My day

Today was a pretty average day. I spent most of the day finding things to do, which is okay. I have adapted to this schedule anyway. 

The kitchen and I had a fight since I have to cook for myself here. Eventually, the end result was a nice spaghetti meal and the stove and cabinets covered in tomato sauce. The tomato sauce splattered out of the pot since I couldn't read the German instructions and followed the pictures. Okay, okay, the point is.. the food was edible.


I also finally finished plotting my comic novel. This thing has been my baby for a while now and I am finally pushing myself really hard to work on it. Its a big accomplishment that the plotting is done. Now, the next part is writing the script for it out which will be much easier now that I know where the story is going. :)

My room is also clean. This is a really big deal. Its been a wreck for about a month. The problem is that my room used to be a storage room.. in other words.. its really small. So when its messy its like living in a dirty closet.. Which is about right since my room is the size of a luxury walk in closet. My room is also right by the stairs. There are about 5 floors in the building I am in and all the residents use the stairs that my room is just off of. Since my room is small and there is no air conditioning I usually open up the window and my door to let air flow in. It freshens things up. Sometimes people walk down the stairs and see me in my tiny room and awkwardly say hi. It amuses me. Tonight I had my door and window open but my light off so bugs wouldn't get in my room. I am sure people think its strange to see me sitting in my room in the dark. When you live in a luxury walk in closet you have to make do..


After the great clean up I went for my bike ride. I can easily bike ride into the city if I want. I can also cross the Rhine River or go to the city park. Today I went to the park and watched all the random animals there. There are wild parakeets in the Stadtpark. They are called Rose-ringed parakeets. That's what I found researching them online anyways. They look a bit like a love bird. Its interesting that they are free or "feral" birds. They can somehow survive the winter in Mainz. Further research states that they are a "least concern" when it comes to endangered species. aka.. a pest. This is why I like them a lot. 
There are also about 8 flamingos in the park. They live in a water fountain. They like to "beep". When they first saw me they were all "beeping" at each other. I beeped back. There was one flamingo that was a foot shorter than the rest so I figured it was the baby. It had all its feathers, but its beak was almost black. There were some goats and they were all fighting. I kept hearing their horns clacking together. They were all having pecking order fights and I was surprised they didn't hurt each other. The sometimes stood on their hind legs and brought their head down on their opponents so they had more momentum. One of them was probably a teenager because it kept starting all the fights but it also lost all of them too. There are a lot of gardens in Stadtpark. One is full of roses of many colors. Yellow, pink, red, coral. They are all interesting. Some have trellises to climb up. 


Finally on the way home I stopped on my favorite bridge. It is one for walkers, bikes and trains. The sunset today was cloudy. The sun seemed to set early for here today. It can set at 10:30 but it set at 10:00. Summer days are very long in Germany. The clouds were big a deep purple. Behind the clouds was the gold, yellow, and peach colors of the sky. Below the clouds was the city sky line and the distant shape of mountains. The city sky line is one of my favorites. It is made up of a beautiful arched bridge with the Rhine shining silver, gold and green underneath. The buildings are old churches. My favorite, and the most famous, is the Dome (or cathedral). It looks like a castle with about six towers. The biggest central tower is being reconstructed so the top looks like half metal grid and half tower. The towers are all pointed and rose colored. I have mixed nostalgic feelings about the Dome. Its rose color reminds me of a children's series I used to read called Redwall. The animals in the book lived in a rose colored abbey. At night the lighting of the Dome reminds me of the Hogwarts castle.. so I have irreverently nicknamed it Hogwarts. There are also other old churches with softer outlines that make up the sky line. They have tops that look more like Jasmine's castle from Aladdin. I like them all. 

Germans won't shoot you

Now here is an interesting thing: It's illegal for Germans to own guns. 
The only exception are professional hunters. What? Not even the police have guns... I think they have the police stick and a dinky shield. So when all the people protest things like no nuclear energy and the police have to break up "illegal" protests.... people throw things at them. They throw sticks and fruit. They also throw stones. This appeals to my dark humor.

Story time: Washing machine and fridge appreciation day

The blogger I am using is rumored to only allow a certain amount of photos to be uploaded unless you pay and sign your life away for more options. Therefore, I may get another blogger in the future. I also am thinking of making a link on my blog to albums I will create on facebook of the remaining 400 or so photos I have left. In the meantime... let the stories commence:

Okay for starters I went today with Jon to Media Markt to get a new washing machine and fridge. The house I am staying in, Kia House, is home to 22 different people and Jon is landlord so I went with him to loyally support him in his spending endeavors.

I recently put the old washing machine out of its misery.  I thought that Germans washed their bedding and pillows. They don't. They stick them out a window and hope it doesn't rain. It rains half the time here. So if it doesn't rain the pillows and bedding is clean if it is left outside......

What? 

I don't know either. 

So after I wrecked the washing machine I got told that the pillows and bedding are made out of down and feathers of poor little ducks. The duck remains are not to be put in the washing machine because they soak up all the water. When the duck remains soak up all the water, they cause the washing machine to freak out cause it can't turn. The washing machine then drowns in its own water. 

This is why I've decided I shouldn't do laundry in Europe. That, and the fact that the temperature settings on the machine are all in celcius. 40 degrees is NOT cold and 60 degrees is over a hundred degrees in farenheit. 

Again..

what? 

I am hiring a maid to do my laundry or I am ruining the new washing machine. 

We also had to get a new fridge today cause the old one was leaking yellow water with food particles in it in the bottom tray. Gross. The other day one of workers and I were putting supplies in the fridge and a bottle of mustard fell over into the nasty bottom tray. That yellow water and bits of ham (or whatever it was) splashed out of the tray and onto her face and my jeans. 

I have never been more excited about getting a new fridge. 

Ever.

Another very gross thing just happened to me. 

Since my room is the half the size of the average dorm room and has no air conditioning it gets very stuffy so I have to open the window. Its night so I turned off the lights so the bugs won't come in. Well, as I was typing the story above I felt something on my arm and had my first encounter with a German roach. It was about as long as a postage stamp but still extremely unnerving. I really did not want to lose it in my tiny room and wake up with it living in my nose. Luckily, I squished it with a book I'm reading so the horror is over.

Big Picture Entry the Fourth: Romrod castle and everyday life in Jon's village

The Romrod Castle

Jon in Romrod

So high

Jon lives here

It is now a hotel

A VERY expensive hotel

 I live here.

I was trying to pose like a princess but I just look bored.

Beautiful

It was such a nice day :)

The castle in perspective

Very elegant architecture.

Stairs of doooom.

The village just outside the castle walls.

So huge.

Windmills in the distance

And more with windmills. The yellow patch is made up of flowers. Germany has fields of these. In English they are called rapeseed (canola) flowers.. which is kinda awkward.

Cruisin down a German road

Jon in his old high school.

I read this in high school English too.. and I approve. So neat.

Inside Jon's high school

He wanted to go back to school again..

 Fashion designs that students who wanted to be fashion designers made. The following are for my sis.

Pac man style

On her skirt were squares of primary colors

An amazingly high tech water fountain.

It doubles as a mirror for the ladies.

American food is available in the cafeteria. Boo

Eating in down town Alsfeld

I am trying to figure it out. It's a cheese pretzel but not like the American kind. It was good.

You can leave your dog in the store while you shop in Alsfeld so it can stare at weird strangers taking photographs of it.

History about the Mainz gate towers in Alsfeld.

German children enjoying their gelato on a hot day.

Germany's version of My Little Pony.

I have no idea what Jon was eating but the view was great.

I wanted to BE this German waitress. I assume she's a princess cause she's in front of a castle-like building.

Germans play Apples to Apples tooooo!

A barbecue at Jon's house. The green house is his grandparents and the house with all the bright lights on is his. It's really cute.

Yay for cookouts..... and beer.

Jon's older brother, Philipp, representing the German race well.

The other grandparents garden. (The ones that don't live at Jon's house).

They were very vivid.

They were more colorful in real life.. :P

A drawing on a German house at Jon's grandparents

Pretty path by a house

More nice and complicated drawings.

There were whales on the toilet paper (though you can't see them). Germans are obsessed with this animal.. I have no idea why.

A huge, delicious, home made cake. This was made by Jon's grandma. :) Peach flavored

Two homemade cakes. Both huge, both good.

Jon's grandparents (that don't live with him).

A nice view from the balcony of the landscape and garden.

This is the car dealership in Jon's town.

They put the jazz band on it to "Americanize" it. My question is why??

These slutty women figurines were another attempt to "Americanize" the car dealership and draw customers.