The Last Week or So

Well, I know it's been a while since I've updated. It's hard to get online sometimes, but I'm on now!

Last week a few of us went to Karlsruhe. We were going to a museum, but they closed 30 minutes before we got there. So we just walked around the town, through the botanicle gardens and around the castle there. We ate dinner at a Greek restaurant owned by Germans. It was soooo yummy. All of the food here is amazing.


Friday night, one of the people on my shift that is here permanently had a bunch of people over to his house for dinner. The moms of two of the people deployed here came to visit and they cooked dinner for us. It was incredible food. It's amazing how so many people can come together and hang out so quickly after meeting each other for the first time. It truly is like having a second family here. (I'll upload those pictures another day, the others took forever.)


So, I went to Rudesheim am Rhein yesterday. It was so very pretty. There's a huge statue in the mountain there. You can walk, drive or take a cable car up the mountain. Guess what I did? The person afraid of heights took the cable car. It was so beautiful. It was a very foggy, but sunny day. We rode over some vineyards and it was really cool.

Wikepedia has this description of the statue: The Niederwalddenkmal is in the Niederwald Landscape park. High up above town, the Niederwalddenkmal is a statue of Germania, built to commemorate the unification of Germany in 1871 under the leadership of Kaiser Wilhelm I and the first German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck, both of whom are depicted on the monument. The monument was constructed in order to remember the foundation of the Second Reich after the end of the Franco-Prussian War. The first stone was laid on September 16, 1877 by Wilhelm I. The sculptors selected for the creation of the monument were Johannes Schilling and Karl Weisbach. The monument was inaugurated on September 28, 1883, six years after the start of the construction.

Underneath the monument makes reference to "Die Wacht am Rhein", a patriotic German song with roots as early as the Franco-Prussian war. The central figure is the 12,5 m tall Germania.

This immense monument can be reached either by an hour's walk from the town or by means of a gondola over the vineyards. It is also possible to walk a little way further to reach the chairlift down to Assmannshausen. Whichever route is used, the monument provides a wonderful view of both Ruedesheim and Bingen across the river, as well as the junction of the Rhine and the Nahe.

Afterwards, we went to this really, really yummy restaurant. The baked chicken and pommes frites are to die for! I couldn't eat the whole thing, but I stuffed myself full. When Steven comes to visit, we'll be going back for sure!


Well, I'm signing off since it's getting late and I have to work in the morning! Love you all!

France

So, I went to France today. Specifically, Bitche, France. (Click for the pictures.) It's only about a 30 minute drive from here. We toured through the fort there. Apparently it's the only fort the Germans didn't take during a war I can't remember the name of. The tour was really cool. They had a movie that we watched throughout the whole place (thus the headphones, it's wasn't cold outside).

Afterwards, we went to eat at a really yummy place in K-town. I had a hefeweizen beer and it was pretty good.

It's early to bed tonight, since I have to be up at 4:30 tomorrow morning for work. Take care!

Love you all!

My first long weekend

Well, I took some pictures for everyone. Actually, some is more of an understatement. I took so many that I'm having to link to them instead of having them here.

I finally got off the base Friday night! First a bunch of us from shift went to the Belgian Bar and I finally drank more than a sip of beer. They have this cherry beer that's really good. It's sweet, but it's still good. Better than the regular flavored stuff. I had some of the regular stuff too. After that we went into K-town and went to a bar called Havana. It was salsa night so we just danced for about 3 hours. Soooo much fun.
We weren't out too late thankfully. We got back to base around 1:30 am. I really like the people I work with. It's going to be hard leaving everyone in February.

Yesterday I went with a couple of people to a little town called Speyer. They have a cathedral there where a bunch of kings and emperors buried in the crypt below. It was a gorgeous cathedral. I didn't take too many pictures, but there are a bunch from the crypts and a few of the cathedral itself. After that we walked around the town. It was a beautiful place. I still get a kick out of how many flowers are in bloom. I've forgotten that flowers will thrive in the cold. I can't even keep my begonias alive when the temperature drops below 70 degrees! Anyways, we saw a couple more churches and we walked along the Rhine River for a while too. It was all so beautiful!!!!

Last night it was good to just hang out with some people from my unit and a few others too. We just ate and drank wine for a couple of hours.

Here are some pictures of my room. For some reason I didn't take a picture of my bed. Oh well, it's not that interesting.

Well I guess that's it for now. I have to go hunt down food.

Love you all!

Cristina

Finally!

I finally have internet on my laptop!!! We don't have internet in our rooms but we can plug in at the USO at work. A few buildings have wireless, but I've been having issues with connecting wirelessly here on base. Ah, well.

So, today the high was 57 degrees and it was soooo cold and windy on the flight line. Especially when you have to stand outside for 25 minutes waiting for people to get their butts moving. But, that's ok because it's all for the benefit of our wounded warriors.

Today I got to help load and unload litters from aircraft. That was really cool. Everyone is really nice and it wasn't as stressful as it seemed when I was at Andrews for annual tour. Don't get me wrong, carrying people on a piece of mesh with two poles is pretty stressful. The good thing is that if we feel as if we can't carry the person, there is always someone there to help.

The people on my shift aren't high strung and everyone works hard and works together. I'm told that some of the other shifts aren't like that. I'm glad I'm on the shift I'm on.

I work day shift 6-6. Right now my schedule is kind of messed up because I'm still training, but it will settle down next week.

I'm having an interesting time with the time change. Being 6 hours ahead from home is a really big difference. Most people take about 1-2 weeks to adjust fully. I've had a total of 11 hours of sleep since I got here on Friday afternoon.

Well, I'm starting to space out which means my mind and body will not stay awake for much longer. I'll try to take some pictures and put them up later this week.

Hope all is well at home!

Tschüs!