De Vierjaargetijden Epen

... I was just wondering what kinds of problems I was going to have and how many times I was going to look stupid with my German and how ****** off I was gonna be when I got back tonight. I was scared. But, surprisingly and much to my relief, everything worked out just splendidly!

I hope tomorrow will be just as successful as today.




PS - I don't even have to go to Oktoberfest-this weekend there is a music festival in Aachen!!!

... space isn't exactly the safest place to be. With the German national elections coming up, tensions are high.

At least the weather is nice here, though! We are having a little Indian summer, about 70 degrees and sunny outside. I better take advantage of this now, because I hear the winter can be really terrible: sunrise at 10am and sunset at 4pm.. we shall see how that goes.

Ok well Nil should be here any minute, more later!

... br>2. hang up my flyers advertising my excellent proofreading skills (trying to make a little money on the side)
3. make a copy of my new apartment key for landlord
and and and...

WHEW!! all of this stuff has to get done sometime, I guess. I am just glad things are finally starting to come together, or at least they will have a little more by tomorrow night.

Going to bed for now!

After popping into and out of Germany, we were now back in Belgium. It was beginning to get a bit dark, and we still had at least 200 miles left to drive.

Gaz's motor was struggling, and threatening to overheat, so we stopped to let it cool down.

With the vehicles all decorated with stickers, we attracted a bit of attention, and a Belgian couple took our ...

... on.

We stopped at one point, because the roadbook wasn't very clear, at which point Gaz and Charlotte came up behind us. They had been left behind by the V8s, as they were in a Series vehicle, so we said we'd stick with them.
At this point, Kieran noticed a strange noise from our engine, which was duly investigated by James. It was diagnosed as the fan belt tensioning pulley. But we didn't do anything about it at the time.

lots to say.. where to begin?

On Friday we had a teacher outing to Stolberg. It is a very old city about 20 km from Aachen. We had a great time. The weather was very nice, for a change, haha. We first went out to lunch at a cafe. The food was pretty good, I had salmon and potatoes and salad. The only thing was we had to wait FOREVER (at least an hour) to get our food, and not everyone got their food at the ...

... and one asked me if everyone in America has a pool in their backyard. haha I thought this was ironic since my dad just took our pool down yesterday. Another student said he had read a lot about health care online and he wanted to know if it was really as bad as it seems. I said that it was; that we are a torn nation right now. Then time was up. I asked the teacher if the discussion was ok and she said it was very good and ...

We 'trundled down past Maastricht towards Germany. The deviations were big ones but we still were able to make good time! The scenery was worth the deviations though. We past by some wonderful little towns and river gorges. Very nice bit of countryside. Will have to return there sometime, God willing!

I wasted a few hours in the morning servicing the bike, before heading off for Germany. This was to be another short ride, as I was ahead of shedule and still fatigued. Of all the possible effects cycling could have on my body, the last thing I expected to be seriously injured was my hands. Ever since the morning in Zutendal, I have not had complete control over my fingers. Hold out your hand, palms down, with fingers spread. Move your fingers together, keeping an ...

Carnival 2005 Well a little bit earlier than last years and as promised within the two weeks from Carnival. I have added a numerical sequence to the pictures this year rather than names, so they are in order of them being taken. This will now show them in some sort of order so the later ones in each day will be a little out of focus from ...