Day 1 in country was very productive. I started my day at about 5AM...hiding out in the bathroom of our hotel room reading so not to wake anyone. Even though it sounds a little strange, I enjoyed my time in the bathroom reading in the peace and quiet. Hubby had to report at 7:30AM. Seriously - on Day 1.
After getting Hubs out the door I started my search for a car. By that I mean I walked all over this post looking for a car by peering into windows checking for 'For Sale' signs. I was thankful the lemon lot was in the same place - the commissary parking lot. There were several beautiful hoopties to choose from - I made a list, check it twice and took it home (to the hotel) for Hubby to look over with me...oh goodness, which piece of crap will we buy?!? The suspense is going to kill you isn't it?!
After searching the streets for a car I headed over to Military Clothing and Sales because even though hubby has about 900 brown shirts we couldn't find one in all of our 12 bags. As luck would have it Military Clothing and Sales does not open till 10AM, so I found myself with an hour to waste. Guess what is next to Military Clothing and Sales? That's right, my favorite place to get a pedicure ~ AND my favorite girls are still there!! SCORE! Check out my toes....
After getting Hubs out the door I started my search for a car. By that I mean I walked all over this post looking for a car by peering into windows checking for 'For Sale' signs. I was thankful the lemon lot was in the same place - the commissary parking lot. There were several beautiful hoopties to choose from - I made a list, check it twice and took it home (to the hotel) for Hubby to look over with me...oh goodness, which piece of crap will we buy?!? The suspense is going to kill you isn't it?!
After searching the streets for a car I headed over to Military Clothing and Sales because even though hubby has about 900 brown shirts we couldn't find one in all of our 12 bags. As luck would have it Military Clothing and Sales does not open till 10AM, so I found myself with an hour to waste. Guess what is next to Military Clothing and Sales? That's right, my favorite place to get a pedicure ~ AND my favorite girls are still there!! SCORE! Check out my toes....
All that for $24 baby! That included a 1 hour 10 minute pedicure, coffee, walnut cookie, a moonpie AND a 5 minute 'massagie' on my shoulders AFTER my leg 'massagie'. Can you say heaven? And my girls remembered me! (Yes, I am hanging out in the bathroom again & that picture was taken on the toilet..... Don't judge me, all my peeps are sleeping...OH JETLAG how I dislike you!)
Hubs and I met back up after lunch and headed over to housing.
I wish I had taken my camera with me when we went to look for a house.
House #1 was in a great location, right next door to my old house. Perfect, it put the kids right on the park! We knew we wanted this one before we even looked at it, and as we were walking up to it we noticed it had a fence ~ EVEN better!! All I can say is THANK GOD WE LOOKED AT IT BEFORE WE SAID YES!! I mean all the houses here on post are tiny (1500 square feet) and they aren't anything special to look, but to be in such a great assignment I can do (almost) anything for two years. HOWEVER I COULD NOT DO THAT HOUSE for any amount of time. I'm not even going to talk about the nasty old cafeteria style tiles they have throughout the house because all of the houses have those, but THE DOORS. They must have been from the 1950's - old wooden dark brown lacquer; painted so many times they can't even shut accordion style doors. I was in shock. These would have made great antique garden pieces if you stripped them down to their natural wood...However they do not work in a living/functioning house. Next up is the light fixtures. OMG. I couldn't get over them. The light fixtures throughout the ENTIRE house were seashells and the light bulbs were BIGGER than the fixtures themselves. OMG. I didn't even know what to say.
House #2 - not much better, but a little, I think. Maybe it was the lesser of two evils...the doors were better, but the toilet and the bathroom. Oh dear. The toilet and the toilet lid didn't match. As I was 'considering' taking this house I ask if they could fix the toilet to make it match....all they would have to do is replace the toilet seat. The said no. THEY SAID NO! Are you kidding me?
We walked around the neighborhood noticing that there were 8 other 4 bedroom houses that looked available or looked close to available. I wrote the numbers down and we went back to housing to tell them how BAD the houses were. They really didn't care and told us those were the only 2 we could choose from. That is when I pulled out our list - they told us those houses were not 'available' and they were still in 'maintenance'. HA. We ask to speak to Mr. Dorrough, the head of housing. What an ass that man is. He told us that is all they have and that he can't show us anything that is in maintenance, even AFTER we told him we would take something that wasn't even finished with 'maintenance'. We told him that we are more than happy to take a better house 'as is' if it was liveable. He said no. This is a man on a POWER TRIP. (Most likely one of those GS workers that has been in his job WAY TOO long and needs to get a dose of reality and get shipped back to the US.) At this point I saw STEAM coming out of Hubby's ears, and that doesn't happen very often (and I must say it is quite the turn on! - I know - TMI. Whateve's..). In the end they found a house that had been refinished (that was on our list) and that was surprisingly out of maintance. It is still bad, but we can do anything for 2 years - and Hubby will not be deployed.
Oh and in the mix of all that I was able to shop around and look for a phone. No family plans anywhere. Must take the international phone we have to Ipark Mall to have it activated. Can't do it on post that would be too easy. They don't have unlimited texting or calling, so for those of you (this includes my stateside friends) that want to text with me you will need to download the ap Kakao - it is free texting and calling internationally although I have heard the calls are not very clear. Oh, and I only got 3g. (Am I pouting or what?)
More on my ROCKIN' ride later.
Hubs and I met back up after lunch and headed over to housing.
I wish I had taken my camera with me when we went to look for a house.
House #1 was in a great location, right next door to my old house. Perfect, it put the kids right on the park! We knew we wanted this one before we even looked at it, and as we were walking up to it we noticed it had a fence ~ EVEN better!! All I can say is THANK GOD WE LOOKED AT IT BEFORE WE SAID YES!! I mean all the houses here on post are tiny (1500 square feet) and they aren't anything special to look, but to be in such a great assignment I can do (almost) anything for two years. HOWEVER I COULD NOT DO THAT HOUSE for any amount of time. I'm not even going to talk about the nasty old cafeteria style tiles they have throughout the house because all of the houses have those, but THE DOORS. They must have been from the 1950's - old wooden dark brown lacquer; painted so many times they can't even shut accordion style doors. I was in shock. These would have made great antique garden pieces if you stripped them down to their natural wood...However they do not work in a living/functioning house. Next up is the light fixtures. OMG. I couldn't get over them. The light fixtures throughout the ENTIRE house were seashells and the light bulbs were BIGGER than the fixtures themselves. OMG. I didn't even know what to say.
House #2 - not much better, but a little, I think. Maybe it was the lesser of two evils...the doors were better, but the toilet and the bathroom. Oh dear. The toilet and the toilet lid didn't match. As I was 'considering' taking this house I ask if they could fix the toilet to make it match....all they would have to do is replace the toilet seat. The said no. THEY SAID NO! Are you kidding me?
We walked around the neighborhood noticing that there were 8 other 4 bedroom houses that looked available or looked close to available. I wrote the numbers down and we went back to housing to tell them how BAD the houses were. They really didn't care and told us those were the only 2 we could choose from. That is when I pulled out our list - they told us those houses were not 'available' and they were still in 'maintenance'. HA. We ask to speak to Mr. Dorrough, the head of housing. What an ass that man is. He told us that is all they have and that he can't show us anything that is in maintenance, even AFTER we told him we would take something that wasn't even finished with 'maintenance'. We told him that we are more than happy to take a better house 'as is' if it was liveable. He said no. This is a man on a POWER TRIP. (Most likely one of those GS workers that has been in his job WAY TOO long and needs to get a dose of reality and get shipped back to the US.) At this point I saw STEAM coming out of Hubby's ears, and that doesn't happen very often (and I must say it is quite the turn on! - I know - TMI. Whateve's..). In the end they found a house that had been refinished (that was on our list) and that was surprisingly out of maintance. It is still bad, but we can do anything for 2 years - and Hubby will not be deployed.
Oh and in the mix of all that I was able to shop around and look for a phone. No family plans anywhere. Must take the international phone we have to Ipark Mall to have it activated. Can't do it on post that would be too easy. They don't have unlimited texting or calling, so for those of you (this includes my stateside friends) that want to text with me you will need to download the ap Kakao - it is free texting and calling internationally although I have heard the calls are not very clear. Oh, and I only got 3g. (Am I pouting or what?)
More on my ROCKIN' ride later.