Wednesday, January 30, 2013

A Day Away - (Germany) Day 399

This morning I headed out and met up with SGT Mex and another guy (PFC Ski) from the ComSec office at 0730. We headed out in a TMP to the Landstuhl hospital. PFC Ski had an appointment at 1000 and I had one at 1300. We did head out early which had us arrive early and PFC Ski was able to get his appointment all taken care of shortly after we arrived. We then headed over to Ramstein Air Base which is only about 15 minutes away. We decided to eat lunch at Chili's, but found out that it doesn't open until 1100…and it was only 1020. So we drove around the base and then finally just waited outside until they opened the doors. We had a great lunch. I was a little shocked to receive American style service by the waiter. Eating at restaurants here in Germany is quite a bit different than in the states. It is more of a social experience here in Germany and people tend to stay quite a bit longer. The staff at the restaurants take their time and usually only come to your table if you flag them down. I've found myself waiting trying to get a waiter's attention to pay my bill and leave. This was not the case at Chili's on the base, the waiter was there about every 5 minutes it seemed, just checking on us and refilling our drinks (something that costs each time at a local restaurant).

We then headed back to the hospital where I was going to my appointment. After checking in and going back, I found out that they can't do the procedure because I didn't actually have a headache today. What's ironic is that I've had a killer headache that has lasted the last three days, but just like when you take your car to the mechanic…it was fine today. They schedule about a month out…how am I supposed to know that I'm supposed to have a headache when coming in? I guess if I would have known, I would have done some running or sit-ups the night before. They did give me a special number to call and said that when I have a painful headache, I can give them a call and they can see if they can fit me in. The problem is that the place is an hour away, and I have to coordinate time off. So we left and headed back to Ramstein Air Base. We did some shopping and then headed to Baskin Robbins for some ice cream. Nobody was in a hurry to head back to work.

We did leave a little after 1500 and headed back. Even though I didn't get to actually do anything at my appointment, it was a good day. I had some good conversation with SGT Mex and had a good time hanging out with them both. SGT Mex is wondering why he's still here, they started the paperwork to chapter him out a long time ago. I think they are keeping him around to help while the base is closing, but we'll see. He's a little pissed off, but he's dealing with it.

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