Curious Notions

Some things never cease to amaze me. Having tried to explain to a suitemate just how middle-of-nowhere I was going to be for Christmas, I got sucked into Google Earth and looking up my (many) old haunts. Since I last checked they’ve added high resolution photos to both my home in Arkansas and my home in Germany. The houses in Georgia and North Carolina are missing and my current apartment in Cleveland is only a shell of its current self, but I can count the number of trees that my family planted at the house in Arkansas.

The view of my German “hometown,” though, was even more exciting. Somehow Google managed to catch a shot such that they captured most of my favorite aspects of where we lived in Germany. In the photo above, you can see the Rhine river cutting through the left half of the photo, complete with one of the barges I loved to watch making its way downriver. (The Rhine flows north, and the photograph is aligned the way maps typically are in the Northern Hemisphere.) My house is on a street in the lower right-hand corner. My sister and I used to walk, ride, or rollerblade across that green field over to the bike path that runs along the Rhine. Back on the right half of the screen, slighty above the middle of the picture, you can see a shining arc that marks part of my old high school. It’s not much further past that to Kaiserswerth and the Markt or Barbarossa’s old, crumbling fortress.

Being Christmastime, thoughts of Germany inevitably bring me to thoughts of the Weihnachtsmarkt downtown. The whole atmosphere of the Altstadt during Christmas is just magical. Lights everywhere. Little stalls with every kind of toy, ornament, or sweet imaginable. And the Glühwein… My suitemates and I attempted to make some mulled wine over the weekend, and, unfortunately, the recipe called for way, way, way too much lemon, which pretty much spoiled it. I think one of the most exciting aspects of going to Belgium next year–if I get accepted to the program I hope to attend–will be being able to go to Germany again, especially during the Christmas season. There’s really nothing like it.