Arrived in Germany

2 September, 2009 Eschbach, Germany

We made it!!! We arrived in Düsseldorf, Germany on Saturday, August 30! The adventure has shifted to Europe!!! Woohooo!!!! We are now in the land of partial understanding… Jessi understands all the conversations while I understand a word here and there and notice the facial expressions of everyone. I am confident that my German will improve with time.

On Sunday, Jessi and I were met at the airport by Jessi’s uncle, Udo. We drove from the airport to his home in Buschhoven. Along the way I noticed that the city of Köln (Cologne in English) is a huge city while the former capital of West Germany (Bonn) is a relatively small city. I always thought that the capital city of a country is a major metropolis but Bonn didn’t strike me as a big city. This was an assumption that was thrown right out the window. After breakfast, we watched Jessi’s aunt, Isolde, win her singles tennis match at the local club. We then had lunch (about 5 hours after the first breakfast on the airplane and 2 hours after the second breakfast at Jessi’s aunt and uncle’s house) with Udo, Jessi’s father Jochim and partner Uli, and Udo’s son Marcus and his wife Rigat. We had a BBQ that did not involve charcoal but was very good none-the-less! After lunch, I had 3 shots of plum schnapps and proceeded to sleep during the 2 hour drive to Miehlen. After a quick phone call to my parents, we finally made it to Jessi’s grandparent’s house in Eschbach, 56357, which is in Rheinland-Pfalz. We had our last big meal of this never-ending day of eating, and went to sleep around 9 pm. This is where we will stay when we are in Germany.

Monday, 31. August, was a pleasant surprise for Jessi and me. We discovered that Jessi’s brother, Alex, had Monday and Tuesday off this week instead of the normal Tuesday and Wednesday. Alex is starting the second month of a two year training program to become a chef. He works at the restaurant Zur Stadthalle in Nassau, which is about a 20 minute drive from Eschbach (he is also living with his grandparents). On Monday, after a leisurely morning, Alex and Jessi showed me the area during the day. We first stopped in the small village of Roth, where Jessi and Alex grew up, and they were able to show me their old farm. We even got to go into their old home and see their rooms!! It looked like a nice place to grow up. Thereafter we stopped in Katzenelnbogen to go to the bank and buy a present for Jessi’s niece Laura. We also had some yummy yoghurt ice-cream. Next stop was the gymnasium in Diez where Jessi and Alex went to middle and high school. We got there late in the day but were able to walk around inside the building. In this school, the graduating class each year gets to sign a section of the wall with their names. We walked around the school and found Alex’s year, where Alex was known as “chef” but we could not find Jessi’s class. We think that they painted over her year to make space for the newer kids. L After a short walk around the center of Diez, we drove through the Lahn River valley to the town of Nassau, where we had dinner at Zur Stadthalle. I had fresh water fish and a huge salad. The fish I had were three types of fish that swim in the Lahn River. Jessi had noodles and fish while Alex had prawns and salad. As I previously mentioned, the food was quite good!

Tuesday, 1. September, we did more exploring of the local culture. After another leisurely morning and early afternoon, Alex, Jessi and I stopped at Nadja’s farm (Uli’s daughter) and Jessi got to hang out with Laura (Nadja’s five year-old daughter). Laura showed Jessi and I some of the cows on their farm and we got to pet a few of them too. I don’t know if the cows are more familiar with Laura or just less threatened by a child, but Laura had no problem petting the cows while they seemed scared of Jessi and totally frightened by me! Maybe I am a city boy and it is written all over me! After our farm experience, we stopped in Roth at Martina’s and were able to finally check our e-mail. Not everyone has e-mail at home and there are not libraries in every town where you can go and easily check your e-mail for free. It is much different here compared to America. Life happens at a different pace. Upon checking our e-mail, we discovered that we have an appointment at 5:30 pm on Friday, in Vienna, to see the apartment we are most interested in renting. And maybe be able to sign a contract to rent it. It’s a fairly new building that is not too far from the University (10-15 minute bike ride) but I don’t have the address in front of me. We are excited about this opportunity and hope it works out!


Things to note after only 3 days… In this part of Germany, there are few mosquitoes. Actually, I am not sure if there are any mosquitoes. However, there are millions of big, black, horse flies! They are everywhere! You can’t enjoy a meal without having to share it with 2-10 flies! Additionally, it appears that these flies find me, the foreigner, interesting and exotic. So I am constantly being bugged while everyone around me is unaware of these annoying flies.

It would be difficult for an American to drive in Germany. The road signs are quite different and the traffic rules are slightly different too. I sit there in the car and I have no idea why we stop at certain intersections and drive like maniacs through other intersections. Even after a brief explanation of the road signs and instructions as to which signs are important and which ones are just random signs (if you pay attention in America, you will discover that there are essential road signs and useless or redundant road signs too), I am still confused. I think I would be the worst driver in the world if I had to drive here. Hopefully, this will improve too with time!

It is almost impossible to find an unsecured wireless modem in this area. Jessi and I realized around midnight Tuesday night that we forgot to send an e-mail earlier in the afternoon. We jumped in the car, with my laptop, and drove around the big city of Nastätten – we didn’t even bother looking in the small towns. We found only 1 unsecured account but at least 30 secured wireless accounts. To make it work, we had to hold the computer above the car to maintain the weak connection. If you drove around Madison, Wisconsin or any other American city, I predict that you would find lots of unsecured wireless accounts where you could surf the internet for free. Not here!

One last observation… Although I have been here for 3 days, I am not yet over jet-lag! On Tuesday, I made the mistake of taking a 1-hour nap after lunch followed by an espresso coffee at 4:30 pm and a coke and beer in the evening. This normally wouldn’t bother me but tonight I couldn’t sleep at all and I am writing this blog note at 5:30 in the morning. I think my circadian clock is now stuck on another time zone somewhere else on this planet.

Joel and Jessi