moving to germany?

[decay]

redbull: i'm unlikely to get a station in either of those countries. but thankfully, i've gotten used to pacific-northwest weather, which i imagine is similar. so, good to know where not to go if i want a different climate :)

nico: good to know i'm on the right track. thanks.

[Julien]

When you look at belgium, holland and germany, it's pretty much a given that the weather will suck. It's a very wet climate with mild temperatures (I personally fucking hate it).
I've lived in Holland and Belgium:
Holland: They ALL speak EXCELLENT english, they are fairly nice in general but they are very very arrogant. The upper class/yuppies sincerely beleive holland is a global superpower. rofl.
Belgium: Less people speak english but there are alot of foreigners who live there (NATO/UN/etc). In Brussels the atmosphere is pretty laid back, people are freindly and seem to generally have less of a stick up their butt than the two aforementioned countries.
Your best bet: See if you can have a trial period of 6 months or a year. if the shoe fits, stay, if not gtfo.


HTH,
Julien

[AC Nico]

ok, well obviously the road system is one of the things i'm grinning about. that's a given.

but since you live there- any other advice on a regional level? any plus/minus about then stuttgart area, vs any other you've been to?

the south is better (bavaria and baden wuertemberg), more and better economy.

[ptownTSI]

my aunt had friends live on a base in germany for 7 years, they still can't speak german! they didnt really go do much with locals.

[decay]

ok, well obviously the road system is one of the things i'm grinning about. that's a given.

but since you live there- any other advice on a regional level? any plus/minus about then stuttgart area, vs any other you've been to?

[AC Nico]

if you are a citizen of Germany you don't wanna live here.

- :

- Too many taxes on everything.
- a lot of unsozial people
- many insubordinate turkish people

+ :

- autobahn
- nurburgring


When you live in an army base it will be better. you have your own gas for cheap ;)

[decay]

so i had high hopes for my new national guard unit in WA, but they're a bunch of shitbags and fuckups.

i'm planning on switching to active-duty and getting a station in germany written into my contract.

from the couple hours of research i've done on DoD installations in europe, i've narrowed down places-i-can-likely-get to germany, simply because we have the most bases there. belgium or netherlands would be nice, but they're small, so i'm not feeling too good about my chances there.

anyway, we have lots of bases in germany, and so far the install i'm leaning towards the most is stuttgart. it's one of the southernmost installs, so i'm likely to dig the weather, and it's where the porsche/benz factories are (bonus). also, easy transit to lots of other places in europe i'd like to go (such as ~3 hours to the 'ring). but i don't know everything yet, this is just what i've learned so far.

what i'd like in this thread is input from people who've been stationed in (for military types) or have lived in/been to (for civvy types) germany- what did you like and what sucked? positives and negatives of stuttgart vs. other places?

thanks in advance.