My last full day in Germany way Monday, August 4th. It was a somber day. I had to spend yet more time packing up the last of my belongings, doing laundry, and cleaning. I did, however, find time to go out around town for a little. I got ice cream with Kalle in the early afternoon to say goodbye. Afterwards, I wandered around taking in the sights for one last time. I made sure to just stop and enjoy the moment as much as I possibly could. It was weird hearing all the sounds of the city, seeing all the sights, and realizing that I may never be back there again. I did some last minute shopping, and I ended up getting some awesome paintings of Mainz done by a street artist. I felt like they were the perfect final souvenir of my time in Germany. I watched the sun set from my room, as I often did, and a sadness came over me. The finality of everything had finally caught up with me. As expected, it took forever to fall asleep.
Tuesday, August 5th, was my last bit of time in Germany. I had to wake up at 5am to pack up my remaining toiletries, take out my trash, and get rid of all the things I had in my apartment for living, such as pots and pans. I finally walked to the bus at 6:30. With my four bags, moving was quite a strain. When I got off the bus, a woman asked me if I needed help. I told her that my bags were heavy, but that I would appreciate the help. When I was standing at the top of the stairs looking down to the train track, a man asked if I needed help, and I again graciously accepted. He asked me where I was going with so many things. When I told him that I was going back to the USA, he kind of laughed and said that it made sense that I had so many bags. When I was attempting to get all my bags up onto the train, another woman just kind of jumped in and helped me. As my train crossed over the river, I looked out the window, trying to burn the image of the sun rising over the water into my head. Some tears came to my eyes in that moment. After more struggling and sweating, I finally crossed the massive airport and dropped my bags off at the desk. I didn't even have to pay for my second bag! I headed to security and made it through without problems. However, once I got to customs, the German customs gave me some trouble with the length of time I had been in Germany. I'm not sure why he was giving me so much trouble, I was leaving the country, but I managed to talk it through (in German) with him and he let me by. When it was finally time to board, I boarded with my zone. When they scanned my ticket, the machine beeped. I ended up getting upgraded to first class!!!!!! International first class is absolutely amazing. My seat laid down into a bed. I got a Weston Heavenly blanket and pillow. We had four courses for lunch, free alcohol, warm cookies between meals, and then a light dinner. Noise cancelling headphones were also provided in-flight. The list goes on. Leaving in first class certainly helped my mood. When we landed 9.5 hours later, it felt weird to be on American soil. I finally made it back to Huntsville at 5:30pm central time. My mom cried when she picked me up at the airport.
Thursday, August 14, 2014
Sunday, August 3, 2014
Das Ende
My last few days have been fairly uneventful.
On Monday I had some errands to run on campus, like pick up my remaining Schein from the foreign language department. A Schein is how the university's in Germany give grades. It's a piece of paper that says which class was taken, how many credits were received, who the student is, and what the grade is. It's quite primitive, if you ask me. I did absolutely nothing on Tuesday aside from watch Netflix in bed. It was relaxing and boring. Wednesday was the day I had to say goodbye to Marcella. I met with her, Frank, Martha (France), Indra (Germany), and Annika (Germany) for some lunch/cake. Just as it was with Clare and Matt, it wasn't fun to say goodbye. It still amazes me how such close friendships can develop in such a limited amount of time. Marcella keeps trying to convince me to visit them in England, and I just may do that one day. Once the goodbyes were over, I went around town, shopping and going inside the Dom. I'm trying to get some last sight-seeing done before I leave.
Thursday I went for a run. I also did some more sight-seeing, but this time I went to St. Stephan and Augustinerkirche, two churchs in town. I had been inside both, but with my camera. There was a huge group of tourists inside St. Stephan when I got there. I was walking around taking photos and three separate tourists in the group, two of which didn't speak any German, stopped me and told me I couldn't take pictures. I've never seen fellow tourists be so concerned with the rules. On my way home, I stopped and had some soup at a local cafe. It wasn't so bad to eat alone.
Friday I actually had some errands to run. I went to campus and had some forms signed by my adviser, then walked around the botanical gardens on campus a bit. I eventually went into town where I had potentially my last doener. Two of the workers there know me now, so they asked if I wanted the usual. One of them also knows that I'm from the US, so he asked me the name for lettuce in English. I also had potentially my last ice cream creation, the Kartoffel Becher. I wish we had the same kind of ice cream things in the States like we do here. I also began packing. I packed up most of my clothes, as well as some other items. I couldn't pack everything since I wasn't leaving for a couple of days. I also started the process of cleaning, which is no fun with limited cleaning supplies and when you're in denial of the near future.
I continued to pack and clean on Saturday. I figure that if I break up the cleaning into smaller and less time consuming bits, that it won't be so bad and depressing. It's mostly working for me. In the late afternoon, I went for a walk to St. Peter, a church here in Mainz. For some reason, I had never been inside it before though I had walked by it many, many times. It was more beautiful inside than I was expecting. I headed to the grocery store on my way home, probably my last grocery store experience as well. At 9pm I met Frank at the Hbf and we went to Porters, an Irish pub, for some drinks. After days of no meaningful human interaction, having a real conversation with a friend was a breath of fresh air.
Today was more or less the same as the previous few days. I packed and cleaned some more, though very slowly. Towards the end of the day I went on a three hour walk. I walked down to the Rhein and then along it all the way up to a park that I'd never been to before. There are four flamingos in the park, so I meandered around looking for them. On my way home, I stopped for some ice cream. I also stopped and listened to a concert that was happening near the Dom. After some research online, I figured out that it was Wolfgang Niedecken playing, apparently a well-known German musician.
Tomorrow is my last day here. I've got yet more cleaning to do, as well as some last minute shopping. I'm also planning on spending some time just walking around one last time and enjoying my favorite parts of the city. My flight from Frankfurt is at 10:15am on Tuesday, so I have to leave my place around 7am. I'm still not entirely sure how I'm going to get to the airport with all four of my bags. I guess it shall be my last adventure here.
On Monday I had some errands to run on campus, like pick up my remaining Schein from the foreign language department. A Schein is how the university's in Germany give grades. It's a piece of paper that says which class was taken, how many credits were received, who the student is, and what the grade is. It's quite primitive, if you ask me. I did absolutely nothing on Tuesday aside from watch Netflix in bed. It was relaxing and boring. Wednesday was the day I had to say goodbye to Marcella. I met with her, Frank, Martha (France), Indra (Germany), and Annika (Germany) for some lunch/cake. Just as it was with Clare and Matt, it wasn't fun to say goodbye. It still amazes me how such close friendships can develop in such a limited amount of time. Marcella keeps trying to convince me to visit them in England, and I just may do that one day. Once the goodbyes were over, I went around town, shopping and going inside the Dom. I'm trying to get some last sight-seeing done before I leave.
Thursday I went for a run. I also did some more sight-seeing, but this time I went to St. Stephan and Augustinerkirche, two churchs in town. I had been inside both, but with my camera. There was a huge group of tourists inside St. Stephan when I got there. I was walking around taking photos and three separate tourists in the group, two of which didn't speak any German, stopped me and told me I couldn't take pictures. I've never seen fellow tourists be so concerned with the rules. On my way home, I stopped and had some soup at a local cafe. It wasn't so bad to eat alone.
Friday I actually had some errands to run. I went to campus and had some forms signed by my adviser, then walked around the botanical gardens on campus a bit. I eventually went into town where I had potentially my last doener. Two of the workers there know me now, so they asked if I wanted the usual. One of them also knows that I'm from the US, so he asked me the name for lettuce in English. I also had potentially my last ice cream creation, the Kartoffel Becher. I wish we had the same kind of ice cream things in the States like we do here. I also began packing. I packed up most of my clothes, as well as some other items. I couldn't pack everything since I wasn't leaving for a couple of days. I also started the process of cleaning, which is no fun with limited cleaning supplies and when you're in denial of the near future.
I continued to pack and clean on Saturday. I figure that if I break up the cleaning into smaller and less time consuming bits, that it won't be so bad and depressing. It's mostly working for me. In the late afternoon, I went for a walk to St. Peter, a church here in Mainz. For some reason, I had never been inside it before though I had walked by it many, many times. It was more beautiful inside than I was expecting. I headed to the grocery store on my way home, probably my last grocery store experience as well. At 9pm I met Frank at the Hbf and we went to Porters, an Irish pub, for some drinks. After days of no meaningful human interaction, having a real conversation with a friend was a breath of fresh air.
Today was more or less the same as the previous few days. I packed and cleaned some more, though very slowly. Towards the end of the day I went on a three hour walk. I walked down to the Rhein and then along it all the way up to a park that I'd never been to before. There are four flamingos in the park, so I meandered around looking for them. On my way home, I stopped for some ice cream. I also stopped and listened to a concert that was happening near the Dom. After some research online, I figured out that it was Wolfgang Niedecken playing, apparently a well-known German musician.
Tomorrow is my last day here. I've got yet more cleaning to do, as well as some last minute shopping. I'm also planning on spending some time just walking around one last time and enjoying my favorite parts of the city. My flight from Frankfurt is at 10:15am on Tuesday, so I have to leave my place around 7am. I'm still not entirely sure how I'm going to get to the airport with all four of my bags. I guess it shall be my last adventure here.
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