One Year!

This is my official one year post on Toast and Jam! Though this blog is but a humble effort at electronically keeping a public journal, I feel rather proud that I've followed through with it for an entire year. Once again, I'm facing a birthday--as people tend to do each year--but this this year, it's very different. I'm living in Germany, and I am away from all of the usual people I celebrate with. Yet, I still have that twinge of excitement somewhere inside of me, that hopeful anticipation for another productive year. This last one has been a whirlwind, and though it had its up and downs, I can confidently say that, qualitatively, it has been a very good one. I'd like to thank my family and friends who read this for making it so. I love and/or miss you all.

I'm also announcing my participation in NaBloPoMo. Yep, National Blog Posting Month. I will be posting something every day. Maybe not amazing things, but tidbits to get myself in the habit of writing again (not that I've lapsed out of the habit, but this can only sharpen my skills--or so I like to think). 

Last but not least, I'm pleased to say I've found good Chinese food in Düsseldorf. They serve platters that are like, 20% meat and 80% hot chilies, but they wouldn't make it spicy enough for me. The next time I go back (and believe me, there will be a next time), I'm going to have to say that I want it really hot. Insanely hot. I'm going to insist. They gave my friend and me the total white people treatment, even though my friend is half-Taiwanese and told them to make it hot in Mandarin. It must have been our English-speaking that really turned them against us. But I'm not going to give up. Anyway, we ended up ordering tofu in chili sauce (hot, but not hot enough--kind of a thick sauce, studded with fresh red chilies, not super-impressive) and eggplant in a spicy garlic sauce (not spicy at all, but a lot of garlic and really oily in that way that Chinese food sometimes is when it's supposed to be oily). I really wish I spoke Chinese, though, because they have the special only-in-Chinese menu for the Chinese customers. But even the German menu is pretty good, with some interesting sounding dishes. They also have Hot Pot!

Tomorrow, I will treat myself to a couple new movies from the library, as it is my birthday and all. I may even have my Chinese leftovers for dinner after my German-language night class. Tomorrow promises to be unlike any other birthday I've ever had, and really, what more could I ask for?

Wonderful discoveries.

A four-hour walk around Düsseldorf yielded some wonderful discoveries.

1. Durian's Thai Restaurant. There were "Best of the City"-type stickers all over the front door, the windows were cluttered with beautiful plants and little lights...I can't wait to try it!

2. Der Kleiner Italianer, a ready-made sandwich at Bäckerei Terbuyken that is basically a crunchy brötchen with butter (because every sandwich has butter here, not mayonnaise), basil, arugula, tomato, mozarella and pesto. Mmm.

3. A sushi shop with affordable sushi and actual Japanese people making it.

4. Landliebe Schoko Milch, which is even better than Schoko Müller Milch (and worth the extra money).

5. Two cute art-supply stores.

6. Trendy, affordable hair salons.

7. ICED CHAI. ICED. In Germany, coffee is not iced. It's just not. So the fact that there's iced anything...wünderbar!

8. A Chinese restaurant that serves spicy pig rectum and dan dan noodles (the pig rectum is how I know it's authentic--not something I actually plan on eating). The menu is also in Chinese, and there's awful, flowery wallpaper--good signs.

9. A store that sells moccasins.

10. Nightclubs with indie music. Honestly, I'm ready for a club that plays something other than "Poker Face" by Lady Gaga.

Next Year's Living Arrangements

Just today, I learned where I'll be living in Germany. 

It's a small, North German city of about 150,000 called Neuss, just to the West of Düsseldorf. I'm extremely excited, as Düsseldorf is very similar in size to my current city of residence, and Neuss, from what I've seen via Google images, is home to some seriously beautiful, medieval architecture (as well as located on the Rhine). As an added bonus, I'll be very close to the Netherlands, Belgium and France. Train trips are in my future.

I really haven't researched all that thoroughly yet, but I did find an interesting fact about Neuss somewhere on the internet: apparently, there's a huge heap of garbage somewhere in the city that people there are considering making into a ski slope (because the rest of the terrain is, apparently, quite flat). Somehow, the idea that I will be living in a city where the residents will gladly ski down a mountainous trash heap comforts me beyond measure. It sounds like something people would do where I live (after they'd gotten over bitching about the environmental irresponsibility of having a mountainous trash heap, which admittedly could take ages).