Wilkommen aus Deutchland! (Welcome to Germany)

That's right! You probably thought that we had disappeared from the Blogosphere forever, but now we are back and better than ever. Hope you are well, and that all your days and nights are rosy and smooth.

As you can deduce from the title, we've moved. To Germany. Yep, that Germany. Nope, the other one. The one in Germany. That's it! You got it.

A little bit of catch-up if you are just now tuning in. In October, Traci and I found out about an opportunity to apply for positions providing therapy services to US soldiers with traumatic brain injuries acquired in Iraq and Afghanistan. Uniquely, these jobs would allow us to work together at the same hospital in southern Germany. We jumped at the chance, applied, were accepted, and now that's what we do!


Some FAQ:

Where are you?

We are in Landstuhl, Germany. It is in the southwest corner of Germany, near the borders of France, Luxembourg, and Switzerland. The closest major cities are Mannheim, Saarbrucken, and Frankfurt. This area is often called the "Rhineland", because of the Rhine river and is famous for it's many castles. We arrived on January 22nd and will be staying for likely a few years or so.

We have just (as of this week) found a delightful apartment right in the heart of the oldest section of Landstuhl with a magnificent view of Burg Nanstein - the local castle. Here is a picture of our side of the castle at night, and it's pretty close to being our view, just from a bit farther away and down the hill:



Pretty friggin' sweet, eh?


What have you been up to?

Thanks for asking! Since arriving, we have been very busy with the tedium of wading through red tape. As our supervisor said - we are in a "flaming hoop-a-thon". We've been walking and walking all over the area to have forms stamped, checkboxes approved, shots verified, training completed, etc. Unfortunately, we can't get our car until we have completed the hoop-a-thon and everything required to complete it is scattered all over the region. Oh, and in other languages and only open 4 hours a day. Whee. The good news, everyone here has been really great and we've already made some good friends. The job looks to be challenging, but fantastic. We're truly going to get an opportunity to help our soldiers when they most need it - arriving from combat. The hospital here - Landstuhl Regional Medical Center - is a giant beehive of activity. The bus- and ambulance-loads of soldiers arrive frequently and are shipped out just as often.

We have been staying at a fantastic little hotel called the "Air Hotel Royal". The owners, Christina and her son Michel, are always friendly and helpful - suggesting restaurants, taking us around town if we need it, and most importantly providing a king's breakfast. Seriously, you should see this thing. There's fruits of all kinds, meats, cheeses, special hot entrees daily, breads, yogurts, cereals, tubed meat that I can't even pronounce, Nutella(Yay!), and little heated coffee cups brought right to your white-linened table. It would seriously be a $25 breakfast in a lot of hotels. We'll be staying here for 30 days until our apartment is ready.

Our first weekend here was free of work-related stuff so we decided to figure out just what and where everything was. We spent Saturday walking the town, taking a really nice (and brisk- brrrrr) hike up the hill to the castle. We came down a different way than we went up and found a toboggan run, which was very exciting for when it snows - which it hasn't yet. We tried to get a feel for the city so that we could make better decisions when looking at classified ads and rental lists while apartment-hunting. Sunday was spent looking at some apartments with Michel and another local man (who had rented to the other speech therapist that is here with us). Most of these evenings were spent in quaint little restaurants eating schnitzel and drinking beer. When in Rome...

We have also hosted our first guests, only a week into our stay! Tim's good friend Jim Ginn from Indianapolis was on a work-related trip to Strasbourg, France and was able to stop by the hotel along with his friend Dave for a great steak-and-beer dinner in downtown Landstuhl. Thanks, Jim - it was great!






What's Next?

We are really committing ourselves to updating this blog much more regularly (like we could be less regular...) and keeping the world in the loop. Also, we're going to be taking a good many weekend excursions and vacations to all the wonderful places closeby (Paris? 3 hours. Switzerland? 2-3 hours. Vienna? 5 hours. Prague? 4-5 hours. Copenhagen? 5 hours.). Not to mention all of the great Rhine-related tours and kickin' castles in the area.

Post at you soon!