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Published: January 7th 2012
The Rheinturm
Its actually a clock!Hi everyone!
First I just have to say how sorry I am I have gotten so behind on blogs!! The one I posted yesterday was a work in progress since the 2
nd of January. I know when I start blogs because I always save them as the day I started writing them. The problem that occurs is that I want to wait to write a blog until after such and such a day because that will be when I switch houses, or after New Year’s is over etc. But then I get busy with the next activity and then I’m like “Gosh, I have so much to write, and I hate having to remember all the funny things that happened and I don’t want to leave anything out.” I could just write a little bit each night, and sometimes I do, but then I always forget what I wrote the day before and I hate repeating myself. I could go back and just re-read what I already wrote, but that makes too much sense to actually do.
Anyways, where we left off was Jana non-chalantly asking me if I would like to go to the
Good thing Dad wasn't there...
He's afraid of heights and 164.2m is a long way down! Netherlands for a day. We didn’t even have to rush or wake up early! We woke up around 10 and went to the video store, the tourist office to get a postcard and to the Rheinturm and a nice walk around the harbor!
The Rheinturm was pretty awesome. I’ve seen Heather and Pat’s photos from when they went with Tina and it was sort of scary leaning against the windows since they sort of slant out so you are facing straight down at the street 164.2 meters below. However the really neat thing about the Rheinturm is that it is actually a clock! There are lights on the tower that tell you what time it is. However, Jana and I couldn’t actually figure out how it worked. “I feel like I should probably learn, so that when people visit I can actually tell them how it works, I just never have time to look it up.”
“Oh, well I’ll have time! Maybe that’s what I will do tomorrow! “
Yeah, I never did it. It’s on the list.
After our tower time, and a stroll along the harbor
we finally headed off to Holland. It was only about an hour drive to Maastricht. It is so nuts how close things are. “I thought about Amsterdam, but its three hours, and I just thought this would be nice because it’s so close and I’ve never been here either!” It was really, really neat! And going between countries in the European Union is like going between states in the US. No boarder station. No passport check. Just a blue sign that says “Nederlande” with yellow starts around it. Simple.
When we got there it looked like it was threatening to rain, so we did the most logical thing: get food and wait. Perfect timing. Just as we were finishing the food, the sun even came out! We had enough time to walk around the center of the city and see the, you guessed it, cathedral, and shop before the sun even went down. It’s really a great little town. There is shop after shop after shop and a cute little ice rink outside the cathedral. Jana and I both don’t fancy ourselves ice-skaters, so just watching and appreciating was enough for us. We looked around and shopped
Sheep!
Just hanging out by the Rhein, haha! all day long, had a hot chocolate and got home even in time to go to the grocery store and make dinner and watch another movie. Turns out you can get to Holland, Belgium and Luxembourg all within two hours of Düsseldorf. I’m sorry, it just blows my mind! We saw license plates from Deutschland, Luxembourg, France, Belgium, and of course the Netherlands all in our parking garage in Maastricht. This is a time when I know I am my father’s daughter because this is the sort of stuff he just can’t believe either.
The next two days Jana had to go back to work too. 😞 However, that meant I got to go out and do some more exploring and use some of my super great German! Haha! I went to, wait, want to guess? Yep, Starbucks! I got my favorite Vanilla Frappuccino. I ordered in German and got responded to in English. Uhg. I guess I still need more work. I did my other favorite thing to do in any country which is get lost in the five or six floor bookstore, obviously spending a lot of time in the travel section.
Maastricht!
This town hall was the only real photo either of us had seen before we went, so it was how we knew we made it to the right place! It’s always so cool to look at the books, but the more I’ve been thinking, the more I think this coming semester I just want to travel less. It’s so tiring sometimes. I know that there’s so much more to see in Europe and more places I’d like to go, but like I said, its tiring, and I like hanging out in Cádiz now. I’ve got riding, and my intercambio with Maricarmen, I want to take a few surfing lessons, and I like to just relax there! Especially since it’s going to start getting nice again in March and I want to take full advantage of my beach time. There are a few trips I am planning though: still Ireland for St. Patrick’s Day, hopefully a trip to Sweden to see my friend Ryan and lastly back to Germany May 12
th for Jana and Andreas’ wedding. I’ve decided that is a trip that is a must! Other than that though, I’m starting to think that its time people started to come to me…I’m pooped! Haha!
It’s no surprise then that I spent the rest of the chilly afternoon at Jana’s getting my travel plans to get
Blue Skies!
We could hardly believe it! back to Spain finally in order and then just relaxing to watch another movie. Sometimes it’s nice to just get a little quiet time, plus the evenings have been really rainy here.
Wednesday afternoon I got to have lunch with Tina! Gosh, it was SO cool to get to see her! It’s another thing that blows my mind that I got to just meet her for lunch like I would with one of my friends at Clemson, only she lives all the way over here in Germany! She is so busy with work though we only got a little time to catch up. Tina is so cool. And I love getting to see everyone that has spent time in Nebraska because they really are like family. They’ve spent time with the family and they know everyone like I know everyone so, I don’t know, it’s just nice to talk about Heather, or Conor, or Kahleb, Kyler, Hannah and Hailey and people actually know who I am talking about.
The free time at Jana’s also allowed me to get in some good Skype time. I hadn’t seen Laura or Allison all semester! I doesn’t feel
Ice Skating!
No, I didn't show off my mad skills again, but it was nice to watch with the cathedral back there! like it’s been that long because we do talk over e-mail and stuff, but I have missed so much! A whole semester! Actually, since the semester is over that means I am officially half-way through my life as a college student. I’m starting to think Evan was right when he said that there is nothing like the life of a student. (I know Dad has now had a tiny skip of a heartbeat thinking I too am going to become a career student). No worries Dad, I will graduate from college. (Eventually). Just kidding! I will be out on time as we planned! 😊 Promise!
I packed up to leave Jana’s and move to Anna’s and I actually ended up sending a package home to Spain. I think I over packed I guess because my bag was just too heavy! So it was nice to have a much smaller bag. We took our time leaving the apartment because of the rain, and I had so much fun with Jana and Andreas! They are so fun to hang out with! I can’t wait to come back and see them in May!
Jana dropped me off
Floating, Glowing Lightballs
We walked out into a plaza and there they were! at Anna’s Dad’s house on the other side of Düsseldorf and it was really cool to see her. A lot of times I think they all look pretty much the same, but then I remember that the last time they saw me I was either 10 (in Jana’s case) or 12 (in Anna’s case). I suppose twenty year old Devin and twelve year old Devin look slightly different. For one, as I pointed out to Jana, I no longer wear a different colored bandanna on my head. Every day. Haha! Jana and I spent a lot of time on Tuesday night looking through old photos from her life since Nebraska and mine since I’ve been in Spain. We saw a picture of her they day her family came and then left for California and she was wearing one of my bandannas that I lent her since she woke up late and didn’t have time to do her hair. A few pictures later we saw another of these bandannas on my head. We both agreed sometimes its painful looking back on old photos when you actually have to say to yourself, “Uhg. What was I thinking?” Haha!
So close together!
The plate on the left is Belgium, we were in the Netherlands only an our outside of Germany and Luxembourg and France are less than 3 hours! Life with Jana was pretty awesome, and I was SO sad to say goodbye when she dropped me off at Anna’s! I knew Anna and I would have lots of fun and that I would see Jana soon, but I still could feel tears welling behind my eyes. Goodness. Lesson learned. Ten years is too long between visits to Germany!
So, life on the other side of the Rhein with Anna will wait for tomorrow! 😊
I love and miss everyone!
Love always,
Devin 😊
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