Ongoing Adventures

Well it's day 6 and things have begun to shape up in Germany. First of all, I now have a driver. His name is Rolf. He speaks English but the more we speak, the more I confirm that his English is not as good as he thinks it is. For instance, he told me he's going to New York for Christmas and I asked "Have you ever been to New York before?" he replied "Yes, 2 and a half years." After a few more questions on my part I realized that me meant "2 and a half years...ago". Oh what a difference those 3 little letters make. But he make the road trips fun. He does know his "tour guide" English so every day he points out something new for me to see like the old train station in Baden-Baden that is now the entrance to Opera House or the good spa to go to. And opens the door for me and plays funny music in the car. I want to keep him.

Next, I found out that my hotel has a complimentary breakfast. Previously I had known they had breakfast but I didn't know it was free. Now this is the greatest breakfast ever. They have a bunch of types of bread (that I never try b/c I don't really like bread), every type of jam/jelly you could want, Nutella (the smartest person in the world invented spreadable chocolate), smoked salmon, cut up fruit, a bunch of different cereals, all different flavors of yogurt, fresh squeezed orange and grapefruit juice, and an assortment of cut up meats that seem a little out of place at breakfast but look nice. Plus they have scrambled eggs and 4 additional ways of eating a pig that I choose not to walk by.

The other night I got thirsty so I woke up and opened up the bottle of water in my room. Now I already despise room temperature water, so imagine my face when I discovered I was drinking lukewarm mineral water!! Apparently "flat" water as it is called, is not as common as mineral water. They even offer mineral water with a medium amount of bubbles in case you don't like it as foamy. So I spent the next day conducting an experiment to see if I let mineral water go flat, it tastes like good water. It doesn't taste exactly like good water...but it's better then mineral water.


I find it very amusing how many different languages I am greeted in around here. Of course, the German staff greets me in German. But then the guests greet me in either their native tongue or the language they think I'll understand (I haven't decided yet). Sometimes in Spanish, sometimes in Arabic, occasionally in English. Never in Turkish. But I usually just go along with it. Might I add that the guests of this hotel range from the age of 40-85 and are predominantly male.

I asked the front desk about my issues with my straightener and he suggested trying a different plug in the room to confirm that it was indeed a problem with the plug and not my appliance. So I tried it...and cofirmed that me with straight hair is not something the people in Germany are going to be able to experience.

Tonight my co-worker and I are going to dinner at a tapas restaurant and she's going to show me around the Christmas festival. I'm quite excited to have a companion.

So that's the most recent update. Most of my days are consumed with working so I don't have time to stir up trouble. But my swimsuit is scheduled to arrive today so hopefully I'll have some fun spa experiences to share next week!

I miss you all!!