Life: Idiotropic

Run here. Run there. Fahren. Immer fahren. (driving. always driving) Tinny laughed the day she told me that I drove too much and I replied with "Ich bin taxi." Laugh, but it has its truth.

Today wasn't so much taxi fahren, but a list of things to do and places to go and only so many hours.

This morning was up, breakfast, feed kids, shower, bath Elise, wrap present, make grocery list...

Drive to Valkenburg and pray that I didn't run out of gas since I was too low and didn't have time to drive out of my way to a gas stations that would accept my ration coupons... attend birthday party for a friend of Elise' from her International school at the Valkenier which turned out to be a rather amazingly fun amusement park exactly perfect for her age group and just a smidgen over.

Yeah. It rained. And yeah. We got our pants wet trying to ride wet rides. Next time I'll bring a towel - just in case. But, Elise had fun! And I have to admit it. I had fun too. She could do all the rides even if she wasn't tall enough, if she rode with me. We didn't have a lot of time, but she really liked it there, so we'll go back. The fish are there too... in the small lake. You can buy food and feed them and they go crazy writhing around trying to get to the edge and eat. "Cooper" - at least that's what they are in Dutch.

From there sweating it to Schinnen where I could get a little gas... not a full tank because although it's our support base, it's in the Netherlands and gas is more expensive on that side of the border... so just a bit. Then groceries for the Greek dinner I was going to cook the next night for friends.

Back home, unloading groceries and getting ready...

drum roll, please.

Spa and Food. Hmmmmm.

Tonight I was completely honored to be included in a going-away night for some of my Spanish friends. There were 6 of us - 5 Spanish and 1 me. We went to the Carolus Thermae in Aachen - a large spa there and I was nervous, really nervous. After all, this is Europe. Modesty is different - sometimes non-existent. And a German spa is nothing like the hair, nails, massage, pampering place that I've seen in the US. They do have massage and beauty options, but they also have restaurants and bars, a huge sauna area, and the focal point: the pools. And not for swimming. It was beautifully done though. We got a chip that fit into the key in the small valuables locker. There were small rooms for changing privately, then a locker room on the other side with large lockers corresponding in number to our small lockers. So we wore our key bracelet and had plenty of space for our things. Then there are the pools... a large pool with contoured beds built into the sides so you can lay in the water and allow the jets to massage you, seats with those same relaxing jets, and lots of space to move around in the highly mineralled water. There were 3 hot tubs of different temperatures there that I saw (but may be more) and a cold tub, a relaxing room with music, and a sauna, then two outdoor pools, one with similar beds and a large waterfall, and the other with a whirlpool that swept us along so quickly we had to "go fishing for Spanish" and grab our friends as they circled to help them out when it was time to go. I felt like we were on a tour sampling each pool for a just little bit before the group moved off to another area, but it was nice, really nice. And when it was time to go, we took our time getting dressed up, then going out to the long counter area with mirrors and outlets where we could make ourselves up pretty before we went out. I pulled out my curling iron and Carmen asked me to show her how to use it. She'd never seen one before.

Then comes the food. We drove to a little corner of the city just a block from one of the old city gates and next to a park where we had reservations at a small, but immensely popular Vietnamese Restaurant that served absolutely delicious and exquisitely presented food - the perfect compromise between the sometimes too heavy flavor of Chinese and the often too spicy Thai. This was one to come back to... I'm already planning the day! We had egg rolls, a platter with 4 different meat dishes (chicken, pork, duck, and beef) with perfectly cooked vegetables, and a light ice cream for dessert. Each plate had a pink orchid on it. Noemi and I each ate one just to try it and it was good... crunchy almost with that light wateriness of the water chestnut.

Home by 11:30. Such a great night!