A quick trip home enumerated in a very long blog post

New Year's Eve

I got to go home for the holidays!!! It was great to see most of my family and a few friends as well. The time it takes to get from one tiny town to a small city halfway around the world is exhausting, but totally worth it.

Despite by bad luck leading up to leaving I didn’t have anything super terrible happen. There were of course several bumps along the way. At least one leg of every trip I took was delayed in some way and there never is enough time.

On my way to Saarbrücken there was an hour delay, because of a Personalunfall (personal accident) Yes again. This time at least it wasn’t the train I was on that was involved. We had stopped just outside of Stuttgart and the driver/ conductor, not sure who, came over the PA to tell us that there was an accident and so we had to wait. All of us in the little room (I was sitting in a compartment) looked around, sighed and settled in for a long wait. 15 minutes later we were on our way. It was the fastest wait any of us had heard of. We pulled into Stuttgart and the real wait began. No trains could leave the train station. A man joined us and said that his train wasn’t even going to run that night so everyone had to get off and find a different way home. After about an hour we were on our way again. As a little bonus we got 25% of our train ticket refunded because of the delay.

My dessert from dinner with Linda

I finally got into Saarbrücken around midnight. Poor Linda had school at 7 the next morning, but she was there waiting for me.  That afternoon we ran a few errands and picked up a couple c Christmas presents. Saturday I had lunch with Ben and Iris and then hung out with Myriam for a bit. Later that night Linda and I went out to dinner, and packed my suitcase again. Sunday we were up early and on our way to the Airport.

After saying goodbye I headed through passport control and then to security. In security I didn’t have to take off my shoes or my belt, which I thought was nice. But when I stepped through the metal detector I beeped. Wonderful! I was taken aside where a lady used the little wand to see what set off the machine. Let’s see what didn’t set off the machine. My bra, my belt and my shoes, all made the wand scream. I thought for sure I was going to have to be stripped searched when my bra made the wand go off, but luckily no.

My gift from Megan, isn't it pretty?

After I was given the all clear, I went to get my stuff. Two men were standing there waiting for me. Oh great, what now? The one asked if he could look through my purse. I said yes, of course, and tried to figure out what he could be looking for. I thought maybe my nail set, so I showed him that, and he said no. Then he found it, a bottle of lotion. I totally forgot it was in there. He showed it to the controller and then gave me back my purse. The second man asked if I had a cell phone in my jacket. I said yes and pulled it out for him. He said he had to do a little test on it, and asked me to follow him. We went to a small room where he wiped the screen of my phone with a cloth and handed it back to me. That was it. I was cleared and headed to my gate.

The flight to Chicago was pleasant. I sat in the exit row, and boy is it nice to have that little bit of extra leg room! There was a good amount of turbulence when we reached the Newfoundland coast, but other than that the flight was uneventful. I made it through customs without any hassles. I had to change terminals and so had to go back through security. When I was loading my buckets I remembered the 4 Euro smoothing and equally expensive bottle of water I bought in Frankfurt. The man behind me said they might let me through, so I asked. It never hurts right? My answer was: “Can’t be more than 3.5 ounces.” So that was a no. I had to throw them away. This time there wasn’t any issues with my clothing, mostly because I had to take my belt and shoes off, and with almost 5 hours to spare I headed to my gate.

Mom's Christmas tree

About an hour into my wait I decided to go and buy another book, I only had about 50 pages left in mine, and some snacks. I happened to check the board again to make sure everything was still on time, and my gate had changed! So after buying the Hobbit and some chips, I made my way down to the other end of the terminal and waited. About an hour and a half before my scheduled boarding time, I decided to check the board again, just to make sure. Good thing too. The gate had changed again, but this time in the same area. The time came and left for us to begin boarding, but the flight in front of us, at our gate, still hadn’t boarded. They were having issues with staff: the pilot hadn’t shown up yet. It was about time for my plane to leave and so I got up and looked around a bit. My gate had changed once again. Luckily they had just barely begun to board so I was in time.

We left Chicago and hour late. By the time I got to Boise it was just about midnight and Mom, Megan, and Chris were there waiting for me. I found out later that Alex’s dad Mike was there picking up his mom, and when he didn't see anyone for me started making phone call to make sure someone would be there to greet me. He was willing to wait the hour to make sure I got home J. By this time I had been up for 26 hours with only a little 20 minute nap. Needless to say I crashed almost as soon as I got home. 8 hours later I was wide awake and it was Christmas Eve.

The time at home went by much too fast. Monday I did some grocery shopping with my mom and spent a little bit of time at my brother’s playing with my nieces and nephew. Then we had traditional noodle soup, with mashed potatoes and jam. Christmas morning was just Mom, Megan and I. We opened presents and then started making dinner. We went over to my brothers later that afternoon to open presents with them and eat dinner. It was a good day. Wednesday I laid low played with my cat, watched movies, etc. Thursday we left for Eastern Idaho. I was able to see my Pa, my Aunts and uncles on my mom’s side and a couple of cousins. Friday my dad arranged for people to come over and have a chance to see me. My Grandma and Grandpa came along with 4 of my aunts, one of my uncles and 8 of my cousins (all from one family). We chatted and played and had a good time. Saturday I just enjoyed the day with my Dad and Sisters. We did do a bit of shopping too.

Megan, our ride back home, ended up in the hospital early Saturday morning with a kidney stone and infection. She wouldn’t be able to take us home on Sunday, so most of the evening was figuring out how to get back to Boise. My dad was gracious enough to give mom and me a lift. It made a long day for him, but I got to spend 4 more hours with him! Sunday night I went after getting back into Boise, I went over to Katie's to see her new baby and hang out a bit. Megan ended up coming home on New Year’s Day, with her Kidney stone, but the infection gone.

Kyl, Kadee and I at the party

Monday was New Year’s Eve. I hung out with a few friends, did Jodi's hair, and that night I went to the LDSYSA party. Every year the ballrooms of the Student Union Building are rented out for a large dance. This year I went with Kyl, Jennifer and Kadee. We met up with Sara, Ronnie and Nick. It was a great night. I was able to see a lot of friends that I wouldn’t have been able to see otherwise.

New Year’s Day found Alex and me shopping at the mall after lunch with Brad and Whitney. It was a great day. After dropping Alex off at home, mom and I had to run to Nampa to pick up my present from Megan, a bottle of perfume. At dinner I realized I needed a dress for the Matura ball coming up. The ball is something like prom, but not only students go rather members of the community as well. So off we went, and everything was closed.

I love my mom!

The next day I went to the temple. It was so nice to be able to go. It had been over a year since my last visit because of construction in Boise and the distance to one here. I am very glad I went and I will talk about why in another post. After I finished up I went in search of a dress. I found one, but needed a second opinion so I put it on hold and took the car back to my mom at work. I went home and had some lunch, and then went over to Kiev and Amy’s to hang out with the kids. After mom got off work we went to find a dress. Finally at David’s Bridal I found one. I found another option at Burlington, but it was a bit more casual. The dress at David’s was 30 dollars cheaper than I expected so we ran back to Burlington and I bought the other outfit as well. I would have loved to buy the dress I had found earlier, but it wasn’t on sale and simply too expensive.

Thursday was my last day in the states and it was super busy. I woke up later than I wanted to so I was in hurry mode. I managed to get everything packed, but was astonished at how much I was bringing back with me. I had to bring another, albeit very small, suitcase with me. I finally got everything in, at the correct weight, showered and dressed just in time for Anna to come by with lunch. We chatted and Chris dropped by to say goodbye. After everyone left we had to hurry off to say goodbye to the kids and take me to the airport. Man the day went by fast.

Do you like this dress?

At the airport I got checked in. I found out that my bag was a pound over, but I didn’t have to take anything out or pay a fee. Whew! It took a while to print my boarding pass because the computer said there wasn’t a seat for me, but it turned out to be just locked. They opened the seats and I was ready to go 25 minutes later.

I said goodbye to my mom—I wish I would have spent a few more minutes with her—and headed through security. I loaded my buckets and put my passport and boarding pass on top of my coat. Wait where is my boarding pass? I had lost it! I looked around letting people go in front of me and finally found it underneath one of my buckets. I didn’t have any problems after that and got on the plane. I had received an email earlier in the day telling me that my flight out of San Francisco was going to be delayed by about 3 hours, at least I was prepared.

Or this dress better?

When we landed I found my way to the right terminal and then went in search of something to eat. Where I had time, I ordered a pizza, I know I shouldn’t have, and did some people watching.  Then I made my way to the gate to wait it out. At one point I went up to the counter and the lady there gave me a voucher for 15 dollars in the airport. I only had a few minutes before the restaurants closed, so I hurried up stairs and bought a few things for breakfast/ dinner in Munich. I ended up only spending 5 dollars, a pretty good deal for 2 meals at an airport if you ask me. 

I am still sad I couldn't
 get this one too

Once we got on the plane they told us that the plane was delayed because after they left Munich that morning they were having some mechanical difficulties and had to turn around and change planes. I am glad they did, I wouldn’t have wanted to find out later the plane I was on was having mechanical problems. The flight was generally non-eventful. I was able to sleep for about an hour or so. We got into Munich around 830. After finding customs, getting my bag, and finding a train to the main train station, I got to the hotel around 1030. I checked it, ate some of the food I had brought with me and went to bed.  This time I had been awake for about 30 hours. I was woken up around 530 by either people in the hotel or on the street outside drunkenly laughing.  Obviously I wasn’t very happy about being woken up so early, but luckily I was able to go back to sleep for an hour or two.

The next morning I checked out of the hotel and walked across the street to the train station, bought my ticket to Bad Aussee and waited for the train. Once I was on the train I settled in, and off we went. I think it was the longest 5 hour train ride I have been on. I think a lot of that had to do with how long it took me to get to that point. I was just done traveling. Once I finally made it to Bad Aussee I loading up and started walking home. Of course it was raining it make things worse, but I guess then again it is easier to drag a suitcase through the rain than the snow, so perhaps it was blessing after all. My suitcase felt like it weighed a hundred pounds instead of 51. I had to stop quite a bit and stretch my hand, that was beginning to develop calluses, but I finally made it home.

Despite all of the effort that it takes to get home and back and the weirdness of speaking one language and then suddenly another, I am really glad that I was able to be home for Christmas. Only 6 more months until I get to make the two day journey again!