Trying again.

Well, I think I might have fixed the problem induced by IE-9, but it required a good deal of research and experimentation. And who at Microsoft thought putting the tabs needed under the ALT key-is totally beyond me.

This past week was filled with mundane process of getting briefing after briefing-so that the powers that be can say they told you so-if you make a mistake and offend either the military or the German authorities. I also had to go through a long series of paper work drills in order to prevent American Express from sending a hit man after me for the expenses we are racking up while waiting for: 1) my first new paycheck, 2) a house and 3) our car to arrive.

Speaking of cars-I got my German drivers license this week. I wish I could say the same for the S.O.-but I think she may have set a new record for someone who flunked a test where so many of the answers were telegraphed by the instructor in advance. 🙁  So now, she is in the penalty box for 2 weeks-which of course means, you know who has to drive everywhere. This is not good since I actually have to start diving into the real reason I am here this week, starting to become a productive member of our work staff.  Which would be a made a lot easier if the IT geeks had not deleted my account in the process of conducting their Windows 7 upgrade. Now I will spend most of Monday on the phone with Help Desk I fear-and hope I can get back all of my e-mails I sent last week. ( Some of which deal with me getting paid).

Of course if the S.O. had gone back to Japan this past summer-when I was in Romania-as I urged her too and renewed her Japanese drivers license as I urged her to, she could have gotten a German license under the provision of Prufungsheit in German law. ( US licenses have reciprocity-but our sovereign Army masters here seem not to know this).

It is not that she does not know the material-but she does not understand the principles of RTFQ and also the methods of English lanugage testing. I knew she was in trouble when it took her more time than most to get 2/3 of the way through the test. Eventually it will dawn on her she needs to pass this test-especially if we end up living where she wants us to live.

Tonight we are watching the “Germany has talent” show-similar to “America has talent” known as DAS SUPER TALENT. The S.O. is loving watching it-although she continually is asking me to translate the performers responses. My German is so atrophied that it is not up to the task-mainly because I have to refresh my vocabulary and they speak to fast. This is one reason once we get settled-I plan to enroll in the intergration courses for new German residents at the Volkshochshule. These course are offered to anyone who gets counseled and signs up in a class where space is available. I’m hoping it can get my German back on a level I had it back in college. The show is kind of interesting-they have their own German version of Simon Cowl (sp?) and in a big surprise to me, one of the judges is black. A sign of the new Germany I think-where all kinds of folks are German citizens. (Learning German at the Volkhochschule is a requirement to become a German citizen). Another interesting facet of the program is that they allow the acts to perform for much longer than America Has Got Talent does. (Right now they have a trapeze act with two 59 year olds-a man and a woman.)

Plus it is what Col Gundel told me I should do.

On other fronts-the house hunting effort continues, with this definately being a landlords market. ( or a sellers market). We have basically “interviewed” with several landlords-and are waiting to find out who finds us worthy. The leases here have an anti-discrimination clause in them, but for the life of me, I don’t see how it is working.

Speaking of language-it has become an interesting dialectic for me. My German knowledge is weak to mediocre at best-and its complicated by the fact that the S.O and I conduct our conversations in a 50-50 mix of English and Japanese. ( She will speak to me in Japanese and then revert to English and I will do vice versa. Or she will ask me a question in English and I will answer her in Japanese, or vice versa). So now I have been expaling some things in German in English and then some in Japanese-so that she can use her electric dictionary. I’m not lingustically gifted-so its a challenge. ( Our ability to converse in Japanese as come in handy during house tours and conversations with potential landlords, they look at us quizzically as the S.O. tells me she hates something, while smiling all the while). I am having to work hard to keep all the vocabulary in the right box.

And so it goes. House and car? They are out there somewhere-I sure wish car would come soon.

But it is all good.