Hello to all of my fellow WAFs out there just trying to get by living this crazy, wonderful military life. My name is Cassy and I’m here to share my experience moving overseas as I have now done it twice. Lucky me? That’s for you to decide 😉 In part two of this post, I will be sharing the tips and tricks I have learned over the years that make overseas moves a lot more manageable!
My husband and I started dating our senior year of high school and then I went to the University of Kansas while my husband went to play football at the Air Force Academy. We like to joke that we are a part of the 2% club at the Academy; the 2% of couples whose relationship makes it through all 4 years (well 5 for us since my husband went to the Prep school). We started dating 11 years ago and since that time we have lived in Colorado Springs, Italy, Florida and now currently living in Germany and expecting our first baby this June!
You’re probably wondering how we have been given the opportunity to get stationed overseas two times in less than 4 years, well girls…I am wondering the same thing! Our first international assignment came in Spring 2014. We were recently engaged and had just booked our wedding date for the following summer when I got a phone call at work from my then fiancé that we had gotten orders for our next base. I was so nervous and all I said was, “Is it a good base? Will I be happy?” We had made our dream sheet with East and West coast bases as our top choices, so I was just praying we were lucky and got one of our top 3 choices…then he said, “Ummm I don’t know how you’re going to react,” and I began freaking out! He finally said, “Babe, were going overseas, to Aviano, Italy” (to be honest, I didn’t even know there were bases overseas, I just thought people were deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan lol, shows how new I was to being a WAF). At that moment, my stomach dropped. There were a million things going through my head but my main concern was how I was going to plan a wedding on the other side of the world.
Moving every three years, making new friends, starting new jobs, not knowing where the next place to call home will be is already a lot for us WAFs to endure, but doing all of this in an entirely different country thousands of miles away from home is well…scary, intimidating, nerve-racking and all other anxiety driven emotions! I had never been to Europe so I had no idea what to expect. Where would I buy my groceries? Who was going to highlight my hair? What did the homes look like in Italy? What is the time difference and how will I adjust to communicating with family and friends on a daily basis? Will my phone even work in Italy? How will I get home for the holidays, weddings, etc.? All silly things to think about but let’s be honest, all things us WAFS think about when going overseas for the first time.
Yes, I was terrified to make the move to Italy, to be so far from my family and friends but I was also SO excited for the upcoming adventures I would get to have with my husband in Europe for the next three years! Now that the initial shock and nerves had settled, it was time to start planning our big move, but where do we even start?
For those of you who have never been overseas and/or just got orders to an overseas assignment, I am going to walk you through some helpful tips that we learned along the way and that we wish we would have known before moving.
HOW LONG DOES IT TAKE FOR YOUR HOUSEHOLD GOODS TO GET OVERSEAS?
For both moves to Italy and to Germany, it took our stuff 60-65 days. Because we moved out a month early from our apartments before the moves, our goods got a head start so we only had to wait about 3-4 weeks for our stuff to arrive vs. 2 months. I would highly suggest doing this if you are able to, you will thank yourselves in the end when you aren’t living with the FMO furniture for a month in your new home😊
WHERE DO YOU LIVE WHEN YOU FIRST GET OVERSEAS?
Moving overseas is different than moving from state to state. You are allowed to stay in TLF on base for up to 30 days vs. the 10 days the states give you to find a lace to live. Tip: take advantage of the 30 days, even if you find a house in the first 2 weeks because then you will have to move into your house with nothing but your suitcases and your stuck sleeping on the rock hard FMO beds and you make a decent amount of money from per diem staying in TLF and who doesn’t like some extra cash!?
HOW DO YOU FIND A HOUSE OVERSEAS?
There are a couple of great websites that you can begin looking at before moving to give you an idea of what the housing is like in the area you are moving to. AHRN.com and Homes.mil are a great place to start and then there are usually local real estate websites that are catered to the military. My advice is to do your research beforehand, don’t get discouraged quickly, ask your sponsor what towns around base are popular for military to live in, make appointments to see multiple houses before choosing the first or second home you see, and be prepared to not get your first pick- the competition is thick!
CELL PHONES
You will need to make sure your phone is unlocked before moving and talk with your phone provider to see if they can do a military suspension while you are stationed overseas (they all should). This means that you will be able to keep your cell phone number and provider but not pay for your cell phone plan while overseas. and if you ever go back to the states, you can put in your stateside SIM card and your provider can turn your phone service back on while you are home. The Europeans do it right when it comes to phone plans. Instead of being stuck in a 1-2- year contract like the states, they provide month-by- month plans which cost you only about $20/person a month.
APPLIANCES
Your everyday appliances that you don’t think twice about using are either 110 voltage or dual voltage (110-220) and the European outlets are all 220 voltage. Don’t freak out, you don’t have to buy all new things when PCSing overseas. My advice is to bring all of your appliances with you (hair dryer, toaster, coffee maker, vaccum, TV, blender, etc.) because some of your appliances might already be dual voltage which will work if you use an outlet adapter and just plug them into the wall, you can use them with a transformer (which FMO provides you depending on your household), or you can store your appliances and use them when you return back to the states. Find the spouses page for your base, join that page and there you will be able to ask about the base’s “yard sale” marketplace whether they use an app like Varage Sale, BooKoo, Facebook or all three to buy and sell things. This is a great way to buy your appliances. I bought a 220v fan for $10 where normally they cost $30 at the BX. I also bought a 220v toaster for $2. People who are PCSing need to get rid of their 220v appliances so you will be able to find everything you need for a fraction of the price if you don’t mind used items. The reason I am emphasizing on appliances is because I didn’t think we would be able to use any of our appliances when we first moved to Italy so I kept all of our kitchen appliances at home in the states and had to buy all new ones when we go to Italy.
CARS
The military will ship one car for free to your overseas duty station, however, if you would like to ship more than one car you will have to pay for the other one out of pocket (which isn’t very expensive). When we moved to Italy we sold my husband’s truck and my Camry and bought 2 cars in Italy. We bought one from a service member and one off base. A lot of people overseas will buy “junkers” or “beaters” and it’s totally normal because you know when it’s time for you to PCS back to the states you will be able to sell your car easily to someone new PCSing in. My advice is to ship one reliable car (but keep in mind it can take up to two months to get it) and then buy a beater car when you arrive overseas.
MONEY
One advantage being stationed overseas is you make great money. Yay! You get COLA which is the Cost Of Living Allowance (which is different for each base and can be found on www.defensetravel.dod.mil and OHA which is your rent and utilities. This is a big one! Your rent money is a little different overseas because if you don’t use all of it than you lose it. So don’t settle for a home that is 900 Euro/month for rent when your OHA is 1500 Euro because you will not get to pocket the 600 Euro difference like you can in the states. Where you can make some decent money is from the utilities money. My advice is to open a bank account on base just for your OHA, put all of your utilities money directly into that account and only use it for your utility bills and let’s just say your wallet will be very happy at the end of your time overseas. (For example: In Italy we were given $1,200/month for utilities and we spent around $2,000 in utilities the entire 2.5 years we were there; you do the math!)
WORK
The working opportunities are very limited overseas making it even harder to land a job, let alone a job that interests you or one that you specialize in. There are two different websites you can search for jobs on any military installation, www.nafjobs.org and www.USAjobs.gov. The NAF jobs are going to be the hourly paid jobs such as a cook at the Club, working at the golf course, working in HR or the Marketing department, etc. USA jobs are the more business professional, contracting, federal paying jobs. These jobs are A LOT harder to get because the hiring process is much more strenuous and can take up to 6 months to get hired.
There will be days in the beginning where you won’t have many or any friends, you don’t have a job, you miss home, you miss your family, you don’t have a car so you’re stuck at home with nothing to do and you question it all. Is this what life is going to be like for the next three years? These are all things that I and I’m sure 99% of WAFs overseas have experienced but there’s a silver lining to it all. Try to think about your experience overseas as an incredible opportunity that you were given that most people can only dream about. There are so many incredible things to see and do in Europe and my advice is to do it all, see it all, take advantage of the long weekends or even a normal weekend. Get out, visit a festival in a nearby town, drive an hour to visit a castle on a Saturday or go wine tasting at a local vineyard. Immersing yourself into the culture and traveling will help even out the negative things that come with moving overseas. Stick together, be a team, support each other. Now that you are so far from family and friends this is a time to lean on one another, grow as a couple and learn so much about each other, experience the world together and create ever lasting memories! Try to stay positive even when you feel like your world is ending, just remember there are a lot of people who have it much worse than you…you’re living in Europe, ENJOY IT!!!
MEET CASSY
