After a long day of packing and praying that my bags wouldn't weigh over 20 kilos, hugging my host-mom goodbye at 2 in the morning, and waiting in lines for hours, we made it to Frankfurt, Germany! I said goodbye to the amazing girls (and derrick, ha ha) and ventured off into the airport to see if I could figure out where to get my baggage and where the bus was to get myself to a town an hour outside of Frankfurt and meet up with the family I am staying with, all without a cell phone. I am definitely experiencing reverse culture shock, because I am staying on an American army base, and it feels almost exactly like America. We went to taco bell a few hours after I arrived, and I even got to have a bowl of cheerios and fruit loops this morning. I saw some chocolate syrup somewhere in there, too, so rest assured that I will be having chocolate milk a lot in these next few days, to make up for 5 months without it! There are screens on the windows here. Everyone is speaking English. The post has a store with a bunch of American products that felt almost exactly like Target, and we didn't have to pay for the bags after we bought stuff. Also, we didn't get yelled at for not having exact change. I feel bad for Yvonne because she had to listen to me all day say things like, "Oh my gosh, are those free? Seriously?? There's ice in that water? You can drink out of the tap? I understand what that says! It's in English!" just little things like that.
Today we saw some old Roman ruins, and I got to explore some castle ruins, as well. The little kids were pretty tired after the Roman ruins, so they stayed in the car while I ran up the mountain to see the castle alone, and explore a few of the stone hallways and tunnels and rooms. It got a little creepy in some of those tunnels without a flashlight, and nobody was around so I had this irking fear that some creeper would just jump out of one of the corners (thanks mom, for always watching those lifetime television for women shows) but I sort of loved it. Just jumping out of the car and exploring some ancient castle in Germany? Yes, please!
The black forest is beautiful. Heidelburg is beautiful. The drive to Frankenstein is beautiful. I once again look like rudolph with my newly acquired sun, but it was all worth it! I am exhausted and ready for a nap, but the day is not over yet. I still can't believe how lucky I am to get to spend an entire week in this amazing city. I'll try and post pictures soon.
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