When we first arrived to our apartment, I used white sage to
sage the entire space in an effort to clear negative energy, this apparently was
only phase one of the clearing. Late
last night we were very tired from our travels, we decided to settle down early and we
fell asleep around 9:30 pm. However, we both awoke around 11:30 pm and both of us thought
it was morning – we were shocked to learn we had only slept a couple hours! I
was recounting some odd dreams I was having, the setting was not in America, not
sure if it was Germany, but all the dreams played out in a countryside setting and we spoke with accents of some sort. The dreams were disturbing – I found myself trying to protect
children from brutality at every turn. When
I awoke, I grabbed the white sage and re-saged the apartment. These dreams make me wonder about area we are staying, what the
history of this building and the surrounding area may be – was I experiencing events of past days? I decided to shifted my mind to Corvallis and how my kids were doing; I
exchanged a couple texts with them, learning all is well back in Corvallis. We were able to go back to sleep after taking a sleep
aid – we are making efforts to get on German time, they are 9 hours ahead of pacific standard
time. I awoke again around 6:00 am and texted with the kids again and went
back to sleep. Later, I thought I heard someone knocking loudly on our door, but I
continued to sleep and then a short-time later checked the time, it was 10:10
am. Excitedly, I woke Curtis and told him we had to get-up if we want to successfully get on German time. We slowly made our way to the shower
and readied ourselves for the day. We emerged from our dwelling after making my
first German “How to in Germany” videos. The video took two takes – I really cracked myself up
doing the videos.
How to in Germany Video Series:
Video #1 *take one https://youtu.be/iQZ8xraLlWw
Video #1 *take two https://youtu.be/t44hgNNK0GY
We then made our way over to the market. What stood out to
this American, the cashiers sit at checkout, they do not stand! During our visit we stumbled around using our
Google Translate app, it was clear we were foreigners. Thus far, the German people have not been a friendly people – they keep their heads down and focused on whatever they are doing, no time for excuse me,
a smile, or an offer of assistance. Nevertheless, we find ourselves asking lots of questions - both parties trying to fill the language barrier. Curtis and I were both spent from that
little adventure to the market but we pressed on to find something to eat. Close to our
dwelling is a Bistro – thinking sandwiches and deli items. There was a menu
posted outside the restaurant, in German. We enter and were greeted by a friendly
young man, as he spoke German, I immediately began speaking English and was met
with English. Yippee. English and a smile. The waiter presented menus, in
German of course. I asked for an English menu, they did not have any however (some restaurants have English menus), straight-away, he offered to help. He announced that we were at an Italian restaurant – not what
we were expecting but that was okay. I asked about Salmon and he described a
salmon dish that sounded delicious; Curtis was given guidance too and chose a caramel
tortellini stuffed with salmon. The food was delicious – my goodness I have
turned into a foodie over the years. 
PC – pre cancer diagnosis, I did not much fancy food and could take it or leave, except for chocolate! However, after my first chemotherapy infusion in 2011, I started loving food. If you read my blog you already know this story: I thought I wrote about it however, a quick glance at some early entries and I did not locate the beginning stages of my love for food. If I remember it correctly, it was several days after my second chemotherapy. Our house in Texas was nearly all packed and ready to move back to Oregon. Curtis and I were lying in bed watching Hell’s Kitchen, the contestants were cooking a salmon dish and I told Curtis I just had to have some blackened salmon along with some chips and salsa. He drove to a restaurant and order just that! While he was away, I drug my fatigued body out of bed, set-up the ironing board on the lowest setting –as my table, and sat in front of it waiting for my food to be delivered. When the food arrived, I strategically set out all my food in front of me and ate every single piece of food – it tasted so wonderful! Curtis was lying in bed watching me eat like he had never seen me eat before; he appeared a bit frightened by the site of me shoveling food feverishly into my mouth. This my friends was the beginning of me loving to eat flavorful delicious food.
Enough about food! We walked back to our apartment to
drop-off the groceries and my leftovers then we headed back out in search of an
umbrella, it is raining and chilly here. We too were determined to find the nearest Starbucks –
this would give us a sense of familiarity. We did not find an umbrella but we
did successfully locate Starbucks – it is located in the center of town and only about
a 15-20 minute walk. Quick side note, German Starbucks do not accept the IPhone Starbucks payment app but did accept Visa as payment. We lucked out and avoided major downpours. There were two parks
along the route and a Chinese Garden; it is supposed to be sunny by Wednesday
this week so we will explore more when the weather turns. We made one last
attempt to find an allusive umbrella but were unsuccessful we did however;
purchase a bouquet of white tulips for the flat. During checkout, I handed the cashier my Visa – the cashier shook her head no and rattled off some German, the
gentleman behind us said “welcome to Germany, credit cards are always tough for
some reason Germans don’t like Visa…cheers!”
We returned to our flat after being away for about 4-5 hours in total. When we stopped walking, I realized I had not
taken a pain pill in I believe 24hrs, so I took one, followed by a hot soak – I
love hot soaks. After relaxing a bit, I cut some vegetables to make a fresh vegetable
broth; it will cook down for three hours. Well, there you have it, our first
full day in Germany was quite successful. Cheers~
Teaser: Sunday’s “How to” video #2 will be
entitled How take a shower in Germany.
Today, I am hopeful~