Deutschland

Well, I'm here! Despite the jet lag, I'm going to have to write quickly, because the computer lab is closing in a couple of minutes. The flight from Atlanta to Frankfurt went well, and M. and I arrived with all of our luggage in what could be considered one piece: yay! I'm hoping to be able to share some pictures from the trip soon, because my favorites are the pictures of the little back-of-the-seat video screens that show us flying in exactly the WRONG direction. Who knew you had to fly west from Atlanta to get to Frankfurt? Among other things, this was one of the features of the flight that M. and I found HIL-AR-IOUS while en route: there's much to be said for sleep deprivation as a mechanism to lower the bar for what can be considered really funny. Overall, though, we had a really good flight and even managed to sleep a little bit on the way. He was whisked away by the folks from the vet detachment that he's joining and I took off with the dental folks. From trading e-mails today, it looks like we probably crossed paths at least once, but the fact that we didn't see each other probably gives you some indication as to what a huge procedure it is to inprocess Europe, as I'm sure some of you reading this probably know far more about than I. Anyway, the main task for today has simply been to stay awake, and it's going pretty well thus far. My clinic non-comissioned officer in charge (who you call the "NCOIC" to keep you from going insane) made things pretty easy for me today, so I was able to go back to my hotel-type room in the temporary lodging building and take it easy for most of the afternoon. The temporary lodging for officers here is pretty similar to the place that I was living in San Antonio, for those of you who were lucky enough to see the posh accomodations that are the Bachelor Officer's Quarters (BOQ) on lovely Ft. Sam Houston. The only drawback? Yeah, I scored the only room in the place WITH NO PHONE. I must have looked like I didn't have any friends to call, eh? Overall, though, this particular post is small compared to most of the other European posts/bases, which is good in the near term because I'm going to be hoofing it around for awhile! In the future, though, it sounds like there are quite a few neighboring installations, so I'm going to have to do a little research on where to go for the best commissary, etc. Probably not a big surprise. I was also able to see my clinic this morning and meet some of the staff, which was fun. It was recently renovated and is really gorgeous. The rest of the post is probably what you would expect: all of the facilities are housed in pretty German-looking buildings (gee...I guess that would be because, they're, well, German), and, probably also not surprisingly, we're surrounded by a forest on all sides. Hopefully, I'll have photos to share soon. At this point, it's about 4 o'clock in the afternoon, and Monday is just getting started for all of you in the states. I'll try to post more soon. Have a good one and take care!