July 9th: Our first day off/my birthday

--and the 8 hours we spent in a bus. Just as i became used to French culture, we left for the German town of Mainz. This meant a long day of driving-- and because our bus driver didn't have the proper permits to speed, 80km/hr speed limit on the German autobahn... I cant really remember much of the day-- as i spent most of it asleep-- not to say it was a bad day, I just needed sleep and here was the opportunity. After arriving in Maize we were pleasantly greeted by Phil Blienberger and his wife Anna (Phil is an alum of Unt who I met over 7 years ago-- he is now stationed in Mannheim in the army). He brought with him a bottle of a VERY strong liquor made of pear-- I wont forget the taste of that. The entire evening consisted of eating an authentic German meal and drinking some wine. I spent 25 Euros on 2 huge hef., a creme brulee and some sort of stew--- very tasty, very filling= very sleepy. 10 of my closest friends and I checked out the German television programming-- and their innovative advertising techniques before I became too tired to stay awake any longer. Now is the time to catch up on sleep, even though I can't keep straight which language I am supposed to dream in...