Miesenbach and countryside

This weekend, I decided to explore the area around my house. I discovered that it's beautiful! Below is a picture of the lake about 1/4 mile away from my house.




Sorry, Carl, no fishing or swimming. Apparently shooting is allowed (at least at signs!).




I was trying to get a picture of the windmills in this next picture. You see them almost everywhere!




Anyone have any idea what this creature is? It was running away when I was attempting to get a picture of it. It looked like a cross between a cat and rat (and one of those little dogs that can fit in purses). A possum maybe?




I'll leave you with a more attractive picture than that thing above. Here's the view just behind my house.




More to come later!

Tschuss! (pronounced "chews"; meaning "so long" or "bye")

Deep Thoughts

A 220-volt lamp will not work in a 220-volt outlet if a 120-volt light bulb is used.

Before you start laughing, this was not entirely my fault. I bought this nice lamp in Korea just before I moved. The nice Korean woman packaged it for me so I had never used it. When it arrived here with my things from Korea last week, I looked at the plug and it said 220-volts. Imagine my delight! Finally I could plug in a light and wouldn't be stumbling from my bed to the door at 5:30 in the morning! However, as the bulbs quickly smelled of smoke and then died, I discovered that the bulbs were 120-volts (there aren't any 220-volt bulbs that fit in the light; believe me, I tried). Somehow this seems fitting with the "not quite right" theme of Korea!

French German border hike

Okay, I promised more pictures and info, so here we go. This Sunday, I went on a hike of the German-French border (no, not the entire border; that would be crazy!) . Along the border there are about 500 ruins of castles/houses. Some were carved right into rock faces. The hike was somewhat more strenous with more ascents and descents than other hikes, but the total distance was shorter.

Here is the first castle from a distance.

The castle in just over the border in France and is called Fleckenstein Castle. It hasn't not been used since the 17th century. You can get a sense of how large it is; that's me in the bottom of this picture standing next to it.

Okay, these figures are kind of cheesy, but they're used to demonstrate what the different rooms were used for.

This is the amazing view from the top of the castle!

This is a view of the castle from the distance as we traveled to our next destination. If you can't make it out, the castle we were at is in the center of the picture. (See, we really did climb a fair bit!)

And this is one of my favorite pictures because the architecture makes me think that I've been transported back to the 1700's!

We did make it to the top of the next castle and had this beautiful view! Behind us is Germany, to the far right of the picture is the beginning of Switzerland and behind the person taking the picture is France.

At the end of the hike, we all got to be kids again. We ended in this park; here is the entrance.

It was complete with a zip line (okay, not the most flattering picture of me),

swings (note one of our Captains and Lt Colonels swinging here!),

a scary entrance to the slide,

a hamster wheel (I don't think this is what you're supposed to do here!),

interesting carvings,

and little horses (or is this a deer?) to ride on.

All in all it was a great trip!

Volksmarching

Yes, I know I've been here 4 weeks now and haven't been posting much. Don't worry, I'll post more about the inside of my house soon. I get my shipment from Korea tomorrow, so you'll have to wait until I unpack and can get some good (and clean) pictures. For now, you'll have to settle for some pictures of my new Sunday activity, Volksmarching.

Roughly translated, volksmarch means "the people's march" (volk=people, march (sometimes spelled marsch)=march). These are typically 5km-20km walks through towns and the countryside. It's something relaxing (mentally at least!) to do on the weekends. Each Sunday there are volksmarches in several different towns across Germany. You usually go to the start hall (usually a school gym or similar venue), pay about 3 Euro (~$4.50) and get a start card. Every few kilometers along the walk there are "control points" where you get your card stamped and can get some water, tea, beer (yes, I am in Germany!), broechen (small very tasty rolls), etc. You end back at the start hall and typically can get food and drinks (alcoholic and non-alcoholic) as well as desserts (my favorite part!) You also typically get a medallion (medal) or some sort.

I got this bierstein from the volksmarch in Heidelburg.

And I got this thing (not really sure what it's supposed to be, but you can put a candle in it!) from the volksmarch in Miesau.

Volksmarches are a great way to get some exercise, see the countryside and socialize. They're also a way to see people in a new light. Here are two of our fellow volksmarchers from Ramstein standing next to the sign that says 'please don't pick the grapes'. It was a little bit late to save the grapes as one of these two (I won't tell you which one) had just picked some.

Here are some more scenic views from the walks.

I'll write later about the German-French border hike I took this weekend! Hope everyone is doing well!

Better Views as Promised

Okay, just a short post. Here are the improved views of my house!

My House!

Okay, so I know I STILL haven't posted much of anything about Germany. So I thought I'd give you this little taste of it. At Ramstein, all officers live off base. You get a housing allowance, get lists of places available (with some sketchy details) from the housing office, and then you're off. Needless to say, this is not a very pleasant ordeal for somewho who is introverted. So after procrastinating for a day or two, I did start to call places about seeing houses. Unfortunately, within 24-48 hours of being listed by the housing office, most places are already rented. Last Friday, I looked at three places. The last place I really liked and was all set to rent. I was going to go back on Monday to sign the contract.

However, on Sunday, I was hiking w/ a group of people and one of them mentioned that he had a very nice townhouse next to him opening up that was close to base and very new. However, I couldn't look at it that night and was unable to get a hold of him the next day to look at it. I drove by it and looked in the windows and it seemed nice. I even drove around the neighborhood and found an Eis Cafe (ice cream cafe) and Catholic Church close by.

Then, the indecisiveness reared its ugly head. Should I go ahead w/ renting the other place or wait and look at this new place? I ended up asking the landlords of the old place if I could wait one more day before telling them if I wanted their place, but they said I needed to make a decision then (they had another person who was also interested if I wasn't). So I told them I didn't want their place. Then saw the other place the next day and discovered I didn't want that one either. I saw three other places that day (yesterday). One was very large, but very 70s (think yellow and green cabinets), bright yellow outside and very apartmenty. The next was nice but in a somewhat unsafe appearing area (I don't know if these really exist in Germany, but it made me feel unsafe).

I was sold on the final place I saw (and had to fight two other people for it; don't worry, not physically fight!) It's in a very nice area: close to a bakery (yum!), walking path to a lake, short distance to the non-crowded entrance to the base. The picture's below (sorry, I'll post a better picture later but it was raining and I was too lazy to get out of the car!) It's technically an apartment b/c there are three floors and each people has a floor. I have the ground floor. It's very modern and comes w/ a dishwasher, fridge/freezer (smaller than American fridges but larger than the normal college dorm sizes fridges that most places have), stove/oven, microwave, washer/dryer. It has a nice little foyer area, 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms (one very large bathroom w/ shower and separate bathtube), kitchen, fireplace, living/dining room, patio and yard (these last two are shared). I don't have a garage space but do have a carport that's adjacent to the house.

As always, I'm still regreting not getting the other place and wondering if I should have looked for a place a little longer, but I think I'm really going to enjoy this place. I move in on 15September and will send you more pictures later.

Now it's time to start a furniture hunt for a new bedroom set for the guest bedroom (or my bedroom!) All are welcome!