I moved to Germany in December 2005, my first duty station as an Army Officer. I spent the next seven years between Kaiserslautern and Wiesbaden/Mainz. I joined local rugby teams, local gyms, and essentially lived off of everything Germany had to offer even though the Army provided those living essentials on base. I attribute my fluency entirely to my Fitnessstudio. Everyone in the gym was really willing to help me learn and taught me all the basics I needed.
I made my best friends in the gym who invited me out with them which only deepened my integration into Germany. I actually live in Barcelona now. I ended my time with the Army about four months ago and am going to IESE Business school, part of university of Navara. When the program ends in 2014, I'm going to try and head straight back to theVaterland. I'm taking classes at the Goethe Institut now to improve my written German. I can speak it fluently, but because I didn't do much schreibing, my written German is lagging. I wish I'd learned the Artikeln. It's a pain in the butt to have to look up every single word just so I can see what the gender is when I write it. Dear students studying German-- learn the genders now! You will be glad you did.
Alles Gute, Chris Bates
