1 down, only 2 more to go!

It's hard to believe that we have lived in Germany for a full year! Time has flown by! We accomplished a lot in the past year, from getting by in a country that speaks a language we barely know to meeting wonderful new friends.

We took a poll of the Kurt and Carrie Household and this is what we found:

Top 3 reasons we don't Always love Germany:
1. Language - Not knowing the language is definitely a trial. We struggle through and know basic "restaurant German." Unfortunately, we haven't been at all diligent about learning German. It's actually pretty easy not to, when the Germans are eager to practice their English on you.
2. European inconvenience - Most specifically, stores close at 8 pm and are closed on Sundays. This definitely takes some getting used to. There just aren't enough hours in the day! And it's always fun (read with sarcasm) when you wake up on Sunday morning eager to bake only to realize you don't have a key ingredient!
3. Being away from family and friends - Although the internet has made keeping in touch at least 100 times easier and better, it's still hard to be away from all our family and friends at home. We miss you all a lot!

Top 3 reasons we love Germany:
1. Food is better here - from Italian, to Greek, to Gyro stands on the corner, to McDonald's (seriously, it tastes different here!)
2. Travel - We're very fortunate that travel here is so easy. In the time it would take us to drive from Maryland to North Eastern PA, we can easily drive to either Belgium, Switzerland, The Netherlands or France...and we have. Similarly, in the time it takes to fly to Atlanta, Georgia, we can fly to Italy, Ireland, or France.
3. New friends we've made - The friends we've made out here quickly became our family away from family. We've made wonderful memories with many people out here and we look forward to continuing our friendship for the rest of our tour here and when we move back to the States.

Based on the past year, it seems as though the next 2 years will be over before we know it. We hope we can keep up the same travel pace. And we're going to try to keep our posts as current as possible...so check back often for updates!

Thanks to everyone for your love and support over the past year! We hope to catch up with you soon!

Kurt would also like to add: "Ich liebe meine frau!"

Tschüss!