Unprocessed October

Tomorrow marks our 17th day here. Seventeen days of hotel living, eating out for every single meal, and no true sense of home. Overall though, God has been faithful and we're making out just fine, despite that fact that Michelle hasn't been able to do her hair since arriving here! We haven't decided if we're going to buy a transformer (about $130) to use our American-voltage things or just re-purchase some of the most used items. Thankfully Michelle's Jew-fro has been quite manageable with the complete lack of humidity here. If it doesn't get some diffusing action soon though, it has threatened to rebel. Hopefully this week we can make a decision.

Moving on. We came across this challenge a few months ago and signed a pledge to take part: october-unprocessed-2012. At the time we weren't thinking about the life change we'd be in the midst of during the month of October, we were just excited to take part in something that we really believe in: eating whole, unprocessed foods and avoiding as many unnecessary/unnatural additives, preservatives, chemicals and hormones as possible.

Unprocessed October, the nitty-gritty

.          Intentions: 

1) to kick our sugary/processed food habit
2) to eliminate the grey area of times when it seems reasonable to indulge in a less-than-desirable food that we'll probably regret having consumed later
3) to begin eating for fuel and not entertainment/ boredom/ bad habit go-to
4) to rely on whole, natural, nutrient-dense food for sustenance and overall health
5) to helps shed some extra LBS.
6) to do something together, support each other through difficulty, and succeed as a team
7) to seek after something that we do not possess the strength or discipline to do without the power and presence of God in our daily lives 

.          Deliberate Exception Clause: 

1) one cheat meal per week - Jason
    one cheat dessert per week - Michelle
2) cream for coffee is the one dairy product Jason will consume this month, we've decided ahead of time that the pros of allowing this product outweigh the cons of having such an insubstantial amount of processed liquid in his diet.

Tidbits of Germ-info

General:

The stop lights sequences:     Red (stop)     Yellow (get set)           Green (go)
                       as well as:     Green (go)    Yellow (slow down)     Red (stop)
* Jason loves the Yellow (get set) version.

We've heard nothing but American music on every radio station since arriving.
     "Here's my number, so call me maybe." will not cease!

Dogs are allowed everywhere- grocery stores, restaurants, trains, walking around town; on leash, off leash, a few feet behind their owners, wherever.

Nothing is open on Sunday. Aside from a few restaurants here and there, it's a ghost town.

We were told that almost all Germans speak English, but we haven't found that to be the case. When we do run into non-English speaking Germans though, they are very gracious and attempt to communicate with us with whatever broken pieces of each language either of us can decipher.

To prevent further instances of this we begin our first round of German language classes on Thursday and already signed up for a second course starting at the end of November.

Going out for a meal is an experience, a nice change from what we're used to back home. There is no such thing as fast service which allows us tons of time to observe what's going on around us (People eat outside all year long here. Restaurants have heat lamps on patios and fleece blankets on every chair for customers use), talk more, enjoy each course/beverage without worrying the next will come and crowd the table, digest our food more slowly and feel more satisfied at the end of each meal.

There are 4-6 military bases in this area and no matter which one we're on, it seems like we see the same 15 people. We also met a guy at church who worked at Camp Wabana in Annapolis. The world really seems small sometimes.

Apartment Hunting:

The ground floor is not considered the 1st floor. So if a flat is on the 3rd floor expect to be walking up 4 flights of stairs, the kind of stairs that double back because the ceilings on every floor are about 12 feet high.
*The second place we looked at was 122 steps up. Awesome view, awesome workout.

Washing machines and dryers often come in 1 singular unit that can both wash and dry clothes. Most often these are found in the kitchen next to the dishwasher or in a basement cellar to share with the rest of the building for € 4.50 per load. Yikes!

Kitchens often come unfurnished, which means there are no cabinets, countertops, or appliances. Bare walls. The Germans think it's crazy that anyone would want to reuse another's kitchen.

Bedrooms are rarely large enough for a full-sized bed and a single dresser. The German's believe that a bedroom is a sleeping room but Americans try to live in their bedroom: eat, watch tv, sleep, hang out and therefore want larger bedrooms.

*newly added*

There isn't carpeting anywhere. Every room is tile or wood (varying degrees of parque). Therefore house shoes are HUGE here because feet always get cold. We've taken our pain-in-the-butt-to-clean for granted our entire lives and now we badly miss the warmth and coziness. "At least it was a legit excuse for me to get some cute new mocassins!" Michelle

Lighting is hard to come by here as well. Most of the places we've seen have wire coming out of the ceiling ready for a lighting fixture, but landlords do not provide such things. We were instructed multiple times to simply hit up IKEA for some inexpensive fixtures and/or fans, then put them up ourselves. Well okay then!

Almost a full week now

We need to apologize for our lack of good pictures. We have never really been into taking photos, so it is hard to remember to take them now, but we will keep trying and hopefully only get better. Don't give up on us yet!

This is a church in the city we're staying in right now. 

Since we last wrote we have:

. gone to our first Sunday morning church service, a Presbyterian church-plant that's been meeting since January in someone's basement.

. been invited out for Tuesday night trivia, from someone we met at church. There we hung out with some German University students who were wonderful, smiley, and very engaging; defying every German stereotype we were worried about.

. our car back! Driving is such a luxury that I have always taken for granted. Because we are staying on an American base until we find housing, the first 3 days we were here without transportation were difficult,

Our very first look at the market in the city-center.

. checked out the Saturday morning market (it's enormous!) in Wiesbaden, a city we're thinking of living in. Here we were able to get a pretty good feel of the heartbeat of the people here, most of whom were much more friendly that we were anticipating.

. set up appointments to look at two apartments this weekend!

Just a random hot spring on the sidewalk.

. been given opportunities to share our faith with new friends and praise God's great name in a dark part of the world. Which has led to even greater confirmation that this is exactly where we've been called to. Feeling as though we are right in the center of God's will is an incredible feeling. Satisfying and terrifying all at once. 

They are very serious about recycling here. 

. walked anywhere from 2 - 6.5 miles per day, simply living life and getting around from place to place. Quite the lifestyle change from living back home, where we only moved from room to room or went out of our way to make time for exercise.

Example: My immediate thought upon seeing this store,
"Maybe we should get Jason some athletic sandals."

. been reintroduced to shopping/consumerism. Back home we didn't go to the mall very often, we weren't into new clothes or very much habitual spending. As soon as we got here we were assaulted by all kinds of stores, marketing, and consumerism simply walking to the market for groceries (in Maryland there aren't any billboards so I'm not used to the subtle, daily marketing attacks like I was growing up in the Midwest). 

That's the update for now. Jason went into the office yesterday for the first time so I'm sure this weekend he'll post about the new office (whatever he can actually share with us) and share some of his experiences during our first full week here as well.

Guten Morgen Dienstag

a very quick update of the last few days, tomorrow we'll get out a more detailed post:

Almost all of our admin stuff is done: ID cards, picked up our car, etc.
Today we're taking Autumn to the Vet on base to get registered then we have our first appointment with the Housing Office followed by tours of two cities we might possibly live in, given by new friends (Praise God!); topped off with some Tuesday night trivia.
This European lifestyle isn't too bad!

Wheels Up!

And you thought McKayla wasn't impressed...

As I announced on facebook last night, Michelle, Autumn, and I are finally in Germany!  It's weird finally being here after 9 months of build-up and anticipation.  Over the past few weeks I (Jason) have been very anxious about travelling.  I kept seeing a bunch of worst-case scenarios playing out in which we forgot stuff, something got lost, or something happens to Autumn.  To avoid the last scenario Michelle and I researched bringing a dog to Europe tirelessly and made sure everything we could do to get her into the country was done.  We heard a number of horror stories about travelling with dogs and, needless to say, I was very nervous once we got to Dulles on Thursday.  Now that we are here, I am happy to report that travelling with Autumn was a piece of cake.  The lady at the United check out counter didn't even ask to see her papers, we flew through security, and Autumn didn't even have to sit on the floor, instead taking up the open middle seat between us!  She attracted a lot of attention from the great flight attendants though, who were making jokes about how high she was (altitude and sedative) and asked her how she took her coffee.    Once we got to Germany, the customs agents remarkably just waved us through.  It would've been just as easy to get her here without any papers or microchips whatsoever...better to be prepared for the worst I guess.

Like Autumn, we had a great flying experience.  Michelle enjoyed watching movies...everything from Clueless to the Hunger games, in the head-rest screens, but did not enjoy airplane food, opting for the vegetarian dish.  I, on the other-hand opted for the "chicken" not knowing what to expect.  Imagine my surprise when I uncovered my plate to find vegetable fried rice and what can only be described at general sesame sweet and sour tsaos chicken! I am a huge fan of cheap chinese food...so having cheap chinese airplane food was like winning the lottery.  The flight seemed to fly by (no pun intended), despite the fact Michelle only slept for 2.5 hours and myself only catching about 30 min of z's during MIB3.  [Michelle interjection: Thanks to nurse Rachel Livingston for prescribing walks every hour to circulate blood! It made the trip a lot more comfortable!]

     Once we got out of the airport, we had little time to rest.  Our sponsor drove us to each of the US military facilities here to get our admin stuff done.  My initial reaction was that our first few hours here felt like my first few hours in Afghanistan...there's a lot of running around trying to get ID cards and whatnot, with all the necessary offices being spread out meaning constant running around and the guarantee that you will end up missing at least one required alphanumeric form.  Also, everything from bathroom fixtures to light switches to door handles remind me of being in AF again as well.  At the end of the day 1 we were able to get our ID cards, a new bank account, and a new cell phone contract. [Note: Michelle mentioned on Facebook that you all can send us iMessages from your iPhones to our apple ID (jjdelisio@gmail.com).  Well I found out today that to send you all iMessages we will need your email address/apple IDs so we can save them in our iPhone as your contact info.] 

There is a lot more to tell of course and a lot I've probably already forgotten due to such a long day.  Michelle and I have had a great first day here and will be posting about our first attempt at exploring the city later today!

today we are excited for

seeing what God's plan is for our time in Germany, how He will use us

travelling to surrounding countries and eating their authentic cuisine

experiencing a culture other than our own.

learning a different way to live and a better understanding for what 'the American dream' really means.

being a part of the church in a place where we've never been, whose needs are different than we might expect

ways of being the church are not within our current comfort zone

to live in an area where cars are not the primary mode of transportation

whether or not God will have us start a family abroad or not

living in an area that is truly diverse

bier.