Americans, Count Your Blessings!
11/22/2007 10:45:00 PM Edit This 0 Comments »
Happy Thanksgiving All!
Hope all is well with each of you.
We just celebrated our second Thanksgiving here. We had 12 adults and 6 children – a full house and lots of food! I successfully made my FIRST ever turkey and it was pretty tasty – I was so relieved! I didn't want the single soldiers to go back to their barracks, wishing that they had eaten at the cafeteria!
I have to say, this has been a rough few weeks here in Germany. It brings me back again to how wonderfully SPOILED Americans are (whether you know it or not!). To start, we got our electric bill reconciliation statement. You see, the electric company sets your bill at a set monthly rate. After you've been living here for 12 months, the electric company reads your meter and calculates how much either they owe you or you owe them. We have tried to be ultra thrifty w/our electricity, and we were not even in the country for at least 9 weeks of this past year. Our heat is not run on electric and there is no such thing as A/C here. So….our bill shouldn't be bad at all, right? Wrong. We owed the electric company 1000 euros – that's $1600.00. And to top it off, it's due by the middle of the SAME month that you receive it. They don't make payment plans here. So, a month before Christmas, I paid our electric bill settlement of $1600.00. errrghhhhh…
Now onto Christmas shopping. Please, please, please don't tell us about the horribly long lines or how crazy the parking was while shopping on "Black Friday". Of course there is no such thing as that here – tomorrow is just another day. We are trying to not purchase gifts in regular German stores now, as our horribly sinking dollar is SO low, it costs just too much to make purchases. No big deal – just order from Overstock, Amazon, Target & Toys R Us. Wrong. They are all not shipping much of anything to APO addresses this year. I'm not sure why, but they're not. errrrghhhhh….
So, we're a little homesick for the good ol' USA. Big fat parking spaces for your SUV, cheap gas, amazing holiday sales and a HUGE variety of things to choose from, Christmas lights and décor everywhere, and NO worries of going to Jail because you decided to run your Christmas lights throughout the holiday season (jail, meaning that the electricity could cost you so much that you'll have to go to jail rather than pay it!).
Bah humbug. Pooey. Dukey doo. We miss you all and can't wait for you to VISIT us as soon as possible!!!! Enjoy your Thanksgiving and remember that you are living in the LAND OF PLENTY!!!!!!!!!!! Woohoo!
Hope all is well with each of you.
We just celebrated our second Thanksgiving here. We had 12 adults and 6 children – a full house and lots of food! I successfully made my FIRST ever turkey and it was pretty tasty – I was so relieved! I didn't want the single soldiers to go back to their barracks, wishing that they had eaten at the cafeteria!
I have to say, this has been a rough few weeks here in Germany. It brings me back again to how wonderfully SPOILED Americans are (whether you know it or not!). To start, we got our electric bill reconciliation statement. You see, the electric company sets your bill at a set monthly rate. After you've been living here for 12 months, the electric company reads your meter and calculates how much either they owe you or you owe them. We have tried to be ultra thrifty w/our electricity, and we were not even in the country for at least 9 weeks of this past year. Our heat is not run on electric and there is no such thing as A/C here. So….our bill shouldn't be bad at all, right? Wrong. We owed the electric company 1000 euros – that's $1600.00. And to top it off, it's due by the middle of the SAME month that you receive it. They don't make payment plans here. So, a month before Christmas, I paid our electric bill settlement of $1600.00. errrghhhhh…
Now onto Christmas shopping. Please, please, please don't tell us about the horribly long lines or how crazy the parking was while shopping on "Black Friday". Of course there is no such thing as that here – tomorrow is just another day. We are trying to not purchase gifts in regular German stores now, as our horribly sinking dollar is SO low, it costs just too much to make purchases. No big deal – just order from Overstock, Amazon, Target & Toys R Us. Wrong. They are all not shipping much of anything to APO addresses this year. I'm not sure why, but they're not. errrrghhhhh….
So, we're a little homesick for the good ol' USA. Big fat parking spaces for your SUV, cheap gas, amazing holiday sales and a HUGE variety of things to choose from, Christmas lights and décor everywhere, and NO worries of going to Jail because you decided to run your Christmas lights throughout the holiday season (jail, meaning that the electricity could cost you so much that you'll have to go to jail rather than pay it!).
Bah humbug. Pooey. Dukey doo. We miss you all and can't wait for you to VISIT us as soon as possible!!!! Enjoy your Thanksgiving and remember that you are living in the LAND OF PLENTY!!!!!!!!!!! Woohoo!
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