Can't wait to get home to my Camaro

I mean Ford, oops. Though I've really enjoyed Düsseldorf, I decided this weekend that I was ready to go home.

I've really liked having public transportation - I mean, not having to drive everywhere, I haven't been using gas, and I don't really have to worry about getting lost on foreign roads, I just have to make sure I exit at the right stop. At the same time, it has been frustrating dealing with the transportation system without understanding German. It's unbelievably scary to hear an announcement in German and have no idea what it has said - is the train still going the right way, etc? I never really know, and that has come to be a problem more than once. I must have asked one of the conductors on the train this weekend about 5 different questions pertaining to am I on the right train, does this train stop in Dusseldorf, which stop in Dusseldorf will it make, etc. There is also the problem of promptness of the train. It is usually quite prompt, causing me to run to my stop or miss a train when I'm late. But it seems that invariably if it is important to arrive somewhere on time or make a connection, the train is late. The train that was supposed to pick me up at 1 in the morning this weekend didn't end up coming until 3:20. I was so scared, and cold at that point.

i love my host family to death - they've been really great, always making sure that I've got whatever I need. Alexander came in today and asked for something to the gist of a heart candy I figured out, at which point I promptly handed over my strawberry gummies that I had left from last week. It has been great interacting with small kids on a daily basis, even if we do have language problems. Kerstin has done my laundry twice - something I'm not at all used to at home or school. Then again, I'm tired of living out of a suitcase all the time, and also of feeling like a visitor, even as welcome as Kerstin and Max have made me feel. I'm ready to get back to my own bed, if only for about 5 days.

I'm also ready to get back to the dependably hot Texas weather. Here in Germany, it has been unbearably hot in the day time with bearably warm nights. But there is no AC, so even the Germans end up sweating a lot. Kerstin said its been the hottest summer since 1900 or something like that this morning. But then again, this weekend, the weather was drizzy and got cold. So now its really really nice, quite cool during the day, its just gorgeous! If only the change had happened 3 weeks ago.


I also can't wait to see my family and friends. I have a new cousin who is almost a month old by the time i get back, and I've never seen him. I get to return to a family reunion and then to school quite quickly so that will soon be resolved. And although I haven't been good about writing to my friends and family, I have really missed them this month.

I'll miss Germany, but at the same time, I am prepared to return to Texas in four days.