Wed Sept 1st:
I keep it short here I got to Newark airport around 3.15 and good bye was sad but quick. I had quite a lot of luggage to fly back home with ( thanks to air india) I only had to pay for one of them. After I was only dropped off at the airport I had to hire one of the guys to help me with my suitcases and yes he was nice and helped but then complained that I only gave him $8 as a tip and yeah I argued a little bit with him and then he left without more money. I was close to take the $8 back because he was such a jerk. I checked my suitcases in and paid for my 3rd piece and then the nice lady behind the check-in asked me to put my carry on on the scale and surprise surprise it was too have and had to be checked in. So I just grabbed the essentials as passport, ticket, gum and laptop and there went my carry-on. Security was more than a hazard because my passport was going to expire sept 9th but Europeans print the date in a different format than Americans. We write DD/MM/YY and so the lady told me my passport is expired and I couldn't fly. So far so good I had a new passport already made and I could go thru security. Waiting hall was boring but I used surfed the web for a while. Boarding same trouble with my passport but I made it and then I was totally stunned by the luxury of my economy flight. Every seat had its own TV and there was leg room. Ok maybe I'm so short but I was really surprised. I had a nice American guy sitting next to me and so the 7.23 hr flight passed by pretty quick. Getting to Frankfurt landing great and then it took forever till we were finally able to get out of the plane. I couldn't really see where we parked but when I finally got to the door I saw we were parked all the way out and had to take the bus to get to the terminal. Normally I would have never mind but after they took my carry- on I didn't have any clothes and yes I was still wearing my shorts and tank because we had 101 degrees leaving. Welcome to Frankfurt! The outside temperature is 49 degrees. Freezing. We finally made it to the terminal,passport inspection and then a 15 min walk to luggage claim. But all of my 4 suitcases made it. My parents have already been waiting for 2 hours since they checked on-line and it said the flight was arriving an hour early.
Now the funny part started to get all my suitcases in the elevator, our dog my parents and me and then finding the car again. OK, after a couple of wrong turns and looking for the car that was parked on one more level up we found the car and my dad who has a station wagon had a hard time fitting all my stuff in there and the dog but after about 20 mins we made it.
What else happened Thursday. I got home started to unpack my suitcases and yes my suitcases were once again opened up and checked out. What a surprise traveling with a trophy and Wii in my luggage but surprisingly the suitcase with my trumpet wasn't opened.
Thursday was also rough because I didn't sleep at all I was way too occupied with watching TV and talking to the nice guy sitting to me. My parents kind of forced me to empty my suitcases but here starts the problem my closet was full with my old clothes but I had 3 suitcases full with new stuff. So my first mission was to empty my closet to fill it up with new stuff so far so good till I ran out of hangers and I still could have need approximately 50 more of them. My dad suggested just hang more than one piece on a hanger and after I told him that this wouldn't happen he told me just to throw out all the stuff that couldn't fit because I can only wear once piece at a time.
What else happened Thursday and Friday. Not much I was still pretty much living in U.S time but I slowly started to adjust. Saturday my parents took me grocery shopping and to go into town to do some shopping. Just to say I mostly needed all the basics because I had no more room to bring anything like shampoo, headbands, toothbrush and so on. Ok I admit I got really spoiled by my parents but I also have to say I was surprised how cheap everything is. Funny story I just walked thru town and suddenly somebody started to talk in English to me while I was still talking German to my parents. Do I really look that American?
Saturday night I went out to meet one of my old friends and bumped into two others which after all was really nice and I had a good time.
Sunday friends of my parents asked us if we wanted to go to a wine fest and I was all in for it. Weather was actual nice, food and beverage were delicious. There is nothing of a good glass of wine from Franconia and a good Gerupften Brot ( Camembert made a certain way).
Monday was the day of paperwork which means filling out more applications and getting certified copies of my NCC grades and my high school diploma. I also had to get health insurance and I'm on the desperate look out for an affordable cell phone plan. I was already at the point of wishing myself my American plan back but I won't get into detail but I let you all know the German system sucks big time. (Just saying paying 10 bucks more a month just for the phone? I don't think so ) So far I don't have a cell just using my dad's. Let's see how long that will last. So I got all my stuff to the mailbox in time and now it was time to wait.
Tuesday was a slight fight with my mom because she is insisting of ironing all my stuff and asking me to do and everybody who knows me knows that ironing would be the last thing on my behind right next to cleaning. Ok, if anyone has an answer for me why my underwear and socks have to be ironed, let me know. FYI during my 4 years in the states I think I ironed maybe twice.
Ok I think that's enough for now and I will let you know what life brings next for me.
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