"Guten Morgen, Frau Ethington"

I wrote the first half of this blog post while sitting in the Frankfurt Airport waiting for my flight:


Last night was definitely not my most peaceful sleep, but it was entertaining. I was the only girl in a three person room and the two guys sharing the room with me (one from Korea and one from Ghana) were incredibly talkative. It was their first time in Germany and were really excited about going out the next day and seeing everything. They pulled out a map and I showed them which U-Bahn to take and where and showed them the easiest routes to go places.

Turns out the Korean guy is headed to Marburg in a couple of days to visit a friend and he asked me all kinds of questions about it and I was more than happy to oblige. I was up late talking to those two and after I told them I really had to go to bed we all got in bed but were kept awake by the screaming hookers, awful techno music, and sirens blaring in through the windows. I must have slept only a couple hours off and on. I wasn't bothered too much because I thought it was just really funny and I figured that no sleep that night means more sleep on the plane. 

This morning I lugged my stuff down the Hauptbahnhof walking down the alleys of the Red Light District where the party was still raging. When I got down to the S-Bahn station, a family from Pennsylvania was staring at the map looking really confused. They were trying to find the Airport like I was and I told them I would help them out (even though I had extreme hesitations and doubts about my own capabilities). Turns out everything went well and I walked over to check-in to find that my flight had been delayed from 10.30 to 14.45. So, i'm sitting in what is called the "Leisure Zone" (aka more comfortable chairs than the ones at the burger king across the hallway) and typing away trying not to fall asleep. This little kid sitting next to me is making this really annoying noise clicking the handle of the roller-suitcase up and down, but luckily his mother just told him, "If you keep doing that, the pilot will KICK YOU OFF THE PLANE!" I think she's had a long morning...

In relation to the title of this post, I've heard, "Guten Morgen, Frau Ethington" about 10 times this morning. And i'm not even mad. I hate when people call me Ms. Ethington... but Frau Ethington has more character to it.

This next bit I am writing the morning of my second day back in the US (at a good jetlagged hour of six in the morning):

It was kind of a nightmare getting home. After that delayed flight I ended up in Dallas with yet another delayed flight and didn't even get home until after midnight.
Dallas was honestly really terrifying. The first thing I noticed were drinking fountains that were everywhere, secondly there were so many American flags EVERYWHERE and it was so so so incredibly loud.

I basically passed out on the flight from Dallas to Salt Lake because I didn't sleep at all on the one from Frankfurt due to a farting Sri Lankan guy that was sitting next to me. Typisch.

Being home is a really strange thing that I can't really describe. It feels like my time spent in Marburg was just one long dream that I suddenly woke up from, but then being here also seems like a dream and any minute i'll snap awake in my little cave of a dorm room in Marburg. I knew culture shock existed, but I didn't know what it really meant. I feel like a have been spending a lot of time just looking at things. The streets here are HUGE, the cars are HUGE, the mountains are HUGE, the people are HUGE, the drinks at restaurants are HUGE, everything is just HUGE HUGE HUGE. I spent my first day mostly with my older brother. We went to Nostalgia (the coffee shop I used to spend basically every day at) and sat outside drinking coffee and playing cards. Then we went off to buy some new pants and then back to his place to play Left 4 Dead. That was my first time playing a video game in 10 months and let me tell you, it wasn't pretty. Not at all. My sister came by and we ran off to the liquor store to get wine and then came back to my mom's to be wined and dined. I barely ate anything at all yesterday and my stomach is not happily reacting to what I DID eat. Hopefully that will all get back to normal somewhere in the next couple days. Dearest friend, Autumn returns from Bonaire tonight, I don't know what time, but I'm hoping it's before 22.00 so we can go off to a bar that my sister works at later. Today is going to be spent trying to find my old phone charger, my bus pass, doing laundry, and trying to keep my mind in check as I coast around this strange Twilight Zone.

This is my last blog post, so kids I thank you for reading it and I hope you enjoyed something from it.

Tschüß!