Growing pains

Ugh. Please pardon the extremely whiny tone. I'll suck it up soon.

I have been a boring and absent blogger for what feels like an eternity, but in reality has only been a week.  We have spent the past 7 days figuring out life here in Wiesbaden, which has been much more of a struggle than I had anticipated.  We are not in Wolfenbüttel anymore, Toto.  This will be a good thing in time, but I feel like we have made almost as big of a change within Germany as a person can make. Yeah, yeah, I'm sure moving from a village on the Baltic coast to fancy, glitzy, Munich would be more dramatic, but still.  I feel like I've been pushed from the warm, easy, familiar nest of WF to big, cold, rainy, anonymous Wiesbaden  There are advantages to its bigger size of course (like Indian and Thai food),  but I'm feeling a little overwhelmed and a little bit like a small fish in a big pond. 

It rains all the time.  Clara's sleep has been crap.  Erik is in Chicago.  I finally got my jeans back on for the first time the other day (yea!), then they ripped (boo!).  Our internet wasn't working.  I don't know a soul in Wiesbaden outside of my family. NO ONE.  I never realized what it felt like not to have a single point of contact in the place you live, but wow. It is intimidating.  The closest person I can consider a contact here is the woman who works in the registration office of the Lutheran family organization (wow, that sounds straight out of Lake Wobegon), who helped me navigate the playgroup options for Elsa.  I'm not sure she wants to hang out and be my friend, but at least she was nice.

I think I'm a little burned out from adjusting.

Sigh.  I sound pathetic.  It really is starting to get better, not in the least due to the fact that my parents are here to help with the transition yet again.  Their presence is what got me down from the ledge as I watched Erik walk down the street to the bus that would take him to the train that would take him to the airplane that would take him to Chicago which is very far from Wiesbaden which is where I am.   I like our funny old house, we have a washing machine in our bathroom, a forest with running paths 10 minutes' run from here, and four pizza places within walking distance.  (WF had one, and it wasn't very good).  Today, the sun came out long enough to create a huge rainbow right outside our window.  That has to mean something, right?

So, thanks for reading, friends.  Maybe sometime it will stop raining so I can take some pictures.  I really do think we will like it here, as soon as these growing pains subside.