After living in Europe for three years, it's weird the things that catch you by surprise. Suddenly there are water towers again, Chick-fil-a's, and Targets. So many of the every day things of US living are no longer ordinary.
Roads. There is SO much space. Extra space in each lane, and so much room on the side of the road we once found ourselves driving on it before we realized it wasn't another lane. The roads are wider, straighter, and the street names are in English. There is more room to park, and the parking spaces are at a convenient angle. While I loved the roundabouts in Europe and am not the biggest fan of America's red light system, I do appreciate the fact that I can drive a truck here without worrying about clipping my mirror off on a trash can. (True story. . . I did this to our car while Ethan was deployed. Whoops.)
Door stoppers. My toddler discovered them immediately after moving into our new home, and they have been his obsession ever since. From popping off the capped ends, to filling our house with an obnoxious thrum, he loves playing with them.
Money. We've been trying out some of the local restaurants, and a couple days ago Ethan wanted to get Chinese for dinner. I seriously almost asked if we had enough euro. Haha. It's so nice to only have to keep track of one currency, and better yet, now our bank cards/ credit cards are accepted everywhere.
Carpet. When we were doing the walk-thru on our new place, Aiden started bouncing off the walls, or more accurately, the floor. He charged around the room roaring, only to collapse and splay himself all over the soft spread. I originally thought he was being silly, but the next day it finally clicked he had never seen carpet. I soon joined him on the floor.
Language. People, even complete strangers, now speak English. . . Fluent, native tongue kind of English. And, yes, I accidentally said "hallo" to someone on our walk the other day.
Closets. This one is so big on my list. After having literally zero space to store shoes, coats, or clothing (because c'mon, every overseas military spouse knows wardrobes don't lead to Narnia and only fit so much), we now have linen closets in the bathrooms, a walk-in closet in the hall and our master bedroom, closets in each of the kids' rooms, a pantry in the kitchen. . . Basically, we now have more storage space than crap to put away- every mother's dream come true. (Of course, we are still waiting on all of our crap to be shipped here.)
Internet. It is literally ten times faster here, and it doesn't randomly go in and out while trying to download things. Pretty sure my husband is in love.
Yards. In Germany, yards aren't plentiful. Their culture may love dogs almost as much as they love beer, but getting a fenced in yard is the exception. Now that we have our own plot of fenced in grass, Aiden loves blowing bubbles and burying his see-soar (dinosaur) in the dirt while Loki sniffs out his new territory. It is bliss to be able to just let the dog out and shut the sliding glass door. Auf Wiedersehen leashed potty days.
Opening hours. In Germany, almost everything is closed on Sundays. It is so nice that if we run out of Aiden's beloved o-gurt (yogurt), we can just run up the street and purchase some any day of the week. Also, if we find ourselves lost in the middle of the night and hours away from our destination, we can stop at 24/7 gas stations and ask for directions from English speaking people in order to help us find a 24/7 Wal-Mart so we can buy a GPS. (Our GPS didn't work when we landed, and kept acting like we were still in Europe.) It's pretty convenient.
All in all, we are very happy to be home. Germany was amazing. God doubled our family and showered us with friends. While I will always treasure the three years we lived there, I am so ready to embrace this new adventure.
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