Finally on our way and arrival

Hello from Stuttgart!!!!

  (this is Sarah)

It’s almost 6 am here and my body is telling me I should have been awake a long time ago. There is a ten hour time difference from Germany to Alaska. Yesterday was crazy. Our bodies were so disoriented. We left Anchorage on Tuesday at about 2:30 pm. About nine hours later we arrived in Stuttgart on Wednesday in the late morning. We had a little bit of airplane sleep, but not much. Needless to say the Lloyds welcomed walking zombies into their house yesterday.

We flew Condor airlines over the pole in a direct flight from Anchorage to Frankfort. It was definitely long, but way better than having millions of stops and changing flights. We got off the airplane and Germany decided to welcome us with some very familiar weather. It was all clouded over, started to rain, and the sun was nowhere in sight, haha. The one difference from Kodiak’s rain was that it was warm rain. The first thing I saw when I walked into the airport was a McDonalds. I thought this was funny as McDonalds is probably the last thing I want to see in Germany. We drove about 2 hours to the military base in Stuttgart. The vegetation is really pretty. It is very green with different types of trees. There are flowers, and beautiful deciduous trees.One thing we noticed that is very different from the states is the way the houses are set up. It was especially evident from the air. The houses are grouped together very tightly with hardly any space in between. These groups are about the size of a little village and then are surrounded by fields until the next grouping.

The Lloyds did their best to keep us awake until a normal time to go to bed. They took us to the exchange, helped us register our ID cards on the base, and gave us a mini tour of the base. The rules are kind of strange here. The Germans are very concerned about animals. There are many laws about them. For example, you can’t leave your dog tied up outside by itself, ever. They can’t be left alone for more than 6 hours, they can go anywhere you can go – even to restaurants - and you have to pay to take them on a train; you don’t have to pay for children two and under. They have fences by the highway to prevent frogs from getting killed, and frog crossing walks. We ate dinner with the Officer’s Christian Fellowship Bible study. It was delicious. I really enjoyed seeing Bridget and meeting some of her friends. Then we went home to the hotel and crashed.

Mom is still zonked, Dad just left to go to the gym, and I’m going to get ready for school. Funny, I was pretty sure that I was done with school, but I guess not, haha. I’m going to attend Patch American High School, a DOD school, with Bridget today. I think that it’ll be fun, haha. I don’t actually have to do anything. Talk to everyone later.

PS This is Joy. I just woke up. It was nice to sleep all night. The Lloyds were right to make us stay awake until 9:00 pm. We’ll be adjusted to this 10 hour time zone change more quickly.

We rented a car at the airport in Frannkfurt. It’s a Mercedes! Yikes. I’ve never driven a Mercedes before. It’s nice – little, of course, but nice. It has a built in GPS. Jimmy programmed the GPS to speak English, entered the Lloyd’s address, and a very nice lady’s voice gave us blow by blow directions all the way to the base. “Prepare to turn right in 500 meters. Turn right in 400 meters. Turn right in 300 meters, turn right in 200 metters, turn right in 100 meters. Turn right now.” We laughed; we decided it was like having Suzanne along to take care of us! It tried to take us through a gate on the base that wasn’t open so we were on our own finding a way to get on the base and find the Lloyd’s house. The GPS was quiet for a while until we drove into the Lloyd’s driveway. All of a sudden a lady’s voice said, “You’re here!” We laughed.

This is Jimmy: The GPS lady did kindly tell me "make a U-turn as soon as you can"...after I missed a turn.