Why are there so many Americans here?

Now that I've been back in America for 36 hours, I want to talk about what is shocking to me so far. The variety here is nuts. Just nuts. But it's the best kind of crazy ever. Today for lunch I had chicken salad and also a bagel with cream cheese because, hey! I was in NYC, and I haven't had a bagel for a year, OK? I also am really enjoying having my American cell phone that reaches 98% of the people I love through multiple different functions at any given times. And the best part about that? I don't have to worry about what the cost per minute or text is! See ya never, 9cent texts!

Also, I've noticed we have A/C in just about every place. So, environmentally conscious Europeans, yes, you're right, the "Klima Anlage" is everywhere, but you know what? IT IS HOT HERE. I mean it. I've been sweaty for about 35 hours now. Plus, in places like Wyoming it gets hot but the air is dry, and so we don't have A/C in my house there because guess what-- we can live without it. But here on the East Coast, my feet are cold because otherwise I'd actually just be a puddle and you'd never see me again.

The biggest shocker though is all of the English around me! I'm so used to, if I hear American English being spoken, automatically thinking, "Oh my gosh! Americans! I wonder where they're from and what they're doing here." I'm used to the conversations around me being in German and as such not paying attention to background noises. But I can understand everyone here. It's really, really, really a strange feeling. I can't really describe it.

Bye bye, Germany

What will I miss?

• The cobbliest cobble stone lane by my house. It is impossible to walk on in heels, flats, rain... I hate it and love it simultaneously.
• Hearing "Jeden Tag ein bisschen besser" a billion times during a single shopping trip to Rewe.
• Waiting to cross the sidewalk until the light turns green, even though it totally bothers me that no one here jaywalks.
• My wallet weighing as much as my head. Never in my life have I had so many coins at once. It's gonna feel like something is missing.
• My see-through pale skin.... oh wait, kidding! BRING ON THAT SUNSHINE, USA! I'm ready for a sun tan!
• Mixing English words and German words into each of my sentences. Engleutsch, baby.
• German radio traffic reports and pop radio stations. Pop radio DJs also speak Engleutsch... "Das war der US-Amerikanischer Rapper Snoop Dogg mit 'Beautiful'".
• Climbing up cathedral towers.
• Hearing "Vorsicht bei der Einfahrt".
• Late night swims so as to avoid the breaststrokers, old and young but all incapable of circle swimming.
• Kaffee und kuchen with Ginny in Café Blum.
• Open containers.
• Marzipan, marzipan everywhere!
• Brötchen with butter. It just doesn't get better.
• Having no idea how many numbers constitute a telephone number but knowing that it doesn't matter anyway because having a conversation in German over the phone scares the living daylights out of me.
• Throwing away most things in the red waste baskets because I'm still not really sure what blue, green, and yellow are for.
• All of the new, wonderful people I have met along the way... I wish you all continued success and much happiness!

Thanks, Germany. It's been a trip!

Love always.

3...2...1... lift off

3 days of Germany left to go. Only 3.

I've been up to quite a bit- a trip to Ireland, a couple days up north around Paderborn to see my dear Peter and Traudel again, and all of the small prep things that come with a big move. In my head, I was picturing my final weekend here being a big vacation, time to meander about and think and soak up the German-ness of it all, all the time in the world for friends, and so on. It is never like that though. But it's still good.

Ireland was a bit of a shock. I felt like since I was traveling, I shouldn't have been able to read or aptly communicate, and my first day around Ireland I was relatively shy and completely bewildered by the cheeriness of the customer service everywhere. I mean, I paid for a coffee and the transaction went something like this:

"2,50 dear"

i give her exactly 2,50

"brilliant! thank you, enjoy!"

I mean, what the hell is that?! I am more accustomed to feeling like I'm in the way and in the wrong when I pay. But all of a sudden in Ireland I'm brilliant?! Pssaahhhhh howdoievendealwiththat?! And then I remembered, oh yeah, this happens and it's pleasant. How lovely.

People keep asking me if it is bittersweet to be leaving. It's not really. What makes a place isn't all the beer, chocolate, landscapes... it's the people. And though I'll miss all of the other goodies one finds in Germany, the only thing that makes this move bittersweet are the people I've come to know and love this year.

Marius, Anja, Micha, Nadja, Bettina, Janine, Ginny, Shane, Braulio, Carola, Peter and Traudel... you all in different ways made my year in Germany an absolute success, and it's been a privilege to know you this year. Truly.

But that's why we have technology. No one is really ever that far away.

Oh gosh, I have to go de-register myself from Mainz before the Bürgeramt closes in an hour! Crap! That's all for now. What a random post.

Me at Cliffs of Moher

I was just in Ireland! It was so lovely... but I'm off to Northern Germany for the night, so I'll have to elaborate a bit later.

America the Beautiful

HaPpY 4th of JuLy!

The index cards

I am in ultimate packing mode here in Germany, since my time is nearly up, and I'll be on an airplane heading West before I know it. Most everything is already packed up, minus the truckload of books I've managed to accumulate over the last year. They're heavy! I should probably just leave most of them here, but parting with a book is sometimes kinda hard for me.

Everything is off my walls, leaving them sad and plain. And the only time that I got a little teary during the whole packing up process was when I took down all of the things that I'd taped up all over my place when I got to Mainz in a determined effort to keep learning German. My formal language training was only 2 months long, and it was only during that time that I had a chance to try to figure out how to properly construct sentences in German. Since October, it's just been a learn-as-you-go sort of operation, picking up a bit of "Umgangssprache" and just taking my best shot in the dark when it comes to using the proper article and coordinating adjective ending. Once I'd moved in and organized stuff on my shelves, I labeled everything. Red ink for the feminine article "die", blue ink for the masculine article "der", green for the neutral "das", and yellow for plural. With verbs, I tried to label if they were used with a certain preposition and whether the noun that followed should be in nominative, accusative, or dative case.

Those are some of the labels I took down from around my room. It made me get a little teary to do so because these silly little pieces of paper are what my year was all about. 12 months gone in the blink of an eye. The majority of moments that I had here were big challenges. There were definitely times that I wanted to give up- times that I had to pull myself up by my bootstraps and just keep on going. It's funny how being in the thick of something difficult can be so tiring, but when you finally emerge on the other side and see what you're capable of, the sun shines even brighter. Ok ok, the sun doesn't shine all too often here, but you know what I mean...