Rebekah wrote: > Hello all, > > Just thought I'd let everyone know that I am moving to Germany - my > husband has been stationed there by the Army for the next three years. > We haven't been assigned to a specific base there yet - I'll find out > on the 4th next month, but supposedly all the bases there are nice. > Has anyone lived on or nearby an Army base in Germany?
My Dad was stationed in Heidelberg from '83 to '86. I remember most of those 3 years better than yesterday, and yes, it was quite nice. > Does anyone on > the list live in Germany? What's it like? I confess I know virtually > nothing about Germany. Does Pentax have a good number of customers > there, or is it unheard of? Anyone got any good suggestions for me to > go shooting? Go outside. Push button. :) Seriously, while you're there you really need to get to know the locals. Quite a fewFind a camera club, take the train, eat the food. (The food is awesome.) I'm excited by the idea of living in such a centralized > location in Europe. Holland is nice. From what I recall the folks there are super friendly, and they speak English (for that matter, most Germans do, too), which makes it a nice weekend destination for the Deutsch impaired. If you're into the bus tour thing (I hate that crap, personally), the rec center probably has them scheduled on a regular basis. They used to be cheap, made frequent stops, and hit all the tourist traps. I suppose they're nice for a family on a budget. (And what Army family isn't?) Anyway, my Mom loved doing the bus tours. If there was a line somewhere for a museum/castle/etc., we were standing in it. There's not a statue in western Europe that hasn't had to endure my family standing in front of it for 20 minutes while my Dad fat-fingered the Pentax. You're probably smart enough to have figured this out, but my parents weren't. Learn a bit of the local customs _before_ you get there. Making a 2 hour detour into northern Italy just to get the "Italian Experience", and then to find that the ovens aren't on at 2pm is frustrating for parental units and embarrassing for the 9 year old who told them so. All my Mom wanted was pizza or spaghetti and all she got was dirty looks. I still think she's pissed off that northern Italians look just like Germans. Hearing them speak German has rattled her for life. :) Anyway, I love my Mom and Dad dearly, but they were, unfortunately, the embodiment of the "ugly Americans" for the whole freaking 3 years we were there. So get friendly with Google and figure it out a little bit before you go. Learn some of the language, too. It's appreciated. My Dad used to make me ask directions because he never learned any of it. So I'd get out of the car and walk into a little shop, muster the best accent I could, try to ask how to get wherever, and then listen intently as the shop owner answered in perfect English. Dad thought I was fluent. > Also, my husband and I are expecting our third child, to be born mid-April :-D w00t! Congrats! > > rg2 > > P.S. I've just stupidly discovered that my last month's worth of > comments to the list have not been sent as they were not in plain text > formatting. But, I have been here and I have enjoyed the PESOs :) -- Scott Loveless New Cumberland, PA http://www.twosixteen.com/fivetoedsloth/ -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
