Hotel Riche Valkenburg

... get one either in Ghana or in Europe. I attempted to get one in Ghana, but there was a huge line of visa agents, each holding about 20 passports, and the line there never moved - I later found out that many people had been queueing there for weeks to get visas. Eventually I gave up and decided to get a visa and pay the express fee in Europe somewhere. Upon arrival in Berlin I went straight to the Chinese embassy there and, after the most frustrating, and yet also most comical ...

... we were picked up by Peter, Ingeborg and Maud.When we arrived at their home in Boukoul, Hugo and Twan were playing the ps3 so before longI had joined them and we had already settled in. Ingeborg's brother Renee also popped byto say hi.
Dinner was a homemade lasagne, and although there was plenty I think we polished it all off. After dinner we went across the street to meet Sef and Trees (Grandma's sister) for the first time, after receiving many birthday ...

During our stay in Spa we had the most scary, horrible, unpleasant experience ever in a restaurant.

The restaurant to avoid is "Le Bouchon Gourmand", the owner does not hesitate to insult customers, lock them into the restaurant if there is a dispute on the bill, and claim more money than is due.

See more on www.bouchon-gourmand.blogspot.com

... bad, but considering everything I did today, it was a long day.

Coming up the stairs I met our neighbor lady, Rosvitta. She is a talker, but very nice. She's the lady that cooked that traditional German dinner a couple weeks ago. I told her all about my day, and she was happy for me and kept telling me how my time here is just going to fly. She also said that if I ever get homesick I can always come back here to my family. That was ...

... They told us we were at the highest point in Belgium, which was somewhere in the Nature Park.

We decided to call it a day for the roadbook, and make a detour to just get into Luxembourg for fuel, and to make sure we 'did' all the countries.

Looking back that detour cost us some time, but did mean we visited Luxembourg, even if it was too dark to see it.

... 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.

... 4 day old son Justice for us to meet. He was super cute - as were the other two children, Victor and Charlotte, who were happy to have a little brother. From there, we drove another hour to the Frankfurt Hahn airport, where we returned the rental car and boarded our plan to Ireland! We landed in Dublin close to 11:30pm local time. We did a few things, but I think I have to update all of that in Dublin page... :)

Today was the first day of class, and I have to say the most exciting first day I have ever had. The name of my first class is "Comparison of Higher Education in the United States and the European Union" (quite a mouthful huh?) There are only 8 students in my class, and my professor is from the University of South Dakota (Vermillion). She is wonderful and I am very excited to be in her class. It is the most laid back classroom setting I have ever experienced in all of my education. It ...

... it must be said that after riding over 50km in the day it was not a comfortable finish to proceedings, our numb bums not appreciating leaving the smooth bitumen roads for the cobbled streets of Maastricht’s centre.

We rested on our sore rear-ends for the evening at an Indonesian restaurant. Another of the drawbacks I’ve found about living in Europe is the lack of good South-East Asian food but ...

... je moest het maar iets nodig hebben en het thuis hebben laten liggen.

Maar zo, ik vertrek! Ik ga genieten van mijn jaar in het buitenland, aan het strand, tussen de palmbomen, de blauwe zee. Zoals ik het opnoem lijkt het wel een droomvakantie. Maar vergeet niet: de nieuwe taal, nieuwe mensen, nieuwe gewoonten, nieuwe omgeving, ... Hier lijkt het een avontuur dat ik absoluut niet wil vergeten.

Later meer.

Groetjes Stefanie