Why is everything so hard?

Kelly: I sit on the wood floor eating trail mix from a bag. We have no plates, silverware, or cookware yet. The transportation department told me that if I had called one day sooner, they would've delivered our household goods yesterday. Aren't they supposed to notify me when the goods arrive? YES. Yes, they are. My degree is in psychology not telepathy...ugh. So, after 3 hours in the wind and rain and waiting in multiple lines with multiple forms, we got our beloved CC! We have renamed her TAC (Trans-atlantic Corolla). We also have internet...although that was a ridiculous process, too.

The good news: my "welcome to germany" class had a field trip to downtown K-town yesterday, and Matt and I made two friends...I feel as if we are in grade school again, but it really feels good to talk to others about shared experience...the difficulty with housing, paperwork mess-ups, etc. They are both in the Army and are really cool. One woman is a surgeon (totally down to earth) married to an Aussie. Another woman is an ICU nurse...uber well-traveled and a bit of a wild child. We might hang out with them again this weekend.

I talked to Occupational Health. They received my immunization records from Palo Alto because my current doc couldn't find them, but the Palo Alto records are thin b/c I only went to the doc one time. But, they couldn't do anything because I'm not "in the system." What have I been doing for the last two weeks if I'm not in the system? So, I had to go to occ health and wait while they tried to figure out why I wasn't in the system and then get me into the system. Luckily, both women were very kind and friendly. So, now, I'm "in the system" but have a slew of doctor's appointments next week and I have to get the flu shot...I am really not happy about that. This is the first year that it has been mandatory for civilians. Today is a "training holiday" for the military, which means that the military aren't working, so nothing else was getting accomplished. So, I went home to find a grumpy husband. He had looked at his first pay stub with German taxes taken out...let's just say that he could make more working at the Burger King on post. He is not a happy camper. He just left to withdraw cash from the bank so that we have money for the weekend (our ATM cards haven't arrived yet!!!!). AHHH!!!

We drove to Ikea to get, among other things, an island and stools for our kitchen that is decently equipped but bereft of counter space. It was an easy 45 minute drive. We found a stainless steel island/cart thing with two stools that we liked and picked up rugs, plants, and other misc. items. When we arrived in the warehouse section, we tried to get the legs and top to the table, but no luck. They weren't in the correct places. So, Matt ran upstairs to double-check the location and confirmed that the numbers I had written were correct. So, we waited in line at the information desk, Matt used his German language skills to communicate what we were looking for, and we were told that the items were not available! Upset, we pushed our carts to the line where I noticed that credit cards were not listed on payment options at the register. Matt inquired and was told that they only accept cash and German bank debit cards (Called E-C cards). You've got to be kidding me! Ikea, the universal furniture store, does not take credit!!! We spent the next 20 minutes returning all of our items to the shelves and left empty-handed.

Oh, and the cat didn't bother us last night, but this morning we found she had broken in to the pantry and chewed a hole through the bag that contained her food...