My first hefeweizen in Trier
Sometimes reality can present you things which seem like they've been plucked from dreams. It still hasn't fully sunk in yet, even a week after I have arrived, that I am now living in Europe. Go back in time even a year and tell my past self that I'd wind up here and I'd think you were nuts. Alas, here I am across the globe with an opportunity to explore and immerse myself in such a historically rich locale! I have all the thanks in the world to offer my sister Jera and her husband Aaron for inviting me to come check out what this neck of the woods is all about. And also I do have the best parents in the world for supporting my shenanigans all this time.
First of all it was somewhat of a culture shock stepping off the plain into Schiphol airport in Amsterdam to board my connecting flight into Frankfurt. Eight hours prior I was sitting in the terminal listening to conversations with no care in the world as to their origin or meaning. However getting off that plain in Amsterdam was like being hit by a wave of confusion, amusement, and enlightenment. All rolled into one holy trinity of the senses. I was in a different world. I all of a sudden realized I was the minority. This is what it felt like to be in the dark to what was really going on around me. Chattering of countless individuals and not one single conversation could I understand, no matter how hard I strained my ear. Illegible signs which proved to be a fun guessing game for me as to their meaning. Thank god for illustrations or I'd have been lost trying to find the ATM or restrooms.
Came home to this after a stroll through the neighborhood
As for the neighborhood I live in, it's a pretty quaint and photogenic place. The simple thing that still amuses me about the whole area is how green everything is. It's certainly a welcome sight from the brown, arid landscape of Arizona. Most of the locals, including my sister, lament the cloudy skies and frequent rain but I certainly do enjoy it...at least for now. The town, rather should I say neighborhood, of Masholder is a collection of nice houses and rolling green hills with beautiful and ornate flowers coloring spots now and again in the bloom of Spring. Bike paths are also quite common place I am finding out. I've already ridden my bicycle, or Fahrrad as the Germans call them, on one that swept through trees, under bridges, and through farmlands. So far, so good!
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