If I’m being 100% honest, I blocked the thought of moving almost up to the week before the movers came. Even then, I didn’t want anything to do with the move and ever-so-willingly passed the responsibilities onto my husband (it was his turn, after all!). I had the best set-up in Savannah: an amazing community, a great job, a gym I loved, we were close to family (North Georgia!) and it just felt like home to me. The couple of weeks leading up to my last days in Savannah were hard, probably some of the hardest days I’ve had to date. A lot of tears were shed, laughs were had and time well spent with some of my most favorite people.

So, here I am about eight months into life in Germany and let’s just say it’s been quite the experience (+exciting!). It’s been a learning curve and part of me wishes I had conducted some sort of research/recognizance before I made the big move, but where would the fun in that be, right?

I hope this list helps someone along the way and makes them even more prepared to move to a new country (but especially, Germany). As time progresses, I know I’ll have some more tips + tricks to add, but here are some things I’ve learned over the past eight months:

• Your first purchase needs to be a European hairdryer (luckily, I purchased mine for 10 Euro)! Otherwise, you’ll end up tripping your power 9 times like me (hey, at least I got familiar with European electrical boxes!).

• Buy alllll the outlet converters and make sure you put them in every socket so you don’t have to pull one from another outlet to turn on a lamp, curling iron, etc.

• Your U.S. lamps will work without having to utilize a transformer! (thanks to my new friend, Amy) All you need to do is replace your old 120 voltage bulbs with 220-240 voltage bulbs and voila!

• Purchase several transformers, you will need them to start up kitchen appliances like your crock-pot, kitchen aid, etc.

• I’d recommend purchasing some European appliances because lugging a transformer around to use your U.S. appliances gets old real quick. Thus far, I’ve purchased a vacuum, hair dryer and 2 coffee makers.

• Cash is King in Europe which has taken this card-loving girl some getting used to. Make sure you check with your credit card companies to ensure they don’t have any foreign transaction fees. I love our American Express and USAA Visa cards – both do not incur any foreign transaction fees.

• Stock up on plastic Ziploc bags, toilet paper, paper towels, aluminum foil, household cleaning items, etc. and ship it all with your household goods. That way, you don’t have to go to the grocery store when you arrive in country for those items – plus they are more expensive in Europe.

• German dryers are unique in that they have a holding tray for water. After a couple of loads, our dryer all of the sudden stopped working and we were scratching our heads trying to figure out what was wrong with the machine. After pushing some buttons and pulling out various features, we finally pulled the water reservoir out and were dumfounded as we had never seen a dryer have one before. If that reservoir gets full, your dryer will not work, so make sure you dump it out every couple of loads.

• Wine is cheaper than water. Seriously, water is SO expensive in Europe (for some perspective, you will pay $4.00 for a 12 pack of water bottles in Germany wherein in the states I could get a 32 pack of water bottles for $2.99 – thanks, Kroger!). You will definitely want to invest in a water delivery service. In Germany, most people use the Culligan Water Service – details on this service can be found here.

• Economy Grocery Shopping: Bring your own reusable bags (German grocery stores do not provide plastic bags or bag your groceries for you, that’s on you!) + make sure you have a €1 coin to use a shopping cart. In order to use a shopping cart, you have to place €1 into a spot on the cart to un-link it from the chain of carts. You’ll get your Euro back once you reattach your cart to the cart port. Absolutely genius – American companies need to start implementing this! (because who doesn’t want to get their euro back, right??) No carts floating through the parking lot either J You can use any reusable bag, but one of the bags I opted for was the Reisenthel Carrybag . A lot of Germans use this brand/bag and I thought it’d help me stick out less (it won’t, but it’s a start)!

• WiFi is a thing. In the U.S., we’ve always had unlimited cell phone data plans – never having to worry about switching to WiFi when available. We were cautioned against signing up for a cell phone plan in Germany because of the issues that may arise with contracts (and the potential of having to cancel the contract with little notice); however, I think at this point, the contract would have been worth it! We currently have Vodaphone and it’s a pay-as-you-go service. Because I use my phone so much for work, let’s just say I can go through €50 pretty quickly. We’re now those people who seek free WiFi connections out….

• Recommended apps to download (that will make your life much easier!): DB Train (allows you to see the train times and buy tickets on the app) and Google Translate .

• Get ready to channel your inner-middle school locker days – post office style. You read that right, unless you order something from amazon.de (or a local European company) and have the item(s) shipped to your German address, the vast majority of your mail will go through the Post Office on base. While you receive electronic notification of delivered packages, you are required to physically go on base and twist the little knob with your personalized code to retrieve the colored slips that signify – ‘You’ve got mail’. It’s almost like that little love note that was slid to you in 6th grade science class – almost!

Never be afraid to ask people for advice!  In my opinion, the best way to learn is to ask friends you meet along the way, especially those who have lived in country for longer than you have! Plus, you can glean different perspectives and find the best option that works for you. 

Cheers!

Amber