After a month of hectic preperation for the move, I am finally here.  December flew by while we were busy packing the house, selling my truck, moving, preparing for Germany, and traveling across Texas to partake in the 4 Christmases.  It actually never hit me that I would be leaving Marissa and the states' and going to be living 4,000 miles away until I was driving into the Houston airport.

Because it was an international flight, I arrived at the airport 3 hours early, and only took a total of 10 minutes to get bags checked and through security.  Funny how that works huh?  I finally got on the largest plane I have ever seen, with about 700 people speaking 20 different languages.  You haven't experienced diversity until you have flown into Europe.  Everyone speaks a different language, no one understands any of them.  Nine hours later, I arrived at the Frankfurt aiport where I had a 12 hour layover.  The only thing worth noting here is I had my first German beer and it was delicious.

I finally arrived in Hannover at 11p.m. to find out that my personal taxi had overslept.  Luckily I had gotten Euros before and asked my contact for the name to my hotel and got my own ride there.  I finally got to bed at midnight, which completed my 28 hour trip across the pond.

My HR contact came to pick me up the next morning after my hotel breakfast of deli meats and pastries.  They were all pretty good, but not as good as the coffee.  She immediately gave me the keys and we went to see some places and then to the facility.  My car is a VW Wagon, and is an automatic, which is rare in Germany.  Germans are very proud of their vehicles and say that if they do not have a manual, they do not feel as if they are really driving and dont have true control over their car.  They love driving, and love driving fast.  Anyways, after 10 minutes of us trying to get the car started we were on our way.  We eventually ended up out our facility where I was introduced to some co-workers and had a plant tour. 

The plant is extremely clean, which I expected.  When dealing with electrical components you must limit the amount of dust and pollutants.  Also, these small control modules are very important.  They are in charge of the life of a subsea field that can cost around 1 billion dollars.  I immediately noticed something else in the plant.  There were long hallways with many doors, each with 2-3 people in each office.  There is no cubicle mingling here.  They are very efficient and to the point.  This is why they are extremely good at what they do.

After the plant tour I was given my keys and was on my own.  I drove to my apartment, which is very nice, and unpacked my suitcase for the first time since we left OKC on December 21st.  After getting settled in, I drove back to city center to get some food.  Let me rephrase that.  I attempted to find my way back to the parking lot I was shown earlier that day.  And failed about 15 times.  I have a very good sense of direction, but it all goes out the window here.  The streets are complex, the road signs are every few feet and I cannot understand any of them.  I pulled over multiple times and pulled my map out to figure out where I was and again tried to find my parking lot.  I remembered earlier in the day that I had just crossed a river before the parking spot, so I then drove to every river crossing until I found the spot.  It was around 8 by now and so I decided to stop in the first place I found which was an Italian Restaraunt.

The restaraunt had about 4 table of people inside.  I was planning on sliding in their and just grabbing a seat without drawing too much attention to myself, but that plan changed with the door slammed behind and everyone in the place turned around to stare.   The servers was named Sylvia, who I assume is in her mid 40's and she acted as if she had known each person in the restaraunt for years.  She was dancing and joking with all of them.  Come to find out, she is the owner, and made some of the best Italian food I have ever had.  She didnt speak much English but we had a 15 minute conversation afterwards and were showing pictures of our dogs.  After hearing where I worked she reached up on the wall and pulled a picture down of my friend Chad, who was here before me.   I will be going back for more pasta soon.

Today I woke up and decided to go back to the city for the farmers market to get some food to cook. I was able to find the parking lot without any problems today, the sunlight helped.  Buying anything in a store without speaking German is hard, but purchasing from farmers who do not know any english is level expert.  There was alot of pointing at things, and putting up fingers to signal how much I wanted.  Also, there was a lot of leaving, flipping through the German dicitionary and coming back to ask for the product in the right language.  It took me over an hour to get about 5 things that I am still not even sure I can make a salad out of, but somehow, purchasing those 5 items seemed like a huge victory.  You would think that all vegetable and fruits are the same in this world but they're not.  I had never seen much of the produce before, however the vegetables that I did recognize were much bigger and more colorful.  Besides the potatoes.  I didn't see a potato the size of a baseball.  I'm anxious to see some french fries here.

Das Auto

I took my groceries back to the shaggin wagon and went to a coffee shop for breakfast.  I got a wierd looking muffin and a cafe.  The muffin was delicous and the coffee was too.  So far the German coffee has been impressive.  They dont try to do too much.  Just good ole fashion black coffee how it was meant to be... Not like starbucks.  I sat around for a bit observing the locals.  It is good to watch what they do and how they move about, buy and pay for things.  I try to adapt as much as possible.

I then returned to do more shopping.  I went to the drugstore and luckily I was able to find shampoo, soap, and essentials fairly easily.  They had brands like Axe, Adidas and Nivia which made it much easier.  I also heard the first English words of the day when they played TLC's "Dont go chasing waterfalls" and I admit that I sang along.  They actually play alot of music in English.  If you think you can escape Alicia Keys' this girl is on fire by moving to Germany, think again.

Walking back to the car, I ran in to Sylvia who was opening her restaraunt and she yelled at me from across the street making a gesture of why I dont have an umbrella, or atleast I think that is what she was asking. It has been drizzling rain here for 2 days, but its really just a mist, not worth an umbrella.  She motioned me across the street and went inside and grabbed an umbrella and would not leave without me taking it.  She said I can return it when I come back to eat, so I guess I really will be going back. 

I then returned home and spent 45 minutes trying to open the washing machine.  My landlord was sure to point out that she left me an instruction manual... which is completely in German.

A few things I have noticed so far:

Europeans like dressing their kids in matching adidas jumpsuits.

Alot of 70 and 80 year old men and women are still riding bicyles.  This is refreshing.

Bottled water is distinguished as Gas or No Gas?  Nein

Not knowing what any button on your car is frustrating.  Even more when your car has 400 buttons.
Not all Germans are as tall as Dirk, but almost.

All in all, the Germans have been very nice and helping, and I am loving it here.

Tomorrow I am picking up my work permit and plan to travel to Hamburg this weekend.