Where we get our mail...

The CMR was the busiest I have ever seen tonight! I don't know if all the backed up Christmas mail finally burst through but there was a line all the way from the pick up window around the corner. By the time I made it half way to the pick up window, that many more people had joined the line and it was still going around the corner our of sight! Crazy! We check our mail everyday (except Sunday when they are closed for pick ups) and we had 3 packages today! YAY! I absolutely love getting packages. How often do you check you mail? 

(I love her outfit btw!)

Passports, get your passports...

Should I get a tourist passport?

...ask yourself these questions:

*Do you want to travel to other countries?

*Do you want to go on MWR trips?

*Do you want to travel home to visit again before your 3 years are up?

(if you answered yes to any of those questions, then YES, you should get a tourist passport.)


I am amazed at the number of families stationed here in Germany that do not have tourist passports! Did you know that the free passports the military issues you is to be used only for getting here and getting home again when you PCS? There may be other situations when you might use one such as if you had to fly home for the death of an immediate family member and were on emergency orders, or you were flown back to the states for a medical/health reason. They are for "official" travel only, as in when you are under orders to go somewhere.  Generally if you are going on vacation you will need a tourist (paid) passport (even on space-a you should have a tourist passport.)

No-Fee Passport Info

If you are planning to visit other countries while you are stationed in Germany you will need to apply for a tourist passport for each member of your family including your sponsor (soldier/airman/sailor, ect). I would recommend doing this as soon as you apply for your no-fee passport through the military. You can fill the application out online and print it out, but you will need to apply in person in a passport office if it is your first time. Renewals can be done by mail. For adults passports are valid for 10 years! 

Tourist Passport Information

You are going to run into many people here hell bent on giving you the wrong information and telling you it's ok to travel without a passport, that Europe has open borders now, or that they've done it. While it's true that you may not get stopped every time you wouldn't want to get caught driving a car without a license would you? I don't think it's worth taking that risk. Do you think that person swearing to you up and down that you'll be fine without it is going to come bail you out if you happen to get caught? Will they pay your fine for you?  It may seem like an unnecessary expense but being able to travel anywhere you want during your time overseas will be worth it. If you travel outside Germany without a tourist passport you are taking a chance on getting arrested, fined, being denied entry and getting your spouse in trouble with his command. Imagine you went to all the time and expense of planning a vacation for your family. You don't want that time and money to be wasted if you get stopped somewhere and don't have the proper documentation. (Just because the European Union has open borders now does not mean that you can travel freely without a passport. That is for citizens of the EU and they will have identification stating that. )

The Army doesn't really properly prepare you to move overseas. Most of the research is left up to you when you've already got enough going on. I hope you find this information and links helpful. I can't imagine being stationed here in Europe and not being able to get out and see any of it. It's such a wonderful experience. I was so excited to see as much as I could that the first thing we did upon getting orders to Germany was go apply for our passports. The military actually recommends getting out and travelling and making the most of your time here, but you're going to need a passport. Think of it like an investment in your sanity ;) 


**Update** here is a GREAT article someone sent me put out by the Army about travelling on your no-fee passport http://www.army.mil/article/29276/using-no-fee-passports-on-leisure-can-leave-you-stranded/

I also want to stress the importance of getting an International drivers license if you plan on driving in other countries during your travels. After you PCS and get your USAREUR license you can get an international license. There's not much to it. You take your license, a piece of paper stamped by the drivers exam station on post and a passport photo. They give you a bill which you take to the German bank and pay, then you bring back the receipt to show you paid it. I dont' remember the exact amount. I believe it was around 17 Euros? (Take a 20 Euro bill with you and it should be plenty.) You will in return get your international license. It's not a card like your stateside license. It is a thin booklet about passport sized and it translates your intormation into multiple languages. 


If you will have friends or family visiting you overseas it's also a good idea for them to apply for an international license while they are stateside. Even if they don't plan on driivng it's always best to be prepared. More information about international licenses is available here at this link.

Have a great time during your time here!!

Mission: Hanging Curtains in family housing in Germany

This is my tutorial on how to hang curtains in your Army housing in Germany. This was something that I was really confused about when I moved here and I know many others have expressed the same questions. Hopefully if you are PCSing to Germany or have just moved here this will make it easier for you. 


The apartments come with a track attached to the ceiling around each window. You could install rods but it would be difficult because:

• the windows open inward so a rod would make it very difficult to open your window
• the walls are cement which make attaching the rod more difficult

Since the tracks are on the ceiling your curtains will be hanging higher than they normally would if you were to hang them from a rod in the states. If you are ordering curtains and want them to just graze the floor order the 95" curtains. The 84" curtains will hang about a foot off the floor. Most people try to cover the ugly heaters that are located under each window and opt for the longest curtains. The heaters don't seem to cause a problem with the curtains so I wouldn't worry about causing a fire, ect. If you want counter height curtains for the kitchen or just want them to graze the window sill the 63" are perfect. The windows are wide so you will need 2 curtains for each window. (Some people use shower curtains and they are a perfect width.) Each ceiling piece has 2 tracks so that you could hang sheers on closest to the window and solid panels on the outer track, or you can hang you panels on the inner track and a valance on the outer track. That of course is all up to you and your decorative style but if does increase the number of curtains you will need.


The PX sells plastic hooks that fit into the tracks in the ceiling. There are different kinds. What you get will depend on what type of curtains you have and how easy you want the install to be. If you have curtains with small loops on the back, or hooks on the back the cheaper ones (with the loop pictured below) will work great and it will be fairly simple. If you have rod pocket, grommet style  or tab top curtains you can still use these but it will be a little more time consuming. You can either sew a piece of fabric or ribbon on the back of the curtain and then attack the white hooks to the ribbon or fabric. What I did was to hook the curtain hooks through a small safety pin and then pin the safety pin to the backside- top of the curtains. Then the curtain hooks go into the track. You can't see any of it if you do it well enough.

The other type of hooks have a clip that opens similar to a clothes pin and then the other end goes into the track. These are sold about 10 to a pack and you will need about 10 per curtain to get it to hang right. That means 1 package per curtain. Now if you have 7 windows like I do and want sheers and solid panels that's  curtains in your apartment you can see why I went with the cheaper method for some of the rooms. That's 28 panels! I don't remember what the package of clip style hooks cost but I think it was around $4.00 per package. That's $112 just for curtain hooks!!! ($4 x 28 packages = $112) The cheaper way cost I think about $2-3 per package and comes with 50 hooks. That's closer to $20. Also pay attention to what it says on the package. Notice in the picture one package says "rollers" and the other says easy to press into inner track. I highly recommend the roller type but the others work as well. They just tend to get caught easier and pull off. The other downside to these clips is you can see them where they are clipped on the curtains. 

Once you have your curtains up there are plugs or stoppers you can buy to fit in the ends so you curtains don't come of of the tracks. This is a VERY good idea. 

(stoppers)

Here is a website I came across when I was trying to figure out how to do this. http://www.germanyinfosite.com/p/base-housing-information.html Hopefully you will find it helpful. She has an article about how to sew the clips on. I didn't have my sewing machine yet so I opted for the ghetto safety pins on about half of my windows. (That's the other kicker, the run out of the clips quite often with so many people moving in all the time. If you have a neighbor moving out ask if you can have their curtain clips. You may save a lot of money!) ***Disclaimer - Each base you go to is different. There will be different options for cable, phone, internet. The housing will be different. The base housing she shows at the above website is MUCH nicer than what we have in Baumholder. Each base will be different. Her housing info is geared mainly toward the KMC area (Ramstein AB, Landstuhl, Vogelweh, Sambach, Kapaun and ROB) The only options in Baumholder currently are stairwell apartments (most are 16- 24 apartments per building) or if you are high ranking enough you can live off post. You may have to commute a bit if you can't find something close by. Baumholder also does not always follow the 1 child per bedroom rule she talks about. If you children are close enough in age or of the same sex they may require more than one child per bedroom if they are running short on housing. It will vary so please only use this as an example and don't count too much on getting something in particular. She also has some good information about how to work your windows.  I found the windows really confusing for some reason when we were staying at the hotel.


Please don't allow me to overwhelm you. Just bookmark this page and come back to it when you get here so you have a reference when it comes time to hang your curtains. :)

Cell phone migrane! (continued from previous post)

WOW! I hope this is an isolated incident and not happening to anyone else. In the future I will refrain from sharing any information I receive from AT&T customer service since that information will most likely be incorrect and therefore screw up your account as well. If you read my previous blog you'll see we have a unique cell phone situation and I, being proactive sought out answers beforehand to ensure a smooth transition to our new cell phone carrier and mobile phones. Well that was a stupid idea!

© Photoeuphoria 

Our phones were supposed to activate themselves yesterday. I called my parents several times yesterday to check and nothing was happening. I called customer service and was told to allow more time and I was assured it was still going to happen last night. I called my parents again this afternoon. No change. I called customer service again (another hour on hold) and instead of doing anything to my account or checking anything she gave me generic trouble shooting advice and told me to try it and call back. Since the phones are with my folks and not physically here with me it of course becomes more complicated as I have to call my sixty some year old father and walk him through the steps she gave me. No change. I called customer service once again (only a 30 minute wait this time, woohoo!) and was told that due to a recent rate change request on my account my transition date had been postponed to allow them to update their system with the new plan and so it wouldn't  mess up my billing. He told me I would be receiving a new date view text message in a couple weeks. WTH? The only "change" to our account in the last few months was asking Alltel to remove the military suspension (as directed by customer service) so the account would be active for the transition. And THAT is what is screwing up our transfer?? He said as long as no other rate changes had happened he could manually activate our account. Now the next step is to call my father again and walk him through the process yet again and hopefully this will take care of the situation. I actually find it mildly amusing that following their direct instructions was what caused the issue, but I'm really agitated that the woman with the heavy accent I spoke to earlier couldn't have told me this. Nothing had changed between those two phone calls. Was she just a moron or was she trying to get me off the phone as fast as possible to keep her statistics up? I can tell I'm going to LOVE being an AT&T customer. (that was sarcasm for those of you that don't know me)




**UPDATE** April 26,2011*********************************
It just keeps getting better! I called AT&T customer service today to put the military suspension on and was told we could only put it on once a year and only for 180 days (6 months) but we'd still have to pay for the service while it was turned off. EFF OFF!! Thats NOT what we were told prior to this transition and thats not what it states on their own website: http://www.wireless.att.com/answer-center/main.jsp?solutionId=60168&t=solutionTab

(The above is a screen print from their website. I know its pretty small so here is what it says:)

Question:
I am in the military and am being deployed, can I suspend my service?

Answer:
If you are in the military and are being deployed, or transferred to an area that does not have AT&T wireless service, please read the information below and contact Customer Service at 1-800-331-0500 or 611 from your wireless phone to discuss your account options.

If you are being transferred or deployed for 90 days or longer to an area where AT&T wireless does not provide service, you have two options: 1) you can cancel your service and AT&T will waive any early termination fee (ETF) or 2) you can suspend your service and retain your telephone number if you resubscribe to service within 90 days after your deployment ends if your deployment is for 3 years or less. AT&T will waive the recurring monthly fees on your account while it is suspended, you will retain your original wireless number. All billable features are removed at the time of suspension. If you are changing from a Rollover Plan to a Military Plan, you will lose all accumulated rollover minutes. If you are in the military, have a family plan and all members of the plan are transferring with you, they are also eligible to have their service cancelled or suspended. If you are in the military and are on a family plan, the account owner can have just your service cancelled or suspended. 

You must contact us within 90 days after your deployment ends to resume your service with the same telephone number. If you fail to resubscribe to service within that 90 day period, you will have to complete an application for new service with a new telephone number. When you are ready to reinstate your service, you will need to choose from rate plans and features that are available at that time. 

I read this to the customer service rep who kept putting me on hold and coming back and telling me the exact same thing. Then after several times of doing this she started insinuating that we aren't technically "deployed". I pointed out to her that I haven't heard of any "war zone deployments" that lasted for 3 years and the only tours that are for 3 years are overseas tours which is what we are on. Not only that but it says in that paragraph, "..being transferred OR deployed for 90 or longer.."

She put me on hold again saying she was going to call Alltel and see how they handle it. When she came back she said we could either cancel the account under the buyers remorse clause, or we could wait 30 days (pay the 1st months bill) and then put it on hold for 38 months. I told her I had to talk to my husband. We have had nothing but issues with AT&T so far and we've only been customers for five days. I'm not sure I want to deal with them going forward. Has anyone else in the military experienced issues like these? I know of another with a similar situation. I'd like to hear your experiences! Feel free to share in the comments.

Cell phone headache?

For those of you who had or have Alltel service that is changing to AT&T but have your plans suspended due to an OCONUS deployment  hopefully this will help you. I went through hours of calls trying to get the correct info.


**UPDATE** PLEASE DO NOT FOLLOW THE INSTRUCTION BELOW - REFER MY BLOG FOR THE REASONS WHY**


Our Alltel plan is supposed to transition to AT&T this week. The instructions we received in the mail (which in no way applied to our situation by the way, just a mass generated instruction pamphlet, most likely you got one too) gave us a whole lot of information but didn't really help answer any of my questions due to our special circumstances. (See scan of the pamphlet below)

To make a long story short - I got passed back and forth a lot but here is what I finally got for instructions for accounts on a military suspension: 
*This will only work if your new AT&T phone is still in the states. We had ours sent to a parent since they wouldn't let us send them to our APO address. 


Charge up your new AT&T phone and turn it on the day before or day of transition. (Hopefully you've been getting some kind of notification as to when that is. If you have not you can contact AT&T and they can tell you the exact date.) Call Alltel a couple days before the transition date and have the military suspension removed from your account so that your line is active. It may take a day or two for it to go into effect. It is NOT necessary to have the Alltel phones turned on or charged. If your line is still under military suspension when your account is set to switch it may not work. You should get a text on your new phone on the transition date and that will activate the phone and switch it to AT&T. Make a test call to be sure it is working (or have someone in the states do all this for you.)  You can then call AT&T and have them put a military suspension on your AT&T account. (I was informed I wouldn't need to fax any paperwork in to prove it but I have feeling when it is time I will have to send something in. I guess we will see in a couple of days.) I don't know if there will be a prorated bill for those 2 days my account was active or not. Last time Alltel was able to see we were not in the states and not using the phones and were very helpful about crediting the charges for the few days when we were trying to get the suspension put on. If we get a bill I'm sure it will be very small. 


I do not work for Alltel or AT&T. I am only relaying information provided by their customer service departments. If I find out any of this is incorrect I will post an update. My purpose is to hopefully save some other military family the time I spent making all these calls and asking questions. Those of you living overseas know that 800 numbers aren't free to call from here and it's almost impossible to find a non 800 number to contact customer service anymore. Luckily we have a magic jack that has a US phone number and we are able to use it to call 800 numbers for free.