FRIDAY
After class on Friday, I went with some schoolmates to lunch at What's Beef, a burger place with these crazy milkshakes that I'd seen on Yelp and knew I had to try. Thankfully, I continue to be the person that finds the places to eat (I'm sure that will get old soon enough). I have zero regrets about any of the calories I consumed. |
| Obama with my fave filter made me LOOOOL |
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| The burger |
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| A Nutella covered churro(ish) donut on top of a milkshake, which tasted kinda like cookies and creme. Yes, it's ok to be jealous. |
Thankfully, my schoolmates shared the dessert with me, since we were all pretty full from eating our messy ass burgers. After lunch, we went back to school. I peed and then headed to the train station to catch my train back to the flat so I could chill at home before my 4:00 massage appointment.
After getting settled in and checking in on work things, even though Friday is not a work day, it was time to leave. The massage place is less than 1 minute from door to door, so I wasn't super worried. I arrived about 5 minutes early and a lady led me to a room and left me for a bit. I could hear that she was with another client. She came in at 3 minutes after apologizing that she was late and would need a few more minutes. I told her (in German) that I had all night. There were a few more times she had to leave the room during my session, but I kinda chalked it up as a difference. When I was finished, I had booked a 2 hour session because it was only 60€, she only charged me for 90 mins. I tried to give her the 70€ I had planned on giving her (because that was all the cash I had and I wasn't sure of the tipping status for massage in Germany) but she gave me back the 20€ and I made an appointment for a 90 minute session after the run at the end of the month.
After, I went back to the flat and chilled in my room, fucking off on the internet and listening to Alexa and smelling of Patchouli. When I finally decided to buckle down and do my German HW, I was so distracted by the smell, that instead, I went and took a bath and drank my tea in the bath.
After I got out of the bath, I did most of my HW and then I got ready for bed since it was almost time to talk to Teh German. Teh German texted that he was leaving work, which means it's time for our chat, and we chatted while he drove to the gym.
Sometimes we also text throughout the day, but these calls are really critical for my survival. I'm a strong, independent, woman, but being away from my person is difficult. I enjoy our pre-bedtime/post-work chats because it's like our normal evening chat after we get home when we catch up on the day and discuss what is coming. I know I'm missing out on things and I don't get to see/hear the dogs, but THIS consistency (or at least getting to talk to Teh German once a day) is very important to me. Adventures are great, but this is me pulling out my long-distance relationship rule book again.
After our chat, it was my bedtime.
SATURDAY
I did zero productive things on Saturday and it was awesome. At one point, I tried to self-guilt myself because I am in Germany and I should do awesome things!... But no. Yeah, I'm in Germany and I should do awesome things, but I've also been sick for a week and it was supposed to rain all day (and then it fucking didn't, rude).I woke up and had some toast for breakfast and then came back to my room with some tea to watch Ken Jeong's standup on Netflix. It was super underwhelming and I only actually lol-ed one time. After the movie, I was briefly tempted to download World of Warcraft (because FREE TIME!) but then didn't feel like dealing with the download that would take half my life on this godforsaken internet and so I played Paperclips instead. And then I took a nap.
I had told myself that after my nap, I'd get up and go on a run.. buttttt Teh German messaged me while I was asleep and asked what I was doing. When I woke up, I told him I had been napping. He asked if I wanted to video and I said yep. We videoed for a while and he showed me his new toy (a drone) and we chatted about things that were going on and he encouraged me to get out of the house and discover things.. and I strongly considered it..
And then, I didn't.
Because, y'all, I don't really have plans for any more do nothing days while I'm in Germany. I'm thinking of taking a trip next weekend to Amsterdam. The weekend after that is my run and Teh German arrives. The weekend after that, we'll be headed south for family time.
And... I have been annoyingly sick. I didn't feel bad, per say, but the runny nose/clogged sinuses/annoying cough is old and I'm over it.
Also, it would have been after 6pm when I arrived to the destination I wanted to go to.. and they were only open until 7..
(Insert more excuses here...)
So instead, I played Paperclips for the rest of the evening until I beat the game, and then I went to bed at midnight.
SUNDAY
Sunday was tourist day. I met with two of our German friends and we had brunch (and watched several people have coffee spilled all over them by a server).
After brunch, we headed to Düsseldorf's Altstadt (old town) for some touristy things. After parking, we walked the Rhine and we headed to the Düsseldorf Media Tower as our first stop. GREAT views of the entire city. It was awesome.
After walking the Rhine "boardwalk", we went into the Altstadt and then to Königsallee to walk by the ridiculously expensive shopping places (Tiffany's, Chanel, Louis Vitton, etc etc etc). They were all closed since it was Sunday, but that didn't make a difference to us.
Art is a huge part of Düsseldorf culture, so there are many art museums and statues around town. I had seen this statue on Google when searching for things to do in Düsseldorf, so I had to make sure to get a photo. PS. There were many photos taken, but they are on the camera and that's a project for another month. 🤷
After we'd walked through Altstadt, we got bored and decided that we'd go to Köln (Cologne) and do touristy things.
Our first stop in Köln was a SUPER huge church called Dom. Fun fact: I didn't realize until after I got home and was talking with Teh German that "the Dom" was the name of the church we had went to. I thought the church had a name that I hadn't heard or didn't see and we were looking for an actual dome of some sort that was a tourist attraction. #LanguageBarrier looool
I got plenty of good camera photos of the Dom, but not a single one with my phone. #Yolo bitches. I did find a book store! Of course.
We weren't really hungry, but I explained that I hadn't had a "real" bretzel yet, since I didn't count the one from the train station as a "real" pretzel, so we stopped and picked up a pretzel to share. Köln and Düsseldorf are rivals so we also had to stop and get a Kolsch beer, which Köln is known for (while Düsseldorf is known for Altbier (a dark beer)). Teh German Runner and I agreed that we both prefer Pils(ner) as our beer of choice. I say that, because Pils is usually what goes into a Radler, which is the "beer" that I drink (it's really beer + Sprite).
After our snack time, we headed towards the Rhine (yep, again. The Rhine runs south through west Germany, then back east on the border between Germany and Switzerland, to Bodensee (which we visited in 2016), and then goes south into Switzerland) to walk along the water again. We trekked over the bridge with the love locks, through a park, reaching our final destination: the Köln gondola.
We rode the Gondola to the other side of the river, then we took the rain back to the city center area and eventually headed back to Düsseldorf for dinner. We did do drive-by of the Media Tower in Köln, which has been closed to visitors for a long time, so we didn't go inside...
Someone had made a suggestion to eat at the oldest Altbier brewery (in Düsseldorf) for dinner, so that's what we did.
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| My pig knuckle with sourkraut and mashed potatoes. Those are tomatoes, not cherries. |
Dinner was heavy (as expected), but delicious. After dinner, we decided to walk to a place I had discovered on Yelp named "Zum goldenen Einhorn" (the golden unicorn). The menu seemed pretty good but we were full. So we headed back to the Rhine and then back to the garage where the car was parked.... but not before picking up an ice cream for the walk back..
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| Erdbeere Eis ist lecker! Strawberry ice cream is tasty! |
Thankfully, I didn't have to take the train all day, despite my offers to take the train, which meant no getting lost and having to deal with the train situation that is always a debacle. German friends dropped me off (and they picked me up in the AM) at the flat. We made plans for Tuesday evening to have dinner at Zum goldenes Einhorn. Then, we have our run on the 26th, and we'll do something with the 4 of us once Teh German arrives in Germany.
I will say that I haven't felt lonely in Germany. I mean, I could let myself get there because there's a lot of things I don't know, but I know I have family here, and that is a HUGE comfort. Mama G and Auntie P and Papa G and some of our German friends have reached out to me before I came and while I've been here and it's a comfort to know that if I do need anything, a translator or getting found after taking the wrong train, there are people here who can help me. Obviously, I have Teh German too, but his capacity is limited when he's across the pond.
After getting settled, I video chatted with Teh German for a bit and then it was bedtime.
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A very good weekend. I mean, can a weekend that starts with a massage (that was so thorough I had to take advil the following day because I was so sore) be bad? Maybe, but not this time! Lol.A lazy day and a busy day was exactly what I didn't know I needed. I'm finally feeling almost 100% again. My nose isn't as clogged as it was and I am still hacking shit up, but it's not nearly as persistent as it was last week. Teh German even noted the difference Sunday night about how much better I sounded and how little I was coughing.
This week is full of activities.
Today: Study like a fiend day. Do the HW I didn't get to over the weekend (not super important, but OCD says I must do it). I also checked out some books to start studying for the final exam. Also, my host lady and I will be cooking Reibekuchen tonight (it's like potato pancakes). Woot!
Tuesday: Dinner with German Friends.
Wednesday: Stammtisch
Thursday: Game night at Goethe
Friday/Weekend: Amsterdam? IDK about this yet, but I'm leaning towards yes. Fear is saying, "But you're alone and have boobs." But I've looked at articles online that say that it's safe for solo women to be in Amsterdam. I'm trying to talk myself INTO this and not out of it.. as I'm known to do, which happens to be super annoying. I've never done a travel by myself thing, so this would be a good opportunity and Amsterdam speaks good English, so I'd be fine, but the unknown is a scary place.
Also, I really should get some runs in before like.. the actual race day.
Just walking around on Sunday made my knee supppper achy. So achy in fact it woke me up in the middle of the night on Sunday and I had to get up and take some advil to get back to sleep. #OldAF
