This morning I was planning on being picked up by my sponsor at 0920 for a 1000 CIF (Central Issuing Facility) appointment where I would be issued all the gear I need while stationed in Germany. Instead there was a knock on our door at 0840. I answered the door in my undershirt and my pants with no shoes or socks. The specialist that dropped me off yesterday then asks if I'm ready to go…I laugh and said no and tell him my sponsor was going to pick me up at 0930. So he calls my sponsor and they talk for quite a while. Turns out my sponsor is off on pass today…he seems like a great guy, but also a little spacey too. So they decided this specialist that was here will take me to CIF and then bring me back with all my gear. So I hurry up and get ready, then we take off.
There were two others from our battalion in the van and we had to head to the office first. On the way there, the guys were talking about a barracks inspection this morning and what a pain in the butt it was. I hated that back in Korea. I'm so glad I'm in family housing now and I don't have to worry about that crap any more.
Once we arrived at the office we found out that the van we were in had to be used by someone else. There was a bit of confusion and we stood around for a while before a sergeant in the office told us to use his personal car. Once we arrived the others started their walk-in appointments and I headed to CIF and was given a sheet showing what I should still have and then told to check it over and sign it. I had no idea if I had all the stuff listed on there, so they let me take the sheet so I could compare it to my list I was given after leaving Korea. Most of the stuff is being shipped at the moment, but the final list I had in Korea shows what I had left. It's important to make sure there isn't anything on the list that shouldn't be because if there is, you will end up paying for it in the end. We left and I rescheduled for another appointment next week.
The specialist drove me back to my place and that was the extent of my work day today. My wife and I walked to the commissary and did some shopping. As we were checking out we tried to buy coffee, but forgot that it is a rationed item here in Germany. We forgot our ration cards and were unable to buy it. In Korea they tracked everything electronically via your ID card, but here in Germany they do it the old fashioned way…they put a little check mark on a little piece of paper that is your ration card. Alcohol, tobacco, and coffee are all rationed here in Germany. Being a couple from Seattle we are used to having our coffee…we'll see how this rationing goes.
We ate lunch back at our place and then headed back to the commissary once again with ration card in hand to pick up our beloved coffee. We then headed to the library just to check it out. On the way back we stopped by the "gym" here at PHV. The gym is a pretty poor excuse for a gym. It is basically a room that they have aerobic and yoga classes in. There are no weights or cardio machines…just a room. I've never been on any military base that didn't have a real gym…or multiple gyms for that matter. I'm a little bummed because I wanted to start getting back into the work out routine.
Back at home we ate dinner and watched "The Green Lantern". I've heard so many bad things about it I had very low expectations for it. The movie was average, but not as bad as I was expecting. We watched it on a Netflix DVD, which I'm glad to be able to start using again. I have a queue of 448 movies ready for us to start watching and now that I have a mailing address once again, we can proceed.
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