i am not (such) a tourist.

today we were put out in the world by ourselves. dropped off in the main city of Leverkusen, and given a bus schedule! it's not as bad as it sounds, we were pretty much told exactly which bus station, and exactly which busses would lead us back to miriam's house. (which interestingly i learned is in Opladen, not in Leverkusen, but the address is listed as Leverkusen.)

we wandered around their mall (which is apparently VERY new, and a very new concept to germany) for about 45min but it was warm, and very crowded, because today is Rosenmontag. (a holiday. google it.)

so, we decided to wander around in the city itself. we went up and down several streets, admiring the architecture, and the ultra-pedestrian friendliness of it all. it was also nice to be out in the air, as today was one of the nicest days so far. it was warm, and the wind wasn't so
strong, either. it was perfect.

after a while, though, my back started hurting (again). the same place that hurt when i threw it out shoveling my neighbor's sidewalk. i've decided that once we get back to the states, i need to have the doctor look at it.

but i digress. we went back to the mall with the intention of sitting down for a while. we, however, found a watch shop and decided to look around for a bit. i found a watch for ~75€ but costs ~120€ back in the states (even on amazon!) and that doesn't include shipping for the states! so, i splurged. and i REALLY shouldn't have, but my watch back in the states is in need of repair, and i've already taken it to the fossil store TWICE to be repaired.

after being extravagant, we decided to head back home. waited for the bus, and had a lovely bus ride back to miriam's house. (the public transit here is SO impressively clean, quick, and dependable*)

*aside- the DE-Bahn is apparently striking ALL the time. and we learnt that tomorrow, when Rachel has to go back to Trier, she might have problems, because the workers voted by 97% to strike tomorrow. this is apparently very common, and a VERY much a headache to the folks here in DE.

we had a very nice dinner of antepasta and foccacia bread that Rachel baked herself. -- it's amazing, there is so much good food, so very readily available, and i eat much less, because i feel full so much faster. ALSO, i have had so very little soda (maybe 1/4 litre) since i've been here, and i really haven't had (much) of a problem without it!

for now, it's about 22.25, and i'm getting sleepy, so i'll leave it off here. tomorrow, we go to Oberhausen to see the steam/train museum.
tschuss!