Halloween, Castle Frankenstein, Headed to the Field

I realize it's been a long time since we posted anything here...what can I say? We finally got moved into base housing, it's not the little town house we wanted...but its not terrible....well...yeah it is pretty awful, but we're stuck here and we're making the best of it. We finally got DSL so I can resume posting..hopefully on a more regular basis. The DSL here stinks...its not as fast as Cable was back home...but oh well...just another thing to look forward to when we get back home.
I'm fully installed in my new unit, and this Officer gig is harder than I thought it would be, I have A LOT of responsibilities, which usually means late nights. I would say I usually get home at about 8:30 or 9:00 most nights....which really stinks because I try to go to bed at 10:00 so I can get up at 5:00. So far I'm not getting a lot of family time and that bums us both out. I wish I could say that I love my job, but I guess that will come in time....right now things are all over the place and I'm trying to keep my head above water. I did manage to Fracture my foot already though...so I'm gimped and cant really do a whole lot of moving around easily. Oh well...add it to the list.
Germany is definitely an odd place. Most businesses close pretty early, about 6 pm during the week, and even earlier on the weekend if their even open at all. That makes it pretty tough to get things done. Another weird thing is the German concept of Halloween. We went to the infamous Castle Frankenstein last night for a huge haunted house event they throw there every year. It was pretty cool, although it was all in German...which kind of made it scarier. The strangest part of it was that Germans will make a costume out of anything....got a Dracula cape and a Freddy Kreuger glove? Wear them both!!! You'll be twice as scary! We did have a lot of fun there though. They have a Monster Dance where some of the Monsters get up on stage and dance to "Thriller". They used some of the same choreography and it was actually pretty good. It was more "show" oriented over all than most haunted houses in the U.S. There was a different show every 15 minutes....one where vampires did an old victorian dance...a sword battle between a crusader and an ogre thingy, a torture show where they dragged a "volunteer" (an actor) up from the audince and branded him and then electrocuted him...a phantom of the opera skit and an actual torture chamber where they grab a victim and actually chain them up and play around with them. It ended up being a lot of fun. Another weird thing is that Germans drink and smoke everywhere. There were 2 bars set up there and everyone was boozing. It gave it a more adult feel, even though teens can legally drink here. The monsters were alot more grabby and touchy here than anywhere in the states...in fact...all Europeans tend to have no sense of personal space at all...that takes some getting used to. But we had fun.
I'm headed to field in a few days for a month long rotation thats designed to get us all ready for the upcoming deployment this spring. It really stinks...I barely get to see my wife as it is, but we'll be back by Turkey day and then on to Christmas time...so things should slow down a bit soon.