Don't get me wrong though, I still LOVE Germany and our life here! Life here is a good life! Coming back to Germany to our bed and coffee maker after almost two weeks away was fantastic! But our traveling is coming to an end, my friends are moving away one by one, and we too will be leaving in a few short months, so with the end in sight I'll be honest.... I'm ready to go. I am so excited to start the next chapter of our lives! I am ready to not be a foreigner anymore, and I am ready to explore my own country. I can't wait to be able to leave my house in anything but skinny jeans and not get stared at because I'm not wearing skinny jeans. Actually, I can't wait to not be stared at anymore, period. I am so beyond ready to go back to work and start feeling like *me* again.
Like I always say.... on to the next adventure!
Oh wait, not for another 4 1/2 months....
But 4 1/2 months really isn't that much time when you think about how I had 9 months to prepare for our move here. Which means that I have a lot of stuff to get done before The List comes out, and you all have every right to tell me that I'm being totally lazy and it's time to get out of my stupid blogging funk!
My husband is a no-frills kind of guy. He is not fancy at. all. He has absolutely no clue what name-brand means except that it probably means that it's more expensive, and paying extra for a name is "f*^king ridiculous" (his words, not mine). Eric values inexpensive over quality, any day. If something is on sale he'll be more likely to buy it, but only if it's something he absolutely needs, but free is better, and still, only if he absolutely needs it. He is extremely careful with his money and will really evaluate whether something is worth the price before buying it- often taking a very long time to make a decision about a purchase.
He kinda drives me nuts this way, but honestly, it's one of the gazillion bajillion reasons why I fell madly in love with him.
While I definitely like more frills than Eric, I am not all that fancy either (contrary to popular belief). But I absolutely am a firm believer in "you get what you pay for," and most definitely value quality over price, every time. Thread count on sale is my jam!
Once Eric and I decide on a price range that we can comfortably afford for whatever item we might be shopping for, I will do a ton of research and then will be ready to buy it once I'm satisfied with my research. Unlike my husband, who will never be satisfied with his research and find a million more things to research....driving his wife crazy in the process. I'm not always right, I am probably more wrong than I am ever right, but even Eric will admit that he has learned the hard way that sometimes quality is worth the extra few bucks, and listening to his wife will save all of us a lot of headache.... at least when it comes to certain purchases.
My husband's German car was one of those things.
I hated Eric's car....
When we were getting ready to PCS here to Germany we decided to only bring one of our vehicles with us, sell our second vehicle in the States, and purchase a small, beat up German spec car that would get Eric to and from work. We were happy with only having one car payment and were intent on keeping it that way. But we knew that with the size of our budget, and refusal to finance, we were not going to be able to purchase anything very fancy, which happens to suit my husband just fine.
But this stupid car was the furthest thing from fancy that ever existed!
I'll admit that we sort of just picked a car that was within our budget and went with it. I had gotten hired at a dental clinic the first week we landed so we were in a hurry to get a second vehicle so that I could start my new job. So maybe if we had looked a little closer, we would have seen that this car was falling apart. But for Eric, it was love at first sight.
By German law, we are required to have our vehicles inspected every year, or every other year depending on how new our vehicle is, to ensure that it abides by German safety standards. Eric's car required yearly inspections. And it just baaaaarely passed each year, usually needing a ton of work to help it get by.
I never felt safe when driving his stupid car. I panicked every single time I had to go through gate because the drivers side window had a tendency to fall out (like literally, fall out), and that would really suck if that happened when I'm trying to get on to a military base, not to mention embarrassing. It had two keys, one for unlocking the door, one for starting it. Something was fishy with the steering wheel, I can't really explain it. When making turns it would sort of jerk a little bit and there was a split second where it felt like the steering wheel was no longer controlling the turning of the car, happening every single time you had to go around a curve. I'm guessing the muffler had a hole in it or something because it was suuuper loud! Both doors weren't attached to anything on the inside (hence why the window would fall out) so you had to slowly roll the window down in 1/2 inch increments to avoid losing the window and then close the door by pulling it shut with the palm of your hand on the window frame.
I mean, I could go on and on and on about how terrible this car was.
Passenger side door
Drivers side door
No rear view mirror- majorly illegal in Germany! It fell off and has been in the backseat ever since.
Crooked window- once you rolled it down, it wouldn't go back up the same way without Eric having to guide it back into place.
Germany's trailer hitch, every German car has one. I can't help but see something super naughty that has nothing to do with hauling trailers.
But did this little car zip around German roads with ease? Yes! Did we ever white-knuckle it in parking garages worried that we wouldn't be able to make it out without taking out a few concrete walls? Never! Did it fit anything we ever wanted it to fit, even an 8ft ladder I bought at a flea market? It sure did! Did Eric think this car was just the best thing in the whole world? Yes, yes, he did.
For every reason that I hated this car, Eric loved it. He absolutely loved this stupid, unsafe, junk car that failed inspection every single year. This car made him happy, and honestly, they were a match made in Heaven, this car loved him too. For a no-frills not fancy kind of guy, this car was perfect for him! It might not sound like it, but I was mindful of my complaining because I knew how happy this car made him.
This year, the car failed inspection big time, and there was no fixing it. Because it is a German spec vehicle, paying to ship it to the States would be a waste of money, but it wasn't worth the cost to ship it anyways- it was worth exactly €0.00. So a few weeks ago Eric and I took it to the junk yard to junk it. And when the guy at the junk yard saw the failed inspection paper, he laughed and said that he couldn't believe we were able to even drive it to the junk yard. And that's where we left her- Eric's beloved 1996 BMW that didn't even have cup holders- at the junk yard near Ramstein Air Base.
:o( Okay, so yeah, that's a little sad.... but look on the bright side, one step closer to our next adventure!
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