuts with marshmallow frosting and smarty (same is m&m’s) sprinkles on the top. Starbucks has competition here folks.

Three…HOTEL HYATT. Ryan knew that when we were taking this assignment that we would very likely be a stopping point for friends and family on their European adventures. Not as many people have jumped at the opportunity as we thought they might…but while we are still here, the door is open. We have had friends coming through on deployments who have been able to bypass the base accommodations and been able to sit around the fire pit and relax with us. Family has come to give European stick-driving lessons, golf-lessons,

take local volksmarches with us and enjoy the local cuisine. We hope to have more family come, especially with the delivery and arrival of baby Hyatt in late summer. Besides being easy to get to for people traveling in Europe, we have also found it very convenient for us to travel from where we live. People say that the train is the way to go, but we have found many of our trips have been automobile friendly. We have driven to Luxembourg, Austria, Belgium, Switzerland (twice in a car and once in a bus), Italy by plane, Paris by train and Lichtenstein by fluke. We hope to drive and take the Chunnel to the UK this spring, which will be quite the adventure. I also hope to show my parents our Bavarian roots down in Southern Germany when they come over…if I can even move by then. They may not stamp passports as you travel through European Union Countries, but we have certainly collected enough pictures and memories to make up for that.

We used to have local wildlife...but they seem to have gone "missing."

Ryan and I have always had a crazy unpredictable path in which we travel. We have been able to balance and ground each other every step of the way. Giving up control on many things and just accepting our fate toward our future. We are thankful we have family and friends who support us and our wild endeavors. We are blessed to learn from each other every day so we can be the best we can be for each other and for our future child.

Future child is going to be a handful

Ryan's first time driving on autobahn

honeymoon in Lucerne, CH

I am not sure I would go back and change much at this point. I might lower expectations, be more reasonable on my hopes for a teaching job and stop beating myself up with such a big time of change in my life…New marriage, foreign country, BIG first military move and no job…and let’s throw in a first time baby to raise the bar. It has been a eye-opening experience that I will never forget.

Case in point:

I saw the Mona Lisa and about cried.