Man in Charge - "Did you all get these? Please raise your hand if you did. If you did not. Please raise your hand if you did, did not receive a copy of this." I forget what it was he was passing out, but we already had it and decided to keep our hands down.
Lady talking to us about personal financial matters - "If you're going to open a new banking account, be sure to have the money ready to transfer into that new account, and change your direct deposit information." Really? Is that really something that only soldiers moving overseas need to know about? Is it possible that none of the adults in that room had ever opened a new account before? Other thrilling information included, "Remember that ATM fees add up!"
So anyway, she finishes her little spiel and asks if there are any questions. The lovely lady two rows ahead of me raised her hand. "Yes ma'am, can you tell us what we need to know about overseas schools?"
It's a good think I was sitting in the back row so that no one could see my bewildered expressions.
Oh, and the official (not personal) finance lady. The one talking about pay checks and advancements and allowances and such. She repeatedly said that when driving your POV (car) to be dropped off for shipment, you get paid $109 per mile. She never caught her mistake, and no one ever questioned it. It's $109 per day, and 20c per mile.
They made the majority of the information out to be way more complicated than it really is. It wasn't an information problem, but a communication problem. They should hire me to do these briefings. They'd answer questions and the people were left looking more confused than before. I didn't really learn much that I didn't already know, which is pretty sad for a 2 hour long briefing. It was mostly clarification and reminders for me. it was absolutely bewildering for some others, who I guess just found out like, yesterday, that they'd be going overseas. It's crazy that we've known for a mere 2 weeks and we're further along in the process than some of the people that were there. And we're not even leaving for 11 months!
Tomorrow, I get to go see the nice man who will sign off on the paperwork saying that none of us have any special needs that can't be accommodated in Germany. Or, at least we hope that's what will happen.
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