Goodbye to Stuttgart: Our last week

On Sunday we ate with Darren, Amy and Carson Bingham, Chris' attending doctor and his family. They drove us to their house from church and it was such a fun evening! Naomi and Carson were best pals and couldn't stop playing together. We toured their house and their basement was huge! They even had a sauna! They didn't use the basement either, crazy!

Monday we had pizza, enjoyed the evening on the balcony and got a little more packed.

Tuesday we ate with the Shaun, Tanya, Ethan, Chloe and Hans Jakob Black. Tanya Black was a sister to my good friend from Forest Grove, Susy Vega, who's husband was a year ahead of us in optometry school. Small world! The dinner was delicious Norweigen meal and the kids played for a few house and Naomi was in heaven. She really has missed playmates. And we've missed speaking English with Americans because we chatted for a few house too :)

Tanya Black with Hans Jakob Black, Me and Fiona

On Wednesday Chris had to go to Katterbach clinic with Major Bingham and it was 2 hrs away. When he got home, Major Bingham took me to a restaurant about 15 min away to meet his wife Amy for a baby shower for one of the girls in the ward. It was a blast to be the ladies and chat the night away! Man, I have missed that! My meal was delicious too!

Thursday Chris finished up his rotation with Major Bingham and we had a dinner with the clinic near base that night. We got to meet all of Chris' co-workers and enjoy a delicious German meal, with a few bees thrown in for excitement.

I can't find my actual photo from the day but luckily I have this!

Friday we left for Kettwig. As we drove away from Konni's for the last time it was so sad! We were leaving our lovely home and lovely Germany. It was bittersweet because we missed family and the little things that were familiar to us but we'd grown to love the Germans, their way of living and our European adventure.

The things we noticed and loved:

• Their houses are really functional. Everything has a place and a lot of their vertical space is used.
• We loved their open air windows! Our windows were open or tilted at the top to allow air all day and all night. It kept the house feeling fresh. And I realized that not a lot of homes had an odor to them because they kept the windows airing. We'd been in a lot of homes with Airbnb and none of them had a smell.
• At the pool there were no lifeguards, no "pool rules" signs, no painted signs with "no runnning". There were pool staff who walked around every so often and even took a squirt gun away from some unruly kids but that was all I saw of any discipline. Every person who went into the pool set their shoes, sandals, flip flops at the stairs that lead into the water so there were a ton of shoes sitting there but no one cared. 
• They seemed to be very laid back about body image at the pool. Everyone was more interested in having a great time with family and friends and not about looking pretty. 
• Food: Their cheeses were delicious and so yummy! A huge wedge of Brie was only 1 Euro! At home its about $4 or $5, and maybe even $6 if it's a certain brand. They had delicious milk and different flavors like banana. The yoghurt was delicious and so many flavors too, banana, apple, maracuja...etc. The juice was delicious too with great flavors; lime/watermelon, blood orange, etc.We loved their butter pretzels, which were just a thin pretzel sliced with butter in the middle, YUM! Their mustard was delicious to slather on bratwurst. And Spezi was delicious drink to complete a mustard/bratwurst/fries meal. Not very healthy but soooo good!
• I loved bringing my own bag to the store and loading groceries. I usually only brought one big bag and hung it off the stroller then loaded the heavy stuff in bottom and lighter on top. Anything that didn't fit Naomi would hold or we'd put under the stroller. I really couldn't get any more than the big bag full because our fridge was so tiny. We had to bag our own and the cashiers would just zip your stuff to the side and sometimes your stuff would mix in with others in front of you but it was no biggie. I got stressed about it at first but you just pick out your stuff and move on :) At one store I noticed a man holding a little box he brought and putting groceries in it! 
• The corner bakeries are divine. Its not typical in America (maybe in NY or something) to find such heavenly and affordable goodness just in a mall or on every corner. And we discovered we could get just about anything and it would be our new favorite. Ritter sports are so addicting. It was hard not to eat a whole package by yourself. The Eggs were so delicious, buttery and creamy. It took a bit to get used to it but the U.S. eggs are a little gross compared to German.
• The lingo: "Ciao!" - Goodbye! "Tschus!" - See you later friend! "Bitte" - Sorry. Please sit. Come again? "Guten Apetit" - Enjoy your meal!  
• Beds were two twin beds pushed together in a frame so you could forget and go to lean in the middle of the bed and have your elbow sink down. Some frames werent too tight and you could fit half your body in the crevice. They also had separate duvets for each bed and no sheets, just a duvet. It was easy to make a bed! This was the case with most beds but we did have a few beds/bedding like in the U.S. and some with sheets. 
• No building codes. This was really fun to see the cool ways things were set up. 
• I finally figured out why some words in German are capitalized. They capitalize the nouns :)
• I loved their way of recycling! They separate their Bio, clean paper, packaging (plastic, cardboard, tin cans...), glass (separate that into green, white, brown), and everything else.
• Lastly, we LOVED the German people. They went out of their way to help us with the girls, or me and the girls when Chris wasn't there, they carried my bags, held doors, lifted our stroller, gave candy and toys to the girls, gave up seats, gave us flowers, spoke English to us, offered rides, kind words, a smile and so much more. They are such amazing and loving people and we were so glad to have learned more of the German culture.

Some things that were a little difficult to get used to:

•  No supermarkets close by that were a one-stop-shop. There were some farther from us but we never got to go to one.
• Everyone smokes, a lot.
• No Air Conditioning anywhere but a few select stores. 
• Two-hour wash cycle. Back in Forest Grove I could have 5 loads of laundry done in an hour and a half. This was a hard transition. The hang dry was no big deal to me.
• Small fridges. We had one Airbnb that had a huge fridge with a freezer under neath that had an ICE TRAY! What a luxury!
• Church was a 6 hour ordeal. We usually packed food for the train rides. Fast Sundays were hard because it was so long without food. Some of us may have got cranky because of this :)
•  Separate pharmacy from stores and you have to ask for what you need.
• You have to take your glass to the recycle bins at certain locations on the street or at grocery stores.