Week 27! - Going home...

Hello everyone! I hope you all had a great week as always! As sad as it makes me to say, this is my last blog for Laurel’s Freiburg Adventures. But I’ll start at the beginning of the week, on Monday. Monday was my last full day in Germany. I woke up early so I could take a nice shower. Then Renate and I went to the bank to close my account. That ended up taking much longer than expected, so right after that I rode my bike into the city for the last time, or at least the last time for a while. As always, the city was hustling and bustling with music and many people. I did a lot of shopping and bought a lot of things for my friends back home and also for me. Mostly sweets and candy haha. Then when I had bought everything I needed, I rode my back. I had spent a few hours in the city, so by the time I got back it was time for lunch. Renate made some yummy pizza which is always delicious. Then I got to work finishing up packing. I was getting tired though, so I took a little break in the afternoon and picked out some movies to rent for my plane rides home. Then, I was back to work making everything fit. My suitcase was absolutely filled to the brim. And I just kept stuffing more stuff in. I weighed it, and it was very overweight, but I couldn’t take stuff out so I just decided to hope for the best and leave it overweight. In the evening, when I had finished packing, some of my friends came over to say goodbye. They were very nice and wrote me such a sweet card with photos of all of us from all the things we did together. They also got me a little machine. It’s technically used for pressing potatoes to make mashed potatoes, but it can also be used to make spaghetti ice cream. If you have read all my blogs, you’ll remember how sometimes I would go out with my friends for spaghetti ice cream. It’s ice cream that is pushed through a press to make it look like spaghetti, and then there is a strawberry sauce that goes on top along with little pieces of white chocolate to look like cheese. I’d mentioned that I’ve never seen spaghetti ice cream in the US, so that’s why they bought me this contraption so I could make my own. It was so thoughtful and nice of them They also got me a necklace made from a seashell in Sylt, Germany, which is where we went on our class trip. Then we were going to watch a “typical german movie” but we couldn’t find one, so we instead decided to watch a “typical American movie”. I chose Mean Girls because every American high school girl has seen that movie. After we finished our movie, it was getting late and I needed to be well rested for my travel day so I said goodbye and went to bed. 

The next day, I woke up early to get everything finished up for my travel home. I packed some food, brushed my teeth, ate breakfast, and I was ready to go! I said goodbye to Andy, Noah, and Timo, and then we left to take the tram to the train station. We were a little bit early to the train station so we waited a few minutes before we got on our train. The train ride was just over two hours long. We took the train directly to Frankfurt Airport. When we got there, it took a while to find out where I needed to go and to get there because Frankfurt Airport is just so huge. But we got there! The first step was to check my bag. Remember how I said it was way overweight? Well it turned out not  to be a problem (sort of). Basically my mom accidentally paid for two checked bags even though I only have one. But it wasn’t her fault because it was very confusing. It sucked, but because we had paid for two, but they didn’t give me any issues that it was overweight. After I had checked my bag, the only step left was security. Which meant it was time to say goodbye to Rahel and Renate. These goodbyes were the hardest of all because I’ve grown the closest with these two people the most. Some tears were shed, but then I walked through security and waved my final goodbye. Goodbyes are always hardest when you don’t know when you’ll see the person next. I know I’ll see them again, but I just don’t know when. I had some time after getting through security, and I would have loved to walk around a little bit, but my bag was so heavy. I knew weight was going to be an issue while I was packing, so I put everything that was heavy and dense in my carry on. I’m a pretty strong girl, but I could barely pick this thing up. Let alone go for a walk around the airport with it. So I just sat down and waited for boarding. My first flight went good. I was sitting next to the emergency exit which was fine by me because it meant I got a lot of leg room. Something that’s kinda weird though is that even though I speak fluent English, and my English is definitely better than my German, I feel more comfortable speaking German. I’m sure that will change. But being at the airport was the first time I’ve heard crowds of people speaking English in a really long time. And it was the first time in 6 months that I’ve been able to speak English in a public setting and have it be more useful than German. I was prepared for culture shock when I came to Germany, but I wasn’t prepared for such differences on the way home from Germany. It’s weird. I can’t really explain it. But everything is different, and my brain has to make a major switch. It’s small things like how in the distance you can hear English, and not German. And how in announcements, everything is said in English. Anyways, I’m kinda getting of topic here. But basically my first flight was good. The flight attendants were nice, my seat was good, and I was comfortable. 

When the first flight was over, I didn’t have much time before my next flight. In my mind, I thought I would have time in between to update my family and friends and to buy something to drink and eat. But I was very wrong. My first flight was late so I had to run to my next gate. I almost missed my next flight. And I had to run with my pretty heavy backpack and my unbelievably heavy duffel bag. There’s no wheel and it was over 30 pounds. I could barely walk with it but I didn’t want to wait 7 hours for the next flight. Anyways, I made it on my next flight. I was a little frazzled because I didn’t have time to connect to the WiFi and and update my mom, but there was nothing I could do so I just had to wait 6 hours for when I arrived in Newark. I also didn’t get to buy anything to eat or drink which meant I was forced to pay the outrageously overpriced airline prices. I decided my hunger could wait, but my thirst couldn’t. So I just paid for water. (It wasn’t free). But other than that my second flight was great. Sure I was a little bored but that was to be expected. It was pretty empty so the seat next to me was free which was nice. 

Eventually, I arrived in Newark. I was so excited to get off the plane and see my Grammy I could hardly wait. After I got off the plane, got through customs, and got my bag, I finally reunited with her. I gave her a big hug and we walked to her car. I had to move slowly because my bags were so heavy, but we made it! Grammy was so sweet and she had packed me water and snacks for the car ride home.  When we got to her apartment, she gave me the grand tour and showed me all around. It is such a lovely place! It was my first time seeing it because she moved last summer. Then I really wanted a nice cold shower after a long day of traveling so I took a shower, and then ate dinner. While I ate I showed her some stuff from Germany and we talked about the most amazing last 6 months. 

And that was my travel day! I don’t want to get into the rest of the week even though it was really fun to see some of my cousins, and other family members, but I want to keep this blog about Germany. Overall it was such an amazing 6 months and I wouldn’t trade the experience for the world. I want to give a huge thank you to my host family for giving me the most generous gift of a home for the last 6 months, and also for helping me so much through the whole experience. Until next time… Have a great week!