Oh The Places We Will Go ...

With our PCS coming up in less than 2 months, I've been thinking about all the things we didn't get to see and do and all the things about Germany I am going to greatly miss. I've loved having the opportunity live in a place as amazing as this and, while others have taken their time here as a prison sentence, I have most defiantly enjoyed it (rough patches and all). Of course there were times when I wanted to be home due to things having nothing to do with the country and everything to do with the military ... that's just the way it is. I don't remember having culture shock after coming over here (we are probably going to be in some major culture shock going back). It just felt so easy to slide into the pace of German life. They only thing with culture shock was probably our bank account ... poor thing still hasn't recovered from it. There are very VERY few things I dislike about it here (crappy exchange rate aside) and the majority of them have been American/military related (housing neighbors, lack of ANYTHING at the BX, gaint, pointless trucks, people who can't park to save their lives, ect ...).

I always thought that, when it was finally time to PCS, I would be excited to leave here. While I am excited about being close to family again, I find that I'm almost equally saddened by the fact that I won't be coming back soon. Germany won't be the place that we come home to after a "vacation in the states". Home in Germany feels the way I always imagined your home should feel. I'm going to miss getting lost on endless country roads and driving through 4 different villages to get to some fantastic little spot. I'm going to miss being able to drive 5 minutes down the road to hike up to a castle for a picnic. I'm going to miss festivals that are held for every season in each town. I'm going to miss watching a little piece of junk car pass a flashy audi or bmw on the autobahn at 200 k. I'm going to miss the autobahn :) 220v plugs, push-button toilets, schnitzel, a sign for doner every 5 ft, gluhwein, Christmas markets, friendly smiles, Alpine hats, the fact that I cannot recall having my car pooped on by an sort of animal in the almost 3 yrs we've been here, the excitement I feel when I'm able to touch a bullet hole from WWII or walk through a castle that's somehow survive the test of time.

I'm going to miss Germany in more ways than I can count ... but with any luck we'll be back again someday.