Overnight Bag.

Just when you thought it couldn’t get much more eventful than it’s been… it does. The rest of the week went pretty well. The K-town girls had their orientation in our housing on Tuesday due to the weather. They figured it would be easier to transport 3 trainers rather than 11 interns. It was more laid back than any orientations I’ve attended before, but probably the most informative. It was very helpful, I learned a lot :)

On Wednesday, I drove out to Baumholder with 2 of the interns placed there that were stranded in K-Town for 2 days without a ride. I was hoping to bring them on Tuesday but the roads were just too bad. So Wednesday morning we ventured out, and what everyone convinced me was a 20-minute drive took just under an hour. Thankfully we left early, so we arrived right on time. We had orientation at Baumholder, again very informative, and then were given the afternoon off to make trips to the grocery store.

I came to Baumholder with the plan to leave Wednesday night or possibly stay until Thursday morning. But of course, everything changes once I make plans. So halfway through the day on Thursday when I was planning on leaving to go back to K-Town, the trainer from Baumholder called me to tell me she couldn’t find anyone to pick up the girls at the airport so I would need to do it. This isn’t in my duties, it’s the responsibility of the MWR, but since they couldn’t find anyone I took the drive. Finally, my last 2 interns arrived on Thursday !!! As of then, we just had 1 more intern stranded in Paris. As far as I know, they’ve safely arrived at their site now.

The drive back to Baumholder was an interesting one as there was a lot of traffic for the 23^rd & of course, snow. We finally made it & it was too late and the roads were getting too bad for me to drive back to K-Town, so I stayed in Baumholder another night. (With an overnight bag packed with minimals for 1 potential night’s stay…)

Friday morning, Christmas Eve, the plan was to drive to K-Town so I could change & shower and then head out to a Christmas Market. But “surprise” it snowed a ton again and we were stuck in the housing. Not the most exciting way to spend your Christmas Eve in Germany, but we’d watched a few families struggle to get out & those that did make it out returned not much later due to the roads. So we decided to stay put & make the best of it. We decorated the fake house plant & made the apartment as “Christmas-y” as we possibly could. It turned out to be a lot of fun, and we even made Christmas dinner. We watched as other families that were planning on spending Christmas elsewhere began putting up decorations too as they realized they weren’t going anywhere either. It was a simple Christmas Eve, but definitely one I’ll remember :)

Saturday morning we were finally able to leave the apartment, yay! The roads weren’t great, but thanks to my experience from driving in the snow belt, we did alright. We went to Baden Baden, the only city we found that had a Christmas market open after the 23^rd, and open on Christmas! Of course, Baden Baden was in the opposite direction of K-Town (with all of my stuff) so I was still living out of this overnight bag. Thankfully the other girls were kind enough to let me borrow clothes & shower stuff.

The city of Baden Baden was such a pretty setting with the snow and lights & the little stands for the market. There were a few families and some tourists, I think it would be a fun tradition to have on Christmas. My Christmas dinner was a German brat & hot chocolate :) Although not many things went as planned, I am really glad we were able to see a Christmas market on Christmas day, it was pretty perfect!

This week should be another eventful one. I’m hoping to make a trip to Brussels & still manage to provide grocery runs for K-Town & Baumholder. A few of the girls still haven’t received their luggage, which I’m sure is the case for many people across Europe right now. Hopefully we can find some type of store that’s open after 6pm so the girls can get some clothes to tide them over.

I don’t have any set plans for New Year’s yet, but Munich & Brussels are potentials. We shall see what everyone else has in mind too.

So far, I think this break is off to a good start. It’s definitely going to be a learning experience, I just hope I’m up for some of these challenges.

Hope you had a wonderful Christmas! "Froliche Weinachten” in German :)

“Remember, no matter where you go, there you are.” –Earl Mac Rauch