After a sleepless, wildly entertaining weekend packed with four final exams and a dozen goodbyes, I got loaded up into three suitcases and made it to the airport. Brian was incredibly generous to haul two of them home with him(affectionately referring to it as My 95 lbs of crap). After such a crazy week leading up to this momentous departure, I was expecting rushing adrenaline and a pounding heart, but was surprisingly numb and exhausted. Alas, we said goodbye at gate A10 and I was the last passenger on the plane to Philly.
Our layover in Philadelphia was uneventful. We whined about the plane, enjoyed our last American meal, and visited the World Series trophy that was on display in the food court. Then we boarded our second plane, and settled in for a short night.
The dampness of the morning rush-hour in Frankfurt reminded me that I have spent the past month living on a few acres of paradise, and made me miss the intoxicating scent of the orange blossoms. But then I realized we were in Germany, and snapped out of my short-lived moment of missing Glendale.
We have been graciously welcomed into the family home of Phil, another student in our section. This place would inspire the purchasing department of Williams-Sonoma, replete with floor-length silk curtains, fresh tulips on every surface, an extra-large tiled waterfall-style shower, line-dried towels packaged with gross-grain ribbons, and an adorable miniature Cairn terrier named Molly. For breakfast we feasted on fresh breads and cured meats, cheeses and jams, and Italian espresso. It was amazing, and we are definitely counting our blessings.
We hopped on an early afternoon train downtown and Phillip showed us around Frankfurt, combining a history lesson with some cultural highlights. We walked through most of the downtown area, and took lots of pictures. We sampled a local restaurant and ended the afternoon with 3 litres of apfelwein, a regional beverage which I found to be quite harsh in contrast with the cider we discovered in Nantes.
Overall, the day was a huge success, and we are all struggling to make it past ten when our hosts say it will be acceptable to allow ourselves to sleep, in order to adjust to our new time zone. Tomorrow morning, we will be picking up one more Praha-bound Thunderbird at the Frankfurt airport and heading to the train station to catch the 8-hr train to the Czech Republic. I’m sleep-deprived and perhaps a little slap-happy, but find myself marveling at the fact that I am on a different continent than I was 12 hours ago. And this is only the beginning…
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