Eating Mexican in Germany

Had a good first weekend in Heidelberg. Met quite a few people from the office -- all very welcoming. More than just the office-people, all the Americans in Heidelberg have been very forthcoming with advice and help. Went out on the Hauptstrasse both nights -- it's the pedestrian road filled with bars, restaurants, and shopps. Lots of fun to be had there.

As far as the settling in goes:
Picked up a cell phone (got another iPhone; the plan isn't as comprehensive as one in the U.S. -- only 120 minutes per month plus 29c/min for any more calls, plus 40 texts, plus free internet -- all for a little cheaper than the U.S. Big-time bummer, though, that the E-Unification hasn't gotten to cell networks yet. My phone will only work in Germany unless I want to incur big-time international roaming charges. Oh well
Met with people from housing today. Haven't seen any places yet, but I have a better idea of where I want to live. I think I'm gonna try for a nearby town called Schwetzingen. It's about 10 minutes from Heidelberg driving, but you can get significantly more bang for the buck in the housing market. Courtney and I ate dinner out there tonight and it's a great town -- good restaurants/pubs, well manicured, and a bit quieter than the busier areas of Heidelberg.

Speaking of dinner -- as a lark, we went to a Mexican restaurant. Not too bad, although pretty bland as far as that stuff goes.

Arrived in Heidelberg yesterday. The flights were uneventful, and somehow I managed to sleep for the enough of the overseas leg to make it pass relatively quickly. Courtney and I watched a movie, then listened to music and rode the line of consciousness until landing. We breezed through customs, grabbed our bags, and located our sponsor with the help of the official USAEUR greeter (an SSG, probably bored out of his mind). Our sponsor then drove us the hour or so to Heidelberg. When we arrived there, we did some initial in-processing -- updated our CAC cards so we could get on and off post, scheduled appointments for lodging, set up a post office box (address below) and figured out our schedule for next week. Today we are heading over to HHC for 5th Corps to do some company level in-processing. Hopefully we'll also get a chance to get cell phones, and maybe even have our official promotion ceremony. Monday we're meeting with housing to start the apartment search. Tuesday we start the rest of the in-processing -- I think that involves finance, driving, health, dental, etc.

Haven't had much of a chance to see Heidelberg yet, but what I have seen looks great. Ate a bratwurst for lunch and everything...

My sponsor lives in a reasonable 2 bedroom flat with internet, washer-dryer, etc. Because crazy germans take everything with them when they move (all appliances, even the cabinetry) it is necessary to build most of that into the lease. Shouldn't be a big deal with the people at housing helping us.

Anyways, that's all for now. love.
patrick

Patrick Robinson
CMR 419, Box 473
APO AE 09102

Grandma and Grampa on their bench.

In Chicago for the work week. Good to see some of the guys before I head out.

This is Chuck. Chuck is the Airborne duck. Chuck had to do whatever training we did during Airborne school. Chuck got his Airborne wings in 1996. He has jumped from an airplane over 1000 times.Practicing our exits from the mock door.
The harness trainer. It's medieval. We use it to practice "slipping." (steering our 'chutes)
This is the fun end of the 34' tower "zip lines." Pretty fun, all things considered.

The swing landing trainer. That's me on the left. You jump off the platform, swing a couple times, the SGT Airborne on the ground drops you, to simulate lateral drift while landing. You do this a lot, practice makes perfect. But not really.
The SLT in action.
Airborne graduation. Hot, humid, sweaty. We actually graduated on National Airborne Day -- 69th Anniversary of the "Test Platoon's" first jump.

Savannah for the weekend. This is the view from our hotel.