Sonntag

Today was my day off so I slept until 8:30 and then woke up and finished the rest of another novel I was reading (My Name is Memory by Ann Brash, a really thought provoking book). I then made myself some breakfast, showered, cleaned my apartment, watched German television, and with nothing else to do, set out on a journey to explore Neuss.

Neuss, as it turns out, is quite small. It’s mostly made up of houses and apartments, but there were some shops I walked past. There is an aquarium store, a salon, a travel agency, a bar on every corner, a little food stand with candies and snacks, a cafe, a pizza place, and some gift shops. Although none of them were open because it was Sunday, it was good to go for a walk and see what Neuss had to offer, especially since it was particularly good weather for it.

There is also an old, enormous church. I saw that behind it there was a path and I walked onto it to discover a huge graveyard. It was like nothing I had seen before. Every single grave was well kept and beautiful. Even the oldest plots looked as if they had been there for all of a week. They were decorated with fresh flowers, stones, candles (most every one was lit), and vines. It was obvious that people didn’t forget about their loved ones buried deep in the ground. They came back and remembered and continued to take care of them even though they didn’t have to.

I ran into a squirrel while walking around the graveyard. He was a big red one, who climbed up a tree to my eye height and just sat there and stared at me. I stared back until he decided to go on his way up to his palace in the treetops. As he made his way up, I couldn’t help but smile because his grunts sounded like they were in a German accent.

I slowly made my way back to the stables, where I went back to my apartment and thought about what else a person could do on their day off in a foreign country. There wasn’t enough time to walk myself to Dusseldorf and back, so I decided that that was for next weekend. And it wasn’t time to start making myself dinner yet. So I went and talked to Jess and mother! Hooray. :)