The End....for now

It's been quite a while, over half a year, since my last post. So much has happened in that time.

My return flight was.....well.....an experience. Besides crying my eyes out like a little girl as soon as I was separated from my host family, it definitely was not an exciting experience. My flight from Hamburg to Frankfurt was delayed around an hour and a half. This caused me to miss my flight from Frankfurt to D.C. So I had to rebook it, which YFU paid for, and then they checked BOTH of my bags, so I had to pay for that, too. While waiting for the 4 hours or so in Frankfurt, I did enjoy some nice McDonalds, if you'd call that nice, see a bomb squad check out a suspicious unattended piece of luggage, and worry about getting home and try desperately to contact my family in America.

This delayed flight and rebooking, in turn, caused me to miss my flight from D.C. to Kansas City, where my mom was going to pick me up. Instead I had to stay the night in the D.C. airport alone, as YFU considers you Off-Program once you get back to D.C. and, therefore, not their problem. I basically cried myself dry as all I really wanted to do was get home. I mean, come on! I was already upset that I had to leave my home in Germany and now I can't even go to my actual home and sleep in my own bed!! It was crappy, to say the least. To top it all off, the computer system for United Airlines was down. Completely. Hundreds of people traveling further in or out of the country were stranded, along with myself. I used my hoodie as a pillow and camped out, trying to get a little bit of sleep. It wasn't until around 3:30am that the system started working again. Luckily, the lady from United was completely sympathetic of my story and, along with giving me a much needed hug, rebooked my flight and checked my baggage through for free.

So i got on the 8:00am filght to Kansas City, where my dad picked me up at 11:00am. Exactly 12 hours later than I was supposed to be picked up. We made 3 hour drive home, stopping by a Steak and Shake (my first meal back in America!!) to eat lunch. I got home around 4 or 5ish, and tried to unpack. Then I went to my Welcome Back Party at 6. So, yeah. I pretty much got no sleep. This hit me a couple of hours later, when all of my friends came back to my house to watch a movie and I promptly passed out. Anyway, summer came and went, I worked at DQ again, spent time with friends, etc.

Oh yeah, and I got accepted to St. Louis University, where I am currently in my second semester of my freshman year. I started out as a Biology major, but that quickly changed and now I am double majoring in Sociology and Criminal Justice with a minor in, you guessed it, German. I am hoping to eventually be accetped into a decent law school and become an attorney. What kind of law I would like to practice? No idea. Maybe healthcare law. We'll see.

Anyway, I am also a volunteer with YFU. I know that the last part of my exchange was crap, for lack of a better term, but I really enjoy the exchange experience and would like to support it to the best of my ability. I work for a great Field Director and am an Area Representative for two International Students. Christina is from Austria, and Johannes, or Joe, is from Germany. I hope to continue my work for this organization and hopefully I can ensure that other exchange students have just as good of a time in America as I did in Germany.

Any future Germany plans?? Without a doubt. This summer my best friend from Germany, Fabian, is coming to visit for a month. My German brother, Immo, might also be coming, but I am not too sure. As for me visiting the country, I am already planning on spending my second semester next year, as a sophomore, attending Heidelberg University through SLU's Study Abroad program. I am super pumped and cannot wait to be back in that awesome country. Although it is really more of a side-thought, I have also considered taking a break between undergrad and grad school and spending a year in Germany as an au-pair. But we'll see.

...

I am sitting here, with everything packed, waiting. In about thirty minutes, I will be leaving to go to Hamburg. My checked luggage is about 7 kilos overweight, so I will be paying for that for the first flight, but luckily, for my other flights, I should be able to switch stuff over and not have to pay. Hopefully, everything will go as planned and I will get home without any problems. Wish me luck!

meine Zeit in Deustschland ist leider zu Ende

so. I am packed, tired, and ready to fly. Physically, that is. Mentally, I am still not ready to go. All of my friends are sad, and so am I. I don't want to leave them, my family, or this country. I have done a lot since the last time I wrote. I cook traditional american snacks for my host family, which I ended up eating. I cooked my host family an american meal of hamburgers and beer battered pickles. it was very tasty, but took a lot longer than i thought. on wednesday i had my goodbye party. it was a lot of fun. we all ate pizza and enjoyed ourselves. i thought it would be hard to say goodbye then, but it wasn't. but today, man that sucked. my class prepared a going away gift for me, which i didn't know about. i almost, but luckily didn't, cried. it was very hard saying goodbye to all of my friends. I even cried a bit today, which is saying a lot, considering the fact that i hardly ever cry. i do know, however, that i will cry even more tomorrow in the airport. i had a little goodbye party with my best friend, Fabian. it was fun, but short. i just can't wait to skype with him on saturday. it will be the highlight of my day. until then. I will miss you Germany. thanks for being so nice to me.

2 Wochen von letzten Freitag......

2 weeks. only 2 weeks. wow. I never thought my time would go by this fast. It seems like it was only yesterday that I first arrived with all of my fellow YFUers. It is hard to believe that I leave in only two weeks, but still harder to believe that I have spent the last 10, almost 11, months in Germany. I can't really describe the feeling right now. I am not fully aware that in less than two weeks from now I will be a world away. It just hasn't sunk in yet. It is starting to, but, maybe my brain just doesn't want to accept it. I've had so many experiences here, mostly good, but all have been life changing. I am super nervous to see everyone back home and see how they have changed. I just hope it won't be too different than when I left almost 11 months ago. I've missed my prom, senior trip, and graduation, but have made new friends, went on trips to Munich, Berlin, Minden, and many more cities. I have learned a new culture and made friends from all over the world. I have three new families, with whom I hope I will never lose contact. I have ridden a bike more in these past months than in my entire lifetime before. I have a new home. I am a different person. It is simply unbelievable what this exchange year has done for me and I am truly grateful. I can say, as I have said many times before, that I truly do not regret missing my senior year to be on an exchange in Germany. Not one bit. So, enough of my thoughts, here is what I did the past week.

Pretty much nothing. Monday I went to Hamburg and finished buying the majority of the gifts for family back home. The bike I rode to the train station was stolen. It was half my fault and half my host brother's. He rode with my bike to school that day without telling me, so I had to ride with his to the train station, which had a lock, that I didn't know the combination to. So I had to hide it somewhere, unlocked, at the train station. I thought I did a good job at hiding it, but I guess I didn't. It was a very cheap bike, so my host family wasn't angry, thank God. But I still feel really bad about it. On Tuesday, I chilled for the entire day. On Wednesday, I had tennis practice then, afterwards, went to a soccer game and then to the club. On Thursday, I went over to my best friend's house and we grilled. I introduced him to A1 Sauce and KC Masterpiece. He like the KC Masterpiece, but wasn't a big fan of A1. His mom's boyfriend even suggested that A1 would go better with fish. I really wanted to scream BLASPHEMY!!! and jump across the table and hit him, but decided against it. On Friday, I went back to Hamburg to spend the day with the DeShazos, a family from my hometown who where on vacation in Europe. It was a lot of fun just walking around and getting to see Hamburg. We went up into the St. Michael's Church and got to see the city from there and also took a boat tour of the harbor, which is the second largest in Europe. I had a great time. Yesterday, I chilled with an exchange student from Brazil. We had probably the best ice cream ever. It was awesome.

I do have a pretty fully two weeks ahead of me and am going to try to enjoy every last second I have in Germany.