Suitcase Stuffing and Goodbyes

     After 10 days full of sight-seeing, mobbing Tescos, and 59 hours of driving, our group of 70 arrived in Esslingen at about midnight last night. I wouldn't say that travelling in such big groups is exactly my thing now that I've done it, but it was still a blast to see England (except for London) and stay with a completely strange family with whom I could finally speak English with. I learned many things about the English culture, but mostly I just learned that it's more similar American than German. One of these being that yes, British people learn other languages but, they usually only learn one (compared to a typical two or even three in Germany) and don't really learn them in order to speak them (much like how Americans learn Spanish, I would say). In the Yearsley family (the one Joern and I stayed with), Jeremy (who is 16) had been learning German for about two years, but could barely understand a word when Joern and I would speak German together. Now that I think about it, I realize that before I came to Germany, I had learned German for only two years and that I had a hard time understanding more than just a few phrases. I guess that that just shows how far I've come in just these past few months.

     Anyways, now that the 10 days are over, all I have to do is figure out how I'm going to fit all of the crap I bought into my two suitcases without exceeding the weight limit before I fly home on Friday. My strategy is to stuff all of the books and heavy things (like sand, don't ask) into my carry-on as there is no weight limit and to bundle the Sekt and wine up and pray that 1) none of the bottles break and 2) that my check-in will weigh less than 23 Kg. Worst comes to worst, I can always shove tons of stuff into my backpack and pray that it'll fit under the seat in front of me OR I can sneak my backpack AND my handbag in as hand luggage like I did in February at O'hare. And if that doesn't work, I can always pull an Anne Frank and wear 10 layers of clothes to save space. No matter how I figure out how to get there, everything's going onto the same plane and will weigh the same no matter how it's distributed. The only difference will be whether I have to pay extra for it or not, and I'm not planning to. 

     Luggage (or baggage, I forget which one's British and which is American) aside, today was the last day of school for both Joern and me at Schelztor Gymnasium. It was extra dramatic because not only am I leaving on Friday and this was the last time that I would see a lot of these people, but also because Joern is transferring to a Wirtschaftsgymnasium (business school) downtown and this was his last day with his class as well. Even the weather was feeling the mood and decided to drench us on the bike ride to and from school, but of course it's sunny now as I sit indoors and write this. Nonetheless, after school we drove downtown so Joern could get his braces on and I could buy some books while he did so, so I can continue to learn German even though I won't be surrounded by it anymore. It's almost kind of scary to go back to the US because of the fear of losing all of the language I have worked so hard to acquire and not having Joern around as my walking talking dictionary anymore. It's funny because the only difference between Joern and the dictionary on my phone is that Joern has better translations and knows slang, but other than that it takes just as long to get an answer out of him and his battery dies after about 10 translations. I don't blame him for being annoyed by my always asking for words and "was heisst ...?" and "wie sagt man ...?" but I mean it would be a little bit more helpful if I could squeeze more than a few words out of him per hour before he says "I'm not your dictionary!" and stops answering all of my questions. Anyways, I know that I am definitely going to miss Joern and my next objective is going to be convincing my family to take a vacation to Europe. 

     It's looking like Joern won't be coming to the US next year which is going to break up the annual visits to America that he has been making for the past three years. And it's also not looking like I will be coming back to Germany in the next year as my family is planning a trip to Asia, so I guess this is goodbye for now. We've spent the past year of our lives together and probably know each other better than anyone we'll know for a while, but now we've come to the part where our paths split and we move on to see what's next. 

Today is 26.7.2017