Today was one of the longest days! It is amazing how much traveling and lack of sleep a person's body can endure and still be able to function and navigate their way around a foreign airport. I flew from Des Moines to Chicago and then onto Dusseldorf. I almost missed my flight to Germany because the flight to Chicago was delayed by an hour, but thankfully I was able to get on it. Being stuck in an airport is one of the last things I want to do :)
I arrived at the airport in Dusseldorf, changed into my Camp A attire, got my bag (notice the singularity of that word...one bag...for six weeks! This should be interesting). I was greeted by my PC (Project Coordinator for all of you non Camp A folk. This is the person that oversees all of the camps in the British Garrisons, while I am only in charge of one camp). He is really nice, and it was relieving to see someone with a friendly face after being around so many grumpy people in lines at the airport. He informed me that I was the only one arriving in the morning and that everyone else is coming in later at night...so basically I have the whole day to do nothing!
We drove about 20-30 minutes to the base I am living on for the summer: Rheindahlen! This base is the closest out of the British Garrisons to the airport in Dusseldorf. It is considered to be in the town of Monchengladbach, Germany. We got onto the British Army base without any problems, which is good, because usually the military isn't willing to work with you very much the first time you come onto base. I found out that I am living in a building called the Cassel House, which is like the on-base hotel. It is like a cross between a dorm room and a hotel. There are small individual rooms and then communal bathrooms.
After attempting to get settled into my new room, I passed out for a few hours from sheer exhaustion...luckily I was able to get up in time for lunch! This base allows us to eat at the hotel for free...breakfast and supper, and then they pack us a lunch each day we have camp! This is basically unheard of in Camp Adventure, so I am fortunate that lucky camp was me! Lunch consisted of a few options, but I ended up going with the tuna pasta melt (since it was the only thing that I knew all of the ingredients to) with corn, pasta salad (which tasted funky), potato salad and a pickle. This was no ordinary pickle...it had been marinating in a juice with peppers and olives. Let's just say I won't be getting that in the near future. For a drink there is water, or an orange drink, which I thought was going to be something like Tang, but it was basically water with a hint or orange...how disappointing.
I unpacked in the afternoon and decided that I needed to get the Internet hooked up to my room. It is wireless, luckily, but it is 20 Euro a month to use...which stinks, but I don't really want to have to walk 15 minutes to get Internet like last summer in Okinawa, so I went ahead and decided to get it. My credit and debit cards did not work with the machine at the hotel, so I took a walk to the bank, which wasn't too far, so once it was set up I was on Facebook pretty quick! I got Skype set up also, so I called mom, dad and Paul to make sure they knew I had made it safe and sound. It was great to hear their voices :)
When going to get money from the 'money point' (or ATM), I had to walk through the 'car park' to get there. When I was given directions (by one of the nicest front desk people to ever work in a hotel), she told me to go through the car park to the left and the money point would be on my right with the bank. I have a strong feeling that I am going to be learning many new phrases everyday. Another that I heard today was when I was in the main lobby of the hotel and the concierge was on the phone, and said "call this number, and if it rings out, then call me back and I will give you another." I had never heard someone say 'rings out' like that before...I love the British language :)
I decided to venture out again in search of the rooms within the hotel, like the laundry room. I walked past the dining hall, and it looked like they were cleaning up supper...supper was supposed to be from 6-7, and my watch said it was 5:55...so I looked at the clock on the wall, and it said that it was 6:55! I went in and they let me eat because they are really nice, but obviously someone was wrong about the timezone in Monchengladbach, Germany! I ate supper, which was delicious, including chicken filled with cheese, cooked carrots/broccoli and yogurt. The dessert was questionable, and it tasted like it was supposed to be chocolate raspberry something, but it was mushy and tasted too chocolatey for my liking. Mom would have loved it though :)
Phrases of the Day:
car park- parking lot
money point- atm
salad cream- salad dressing
big bit or little bit- big piece or small piece
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