Random thoughts...

I’ve been totally slacking lately with keeping up with my blog, sorry. You know how it goes; you tend to get caught up in other things. Normally, I like to have a specific topic that I want to write about, but today I’ll just ramble.

First of all, I’ve thought about updating a few things in my user profile. Silly things like favorite movies or the type of music that I like. I seem to have a hard time identifying these things when I have to actually sit down and write them down. I thought of a few favorite movies that I forgot and a type of music that I didn’t add. My bad.

It snowed for three days last week and then the snow promptly disappeared and it’s now sixty degrees out. Crazy. It kind of cracks me up to see people driving around in their convertibles with the tops down during weather that isn’t exactly “top-down” weather. I think Germans will take what they can get. I would freeze, although I did try it one time here. You just roll up the windows to prevent the wind blowing as much and crank the heat. It was Ok, but not ideal. Not for me anyway.

Warm weather also brings out the scooters, although they’re ridden in all sorts of weather too. It’s an annoying occurrence here because there are zillions of them and they hold up traffic because they don’t go as fast as cars so you have to constantly pass them. The traffic is insane here as it is.

Everyone looks forward to springtime grilling as well. Germans love to grill whenever possible, but we Americans will always be king of that pastime. We grill all winter and have bigger and better grills and accessories. Good friends of ours live in a large apartment building and have a decent size balcony. They have a small electric grill that they use, like the size of a propane grill you’d bring camping. Hey, whatever works. We brought some big ‘ol t-bones over and blew their minds. My husband, like most, is a grill master. They like the spices we use. You’re hard pressed to find a good steak here in a restaurant.

We live on the third floor in an apartment building and do not have a balcony. This makes me crazy. I like nothing better than eating, drinking, reading, and just relaxing outside and I can’t stand the fact that I have to leave my home to do it. Another thing taken for granted.

Easter is coming up soon and I think Easter in Germany is as big as Christmas. There’s quite the assortment of decorations and candy available and they even have Easter markets, like the Christmas markets. I’m not sure what the traditions are, I don’t remember from last year, like if they have a special meal or not. I think we always had ham and the Easter bunny. The “Osternhase” comes here in Germany, but I don’t know if it’s the same deal as in the USA with Easter egg hunts and Easter baskets. I have seen a few filled baskets in the stores, but not like ours. I particularly enjoy getting the Easter basket every year and a stuffed bunny or two, still do. Hint, hint. I left the majority of my bunny collection at my mother’s house for her to watch over. I hope they’re safe Mom. I wasn’t sure if I’d have the room here or if my husband would enjoy having stuffed rabbits all over the house, although he does tolerate the several stuffed animals that have replaced them. I just can’t help it. Hey, he even bought a few of them.

Quick story: I was moving into a new house with a former significant other and he had the garbage bag of bunnies and other miscellaneous stuffed critters in the back of his truck. The bag flew out all over the Gold Star bridge in Groton, unbeknownst to me. It occurred to me about six or so months later, just before Easter, that I hadn’t seen them anywhere. When I asked him if he had seen them, he confessed and apologized profusely. I cried. Is that pathetic or what?

The Weather (yawn!)

I’m going to write about something mundane and common today, the weather. Why? Because today the weather has been “normal” by German standards.

Normally, winters here in Germany are cold, not as cold as CT, but cold enough and dark and miserable. Not this year. This year has been strangely mild and seemed to just easily transition to spring. It’s been in the 50’s and 60’s for the most part for months. It snowed only a few times with notable accumulation only once. The ski resorts here in Europe were seriously hurting. There wasn’t even snow in parts of the Alps.

This is the first time that my husband has spent an entire winter here in Germany. He has been deployed for the past couple of winters and probably now thinks that all the complaining that I did about how awful the winter weather is here was exaggerated because this winter was so mild. I will admit, I cursed him on more than one occasion last year and the year before while cleaning off several inches of snow off my car, or his truck because the car wouldn’t start. I had to stand on the tires to clean the foot or so of snow off the truck. His truck had so much snow on it because he wasn’t here to use it or clean it off and I drove the car that we had for the most part, with the exception of that one horrible occasion. His ears must have been ringing. It was awful weather then, I swear. The locals said that they couldn’t remember when we’ve had that much snow.

This week, however, the cold and dreariness has returned and today was more like a typical winter day. I woke up to find ice on the roofs of houses and cars. Not a coating of ice, but more like a layer of hail. At lunchtime, the dark clouds rolled in and all of a sudden it started hailing. It looked like snow, but was pea-sized and hard like ice. This happened yesterday too although yesterday they temperature wasn’t cold enough for the snow to stick to anything, it sort of bounced off of everything. Today it stuck to your hair, your coat, car, the streets; everything. It lasted about twenty minutes and then stopped as abruptly as it started. About a half hour later, it started snowing; heavy snow, like a snow squall. You could barely see through it. It lasted for much of the late afternoon, but didn’t stick to the roads thank God, but did collect on the land. Crazy.

This weather prompted weather advisories because it has been predicted that we’re supposed to get at least nine inches. My employer and others on the base decided to let people leave early, just in case. When I left the building, the sun was shining. This is what normal weather is like here, fickle. It hasn’t started snowing again yet. According to a few weather websites, there’s a chance of snow tonight and tomorrow. I guess I’ll see what tomorrow brings.

As a native New Englander, you would think I wouldn’t have a problem with this, but I do. I hate driving in the snow. Yes, I am used to it, but it doesn’t mean I like it. I drive like an old person and I can just hear the expletives of the people stuck driving behind me, but I just can’t help it. I’ve never been in an accident while driving in the snow so that is not a factor of my fear. I’m not sure what it is. The last vehicle that I drove in the snow and ice in CT was a Ford Mustang, which is probably the worst car to drive in the snow. That could be a factor. It was awful. Complete strangers would walk up to me at the gas station and ask me why I was driving this car in the snow. It was the only car I had, what choice did I have? It was terrifying though.

Unfortunately, I won’t be able to get away from this type of weather. We’d love to end up where we came from, South Eastern Connecticut, but land and real estate is so darn expensive there. He wants to purchase a fair amount of land, so we’ll have to go north and we’re looking at upstate New York. I am not thrilled about it, but will have to adjust as I always do, and just be happy that we’ll be on the same coast as our families.

The Spring Bazaar-Part 2

I’m still frugal. I went to the Spring Bazaar twice so far and still haven’t bought anything. What the heck, tomorrow is the last day, I might as well go then too. It was huge and was had everything that I expected, but nothing that I was willing to part my hard earned money for. Well, that’s not exactly the truth, there were many things I could have bought, but nothing that jumped out and said “Buy me!” and nothing that I saw that I absolutely had to have. Usually those things are way out of my price range.

There was some beautiful antique furniture from the UK if I wanted to spend a few thousand and if I had 15 foot ceilings. This stuff was huge; armoires, china cabinets, hall closets…nice, but again, I wasn’t willing to spend that much. I think a lot of it is really over priced. If you have the money to spend and didn’t plan on going to the UK to buy it, then I suppose it was worth it. There were lower priced end tables and other smaller antiques, but I just didn’t think they were worth the money and I just didn’t need them. I believe I mentioned that a good friend of mine has spent thousands at this bazaar over the years and I ran into her there on Friday. She bought a dining room table. I think she’s famous for this spending at the bazaar because as I was chatting with her, a colleague of hers walked by and asked where the table was that she bought. Word travels fast.

There was a woman in a booth selling Irish stuff that was probably making a killing since today is St. Patrick’s Day. Happy St. Patrick’s Day, by the way. I kind of miss that here too. They don’t really celebrate it here in Germany except in the Irish pubs where we Americans frequent. I remember my first St. Patrick’s Day here in Germany and was feeling out of sorts and depressed because I’ve always celebrated it back home. I was getting my hair done and my hair dresser happened to mention that there was a new Irish Pub that opened in Leinfelden, a town about 10 minutes from where I live. I was very happy to hear about that and drove straight to it after my appointment and had a Kilkenny beer and felt much better. It just so happens that I had a hair appointment this year too. No beer this year though. Tonight in downtown Stuttgart is the “Long night of the museums” and our friend Martin is doing the lights and sound at one of the museums so we decided to go downtown. We had a wonderful dinner at this restaurant called Zepplino's which is located by the main train station and then walked to the museum, which is in one of the palaces downtown. There had to have been at least 200 people in line, which is crazy since there’s about a dozen museums open all night tonight. Martin was busy running some sort of media show, but was going to meet us at the side entrance afterwards. We decided not to wait. Neither of us were in the mood for a mob scene. It would have been cool though. They had set up a disco in the museum. Cool but too crowded. We drove back to town and had yummy ice cream sundaes in the Italian restaurant down the street from our apartment. Just as good.

This is what I’m talking about, there’s always something going on here and we’ve been fortunate to have the opportunity to be part of it. We’ve been part of it because friends that we’ve made here, like Martin, have exposed us to things that we might not have known about and because we like to keep somewhat busy and like to experience as much as we can, so we seek these things out.

Tomorrow maybe I will try one more time to seek out something to spend my money on.

The Spring Bazaar

There's big happenings this weekend on the base that I work on. It’s the annual Spring Bazaar. We look forward to this every year. It’s not your ordinary bazaar. They started setting up tents last week and blocking parking lots. That’s the bad part. Parking is horrendous on base, so any loss of space makes it worse, although the situation has improved since they moved most of the stores to the new mall on the base my husband works on, so a few more parking lots are available.

This bazaar features vendors from all over Europe. It’s our opportunity to buy great stuff without having to actually travel to these countries. Pottery from Poland, Christmas ornaments, decorations and knick knacks from Russia, scarves, wraps, purses and rugs from Turkey, pottery, porcelain and glass bead jewelry from Italy, jewelry from various countries, leather from Italy, steins, linens, pewter (steins, Schnapps shot glasses, wine decanters, figurines, etc.) and various other stuff from Germany, sweaters and clogs from Norway, crystal from the Czech Republic, chocolate and beer from Belgium, Celtic stuff from Ireland and Scotland, all kinds of jewelry from everywhere….I could go on and on. Local handmade things are sold as well and food will be sold to raise money for the local community groups.

And then there’s the antiques and antique furniture... There’s a vendor from the UK that comes every year and sells benches, tables, armoires, bars, you name it. A good friend of mine has spent THOUSANDS with these people over the past two years. Not me. I’m pretty frugal, although I informed my husband that I will be dropping money this year. It’s one of those situations where if you see it and like it, you’d better buy it or it’ll be gone and you’ll regret it. Again, I’m frugal so I’ve had a lot of regret during this thing. Not this year. :)

Last year, I did buy an antique miniature cast iron stove, complete with little pots and pans. Not miniature like doll-house miniature, but about a foot long. It’s pretty neat. It caught my eye and I did go back to it a few times and then just bought it. I am not impulsive and I usually agonize over purchases (except when it comes to clothing and inexpensive shoes). Another good friend of mine bought a beautiful, huge dining room table, chairs and coffee table from Belgium. The vendor promised delivery in two weeks, however, a few months later after many phone calls, he finally showed up with a truck and no helper. You have to understand, moving is nightmarish here because halls, stairways and doorways are narrow. Plus this thing was huge and heavy and after spending all that money, I don’t think my friend expected to have to carry the thing too. They ended up having to take in it through the back entrance of his house, which was no small feat considering the back yard is fenced in. I’m sure there was a flurry of unmentionable words expressed.

The bazaar starts Friday and ends on Sunday. The friend that bought furniture from the UK over the past two years told me she took Friday off work to attend this. It sounds like she plans on continuing her prior spending habits. I’d better not go with her.

Classic Car show

I went to a classic car show yesterday. Well, it was more than that I guess. It was a show, but also like a swap meet. You could also sell your classic car there, buy parts, artwork, books, clothing, etc. and in typical German fashion, you could buy food like crepes, wurst, schnitzel, pretzels and any kind of beverage you can think of like beer, wine, coffee, etc. It was pretty cool. Many car clubs were represented there and each had their own “bier garten” set up in their designated areas. Some were pretty impressive with slip covered chairs and centerpieces. Gotta love this country. They do things right sometimes.

It was a pretty nostalgic day, considering the number of classic American vehicles that I saw. I saw some beautiful Mustangs (my favorite car), Caprice’s, Ford pick ups, and be still my heart, a 1977 Lincoln Continental. It was huge. It’s so cool to see old American cars over here. Many countries were represented though. There were old French cars, Italian, English and of course German. Old Mercedes are beautiful and expensive. I saw makes and models of cars that I have never heard of or seen before.

The show was held in this huge conference center on the outskirts of downtown Stuttgart. This place had at least 15 big halls each featuring something different. One hall was for vendors selling new stuff like accessories and gadgets; another was for vendors selling parts, books, clothes, posters, whatever. Another hall featured old buses and campers, fire trucks, work vehicles, anything you could think of. Other halls featured specific makes of vehicles, another was for motorcycles; you get the idea. You could easily spend all day there if you’re into that sort of thing. I didn’t linger in any certain area; I breezed from room to room, just soaking it in as I passed by. I stopped at a few areas to get a better look, but not too often. I went kind of late in the day, so it wasn’t too crowded which was nice. I believe I’ve mentioned how crowds in Germany are not the greatest thing to experience.

I thought about going to this all week, but didn’t really commit to going until late in the day on Saturday. I ended up going alone because I didn’t make plans to go with someone. I figured I’d decide first if I was definitely going, then find someone to go with. It didn’t work out that way. My husband was at soccer game that day so he couldn’t go, so I called a couple of friends last minute but couldn’t get a hold of them. It serves me right because it sometimes irks me when people call last minute to do things. I am pretty flexible and spontaneous and don’t usually mind, however, certain friends just don’t believe in making plans ahead of time. Again, this is usually fine with me except when it happens all the time with the same people. I guess I’m getting impatient in my old age.

I really didn’t mind going alone because I knew I wouldn’t want to stay that long and I might have stayed longer if I was with other people; you know, lingering where they linger. That makes me sound like a pain, doesn’t it? Hey, the older you get, the pickier you’re allowed to be. That’s my thinking anyway. I’ll be 40 in August (gasp!) so I’m trying to talk myself into a positive outlook on aging!

Anyway, I’m glad I went. I didn’t want to regret not going and it was neat to see something new. There’s always something going on here, that’s one of the benefits of living in this area. Speaking of that, it’s getting to be that time of the year again, time for the Fruelingsfest, the Spring Stuttgart Beer Fest held April 21- May 13. It’s the second largest beer fest in Germany behind the Oktoberfest in Munich. Prosit! Cheers!

Let there be light

I stand corrected. A blog entry or two ago I was talking about how much gas was on the Germany economy. I said that it was $2.33 a gallon on base and about 2.30 Euros per liter. That’s pretty high, however, reality isn’t much better. It’s really 1.27 Euro per liter for the “Super Blei Frei” (pronounced Super Bly fry-I love saying that. Doesn’t it sound funny? It means Super unleaded). This would be about 4.81 Euros a gallon, which is around $6.60 a gallon with the exchange rate. We think our taxes are bad. My wonder everyone drives Smart Cars and Minis.

I also made a big deal about this automatic DVD dispensing/rental system that I recently discovered here. My mother just informed me that you can rent DVD’s at Stop and Shop using a machine and it’s pretty cheap there too. Just goes to show that I’m out of the loop. I’ve been living in Germany for three years and I guess I’ve missed a lot. My bad.

Anywho, I wanted to write about why I didn’t have an entry for yesterday. I’ve been having trouble sleeping lately, so I figured I’d be up in the middle of the night at some point, so I’d save it until then. Well, around 11:00 pm last night I got up at sat down to write. Since my PC is excruciatingly slow these days, it took several minutes to start up and log on. Suddenly everything shut off and the lights went out. Super. Thank God I hadn’t spent an hour writing, I would have been quite upset. I thought maybe I flipped a breaker or something, which happens often in this old house. Then again, it seemed really dark. I looked outside and saw lights on at the town hall, but all the street lights were out as well as the lights at the hotel across the street. I started fumbling around in the dark to find a candle so I could investigate further without killing myself. Didn’t flip a breaker, so I figured it was something else.

Then I started thinking about hot water and getting ready for work the next day. I could shower at the gym on the base, but I hate doing that. It wouldn’t be the end of the world if I didn’t shower, but still….I purposely left the light switch in the on position in the kitchen so I would know when the power came back on. Luckily it came on about an hour later.

This experience brought to light (no pun intended) a few thoughts. I didn’t know what to do. Back home in CT I would be immediately on the phone to CL & P or NDPU (whoever we pay for our power these days) to report the power loss, but here? I didn’t know what the norm is. I suppose if it was 10 degrees out, I would have either called the landlord or dug through my files to find a number of the power company, but it’s spring-like weather out now, so there wasn’t a great sense of urgency. I also figured that surely a hotel would call someone about it, however, I realized that I wasn’t prepared. If I managed to find a number, would it be the right one (my bills are in German) and when I got someone on the phone, would I be able to convey my plight and would they understand me? It made me realize that however settled and comfortable we finally are here in Germany, we still face challenges. Another example of the many things we for granted.

Katzen

I have two Katzen (cats) that I received for my birthday here last year. Several friends here in town chipped in for the adoption and two cat carriers. They were about two months old when we brought them home from the Tierheim (animal home) or animal shelter. Animal shelters are different here, they don’t just take in and sell strays; you can buy expensive animals there too. You have to pay for what they’re worth. The cats are sisters and my German friends think their names are hilarious because I wanted to name them typical German names. One is called Ute (oo-tay) and the other, Natasha. Natasha is a somewhat typical name, maybe more European than German, but I like the name. German’s normally name their animals like we do, Blackie, Fluffy, Buster, etc., so these names are particularly funny to them.

I don’t know how much it costs in the States these days to adopt an animal, but here it was fairly expensive, about 100 Euros. Germany has very strict laws when it comes to animals and animal rights. They frown on leaving animals at home alone and told my husband they might stop by to check on them. Is that unreal or what? I wonder if they do that much for kids. They never did check on them.

The cats look like tiger cats, but with darker colors, black and brown. Natasha, the smaller one, is darker than her bigger sister and is more dominant. She’s a downright bully, but she’s the cuddler, so we cut her some slack. Ute doesn’t like to cuddle or be pet normally unless it’s bed time. Then she runs to the bed and allows you to pet her and rub her belly. They’re pretty amusing. Those of you who have pets know how it is; they’re like your kids.

They hid for about 2 weeks when we first brought them home. I was panicking. What if they never come out? Are we doing something wrong? They were just afraid; I think they were raised in the animal shelter. They’re still pretty skittish around people other than us. Normally, if we have anyone over, they hide and don’t come out until the guests ar gone, except for our friend Bernard. He has a cat himself, so maybe they think he smells safe or something.

We had to make an appointment with a vet right away to have the cats fixed. There is a vet center on one of the bases, but no vet at the time, none that did surgery anyway, so we had to bring them to a German vet. They spoke very good English and were wonderful with them. The cats were given their own little “passports” that contain their ID number and their medical records. Now there is a vet on base who is able to implant ID chips, but last year, this option wasn’t available, so while they were “under” getting fixed, the Dr. tattooed their ID #’s on their ears. I thought it was cool, just like their Mommy and Daddy (Daddy has 11 tattoos-hello, almost 20 years in the military; this is pretty common; Mommy has 2). Anyway, it’s painless and it works, so no harm done.

Other than their names, they’re just regular cats. They like to scratch on the carpet and steal my jewelry and they sound squeaky more then anything else when they “talk”. I wish we spoke German to them, that would have been interesting, but we don’t really speak German around the house, other than a few words here and there if the mood strikes or if our German friends are around. I forget about that when I visit German friends that have pets. I speak to them in English and then realize what I’m doing and change to German. They do understand what I’m saying in German; sit, come here, good dog, etc. so I guess my German isn’t all that bad!

Cuckoo Clock

We finally bought ourselves a cuckoo clock yesterday. We drove about an hour and a half to the town of Triberg which is world renown for its Cuckoo clocks. It’s in the area of Schwartzwald, aka the Black Forest.

The Black Forest is rolling hills and mountains of the Swabisch Alb, not to be confused with, or as big as the Alps. It’s absolutely beautiful. Picture a “Heidi” or “Sound of Music” type area with villages scattered in valleys in between mountains and hills and lots of farmland in between. Most of the farmhouses are half barn, half house. Really cool looking and huge. They’re made of timber beams and stucco.

The ride itself wasn’t too bad. Normally I can’t handle the winding mountain roads, but we went slow enough and made a few pit stops so I was able to keep it together. I normally get serious motion sickness. We were amazed to see that there wasn’t much snow at all up there in the mountains. Normally there would be at least a few feet. The town work crews had set up poles all along the roads in anticipation of having to plow heavy snow all winter. No problem gauging the edge of the roads this year. There were random mountain streams all over the place; areas in the ground with water streaming out and down the mountains. It had been raining all week. The regular streams were raging.

From there we took a ride west to Freiberg, another beautiful area. My husband had ordered some plaques for work from a woodcarver there and we had to pick them up. Wow. Most of the woodwork in and outside of this house was carved; the beams outside, the window frames, even the parking sign. He has an amazing talent, which was learned and inherited from his father, who did much of the carving of the house before him. After we were finished with our purchases, he showed us the hand-carved kitchen. The doors, cabinets, beams, just about everything was carved. Examples of nature, leaves, trees, animals, were everywhere. An entire staircase was carved with designs. Really cool. The entire property was something to see. This place was located in the mountains, in a pretty isolated area. When we arrived, the woodcarver was busy tending to his park-like yard. There was a stream running alongside the house, with a cute little waterwheel. He had cages with birds in and outside and a very rambunctious black lab who was more than excited to see some company.

My husband found this place online and I’m amazed he found when going there for the first time to check it out and order the plaques, however, he has a good sense of direction, unlike myself. I would have ended up in France and in real trouble; I don’t speak French. We were about 15 minutes from the French border. Ich spreche ein bissen Deutsch (I speak a little German), but that’s it. Maybe I’ll tackle French someday.

We took a more direct route home on the autobahn. I couldn’t handle anymore winding roads and after driving all day, we were tired and were no longer up to the challenge. We grabbed a couple of sandwiches at a rest stop and headed home. It’s nice to get away once in awhile.

Little America

A US military base located someplace other than the US is its own little nation. This is my first military experience so I really don’t have another experience to compare it to, but I can see how it would be very different. We’re all in the same boat, we’re all visitors, foreigners, and therefore, we all have that in common, giving us something to draw us together as a community. This togetherness probably isn’t so prevalent on a base in the USA. We’re much more isolated. It’s like “Little America”. We’re more apt to take care of each other, I think. Word of mouth is at work at its best here. If you need information about anything, chances are someone else has the answer or the info and is more than happy to share it. It’s nice in that sense. Not so nice in that everyone knows everyone’s business. The world is just that much smaller there. I don’t live on base, thank God, but I know it’s much worse when you live there and work there. No thanks.

The base I work on is much smaller than some in Germany, but it had all the “conveniences”. A gas station called a “shoppette” which was also like a mini grocery store, except you could purchase alcohol at this grocery store. Liquor as well as wine and beer (imported). Not a huge selection of domestic beer, but enough to quench your American beer thirst. German beer is sold here as well. A friend and her husband are going to be moving back to the states in June and have decided they’d better return to drinking American beer now so they’re accustomed to it by the time they move. That’s how good German beer is, and it’s more expensive in the US.

I purchase gas on base, it’s much cheaper. It’s around $2.33 a gallon versus 2.33 Euro (approx.) per liter on the economy. Gas is rationed. I’m not sure what the limits are, I never really paid much attention to it, but any time you purchase gas it’s recorded on your registration. We can also purchase gas coupons which can only be used at a certain gas station chain, which is all over Europe. It’s just cheaper to go this route.

Prior to the grand opening of a shopping mall on another base close by, other shopping conveniences were available on my base. A “PXtra” was where you could purchase a very limited assortment of household goods, kitchen stuff, towels, storage containers, small appliances, beauty items, hardware, books, office supplies, greeting cards, magazines, some gifts like candles, and local German gift items; souvenir type stuff as well as pottery from Poland and German Bier steins. You get the idea.

There was also a “PX” (Post Exchange) which was where you could buy jewelry, make-up, clothing and shoes. A separate sports store sold sporting equipment, bikes and sports clothes. The “Power Zone” was where electronics were sold, music and DVD’s. But alas, all of this is gone since the “mall” was opened. All this stuff is under one roof now along with “European vendors”; Additional stores and carts selling European stuff. It’s kind of a nice convenience being able to purchase certain things like that.

The advantage to purchasing anything on base is not that it’s that much cheaper than you would pay in the states, but everything is TAX free. Plus, the Euro to dollar exchange rate really limits you. It’s very expensive. You’re automatically paying an extra 25% approximately, plus 19% sales tax. It just increased in January. Yikes. We can avoid the German sales tax because of a US-German agreement, but normally most people don’t take advantage of this unless they’re spending a bit more. I know we usually don’t bother unless we spend at least 50 Euro or more. We have to purchase the form that is used, so unless you’re spending a bit more, it’s not really worth it.

I wanted to talk more about the “little nation” aspect of a US military base located abroad, but will have to elaborate more on that tomorrow. I ended up talking more about shopping on base, sorry. Gee, imagine that.