So, I Moved to Germany!

If you’ve read some of my earlier posts, you known by now that I spent an entire year in Korea, living it up lol.

I spent (just about) every single weekend ‘on the go’, just for the thrill of it. I encountered some of the most gorgeous landscapes on the Korean peninsula, became friends with the most amazing crew, and had likely the second-best year of my life.

What was my first? Well, read about how I conquered the pandemic with this girl named Ciara to find that out for yourself.

That chapter officially came to a close on June 4th, 2020. Now, thanks to hard work and the gods at the Air Force Personnel Center, I am writing this blog from a Brauhaus in Stuttgart Germany as the sun sets behind me over an amazing 19^th century gothic-revival church. Hard to believe but, the picture below is my backdrop as I write this post.

So, how did I finally get here?

Well, the last time I wrote a post, I recapped an entire year of exploring Korea. As I stated out, the goal was to write about the “Top 10 Destinations of Korea”.

However, as I started to put pen to paper, I realized that be too difficult; there was just too much beauty to compartmentalize and dilute such a place down to 10 sets of geographical coordinates. Instead, I narrowed it down to the top 10 memories I’ll never forget.

After I left Korea, I was blessed enough to spend six weeks in the States. I read things in English, drank craft beer, walked around without a mask, and took a breath of fresh air (figuratively and literally lol).

My first stop was one of my best friend’s weddings. I was so lucky to witness this picturesque couple that I love, tie the knot in Genesee, Colorado. From there, Ciara and I loaded her camping bucket into her Rav-4, and we headed straight into the mountains for some much-needed grounding and reconnecting.

First stop: Glenwood Springs.

We spent time soaking in a natural hot spring, eating delicious house-made ice cream from the local ice cream parlor, and ending the day falling asleep on each other in a hundred-year-old hotel after devouring a green goddess pizza from a local pizza shop.

After the best night’s sleep I’d had in months, we pressed north out of our comfy hotel on a rugged road bound for the state forest. Did I managed to damage Ciara’s gas tank during the trip? Yep. Did I know it at the time? Nope lol. Sorry babe!

We went back to our roots; taking a dirt road into the forest, finding a perfect spot to set up camp, and then exhaling deeply as we celebrated our temporary escape from reality. From cigars and checkers to grilled cheese over a fire beneath a billion stars, I felt I could finally look at Korea as a thing of the past.

Life was good.

Second stop: Squadron Officer School, Maxwell AFB in Montgomery

Much, much too soon, I had to go back to work. This time at least, I was only going to be 1 time zone away, not 16 lol. I was headed to Montgomery, Alabama to attend the USAF Squadron Officer School, or SOS as it’s commonly referred to.

The goal of the course was to focus on developing ourselves as leaders. The cadre told us to use this time to relax and rejuvenate; to take 5 weeks off from “doing the mission”. Well, I was fortunate enough to get placed with 13 other Type-A personalities that took everything entirely too serious lol.

Not even kidding, we were pushing 12-, even 13-hour days a few times during the course. A course that I was told by others who had attended before me: “Yea, we partied every night and had a blast going down to Florida on the weekends”.

To make it clearer: I pulled 12’s only a couple of times at Korea during the DoD’s second largest military exercise and SOMEHOW, my flight had managed to make developing leadership skills on par with that…when exactly was I supposed to relax and rejuvenate lol?

Nonetheless, the awesome TDY presented me with an amazing opportunity to learn about America’s Civil Right History from a location where a lot of it unfolded.

It was here that Martin Luther King Jr was elected the figurehead for the Civil Rights movement in a small little church just down the street from the capitol building. It was here that Rosa Parks refused to move to the back of the bus. The town was dripping with history, and I lapped up every ounce of it I could.

Pit stop: Estes Park, Colorado

The best part of the course, other than learning how to be a better leader, was the fact that the course overlapped two federal holidays. So, over the Juneteenth weekend, Ciara and I visited her hometown for a 3-day weekend where we got to witness another beautiful couple get married in the picturesque California wine country.

Additionally, I got to go back to Colorado for the 4th of July weekend. Ciara and I again did what we do best: went to the mountains lol. This time, the beautiful Rocky Mountains and the amazing Estes Park.

And then, before I knew it, SOS was over. My fun five weeks of learning about leadership, fighting off 4-inch-long cockroaches, hiking in the beautiful Cheaha Mountains, and cheering on the Montgomery Biscuits (totes the hometown baseball team’s name, not kidding) had come to and end.

However, I couldn’t leave without doing one final thing that I’d been robbed of since the start of this pandemic: a metal show. Lo and behold, my favorite band of all time (Erra), was playing just an hour north of Montgomery from their hometown.

So, literally right after I graduated SOS, I drove to Birmingham, moshed my face off, sang at the top of my lungs, drove back at 11pm, slept for 4 hours, and then boarded a plane bound for Stuttgart, Germany.

I probably should have slept a few hours on the 8-hour flight to Amsterdam but dammit I was just too excited lol. I was chomping at the bit to get there and begin living out what I dreamed about for years.

Final Destination: Stuttgart, Germany

Now that I’m here, I can’t help but first appreciate the timing of it all. God is good and his plan for me worked out perfectly (as it always does). Everything here is so much more open than Korea and had I have gotten here any sooner, I’d be inclined to think that my visions of exploring Europe would be ruined thanks to the pandemic.

Though I’m still fresh off the boat having only been here for about two weeks, I’ve already watched my dreams come true within the first weekend. I met some great folks, drank some even greater beer, attended a local town festival, and even smoked cigars in a biergarten overlooking the city.

As for the architecture that always played the backdrop in my daydreaming, well, I’ll just let these photos of the churches I’ve stumbled upon speak for themselves.

Life is good folks, life is good.

I remember, in my past life, I would dream of walking the streets of Paris on a brisk, fall evening with a hot wine in one hand and a camera in the other. I envisioned riding a motorcycle across the Swiss alps with nothing but a few pairs of clothes and a tent. I’d picture myself eating Italian food in Italy just to say that I’ve done it.

I was an optimist, and though I would have never said out loud, “that’ll never come true”, I definitely thought it.