Home bound and smuggling goods...

13 hour train ride: check. 

9 hour flight back onto US soil: in progress. 

4 hour flight to my life: coming soon...

Can I just say, I really enjoy flying Lufthansa. Two meals per flight, wonderful flight attendants who let me practice mein Deutsch, plenty of water, orangeschorles, wine, and cocktails. Anne and I have achieved our goal of getting smashed on the long flight home. 

No, not really. But then again, I don't think that story would have been believe-able, of you now a thing or two about these two travelers. We keep it classy and stick to water and orange juice with sparkling water. My drink of choice is due the inevitable cold that I was bound to catch a few days before coming home. It hits me every semester or quarter, right about the third to last day of finals. It seems my body knows that the end is near, but it never can quite hold on until the end. 

Also, and sorry about the tangents here, I've been sitting on my plane seat for the last eight hours and cannot bear to watch a another movie! I've watched three already and am mixing them up as I try to describe what they are, so I have decided to do something productive. Ok, where was I? Ah yes, Anne and I walked onto the Lufthansa plane with a banana, a good sized container of diced pineapple, and a market basket containing about eight ripe peaches. We, as always, are being thrifty and figured we would save us the trouble of buying snacks at airports (i.e., while waiting to board our Germany-Chicago flight, while waiting in Chicago during the 3.5 hour layover, during our Chicago-Los Angeles flight where they feed you...hmm...that's right, they feed you nothing). I really didn't need parentheses there, that was a whole paragraph sentence. I think I'm going to miss making my professors cringe as they grade my exams just slightly over the page limit...

Woah. Tangents. Yes, fruit. There we are on our Germany-Chicago flight, and we are handed our customs declaration slip, where we read that we are kindly but strictly forbidden to bring various items into the US, and that includes fruit. Oh yes, that's right, but please keep in mind this was after a long train ride! So Anne and I consumed all of that fruit, along with lunch, along with dinner, along with tea, along with dessert, along with snacks, etc. I don't even want to speculate what the passengers seated near us were thinking as they glanced over at us periodically to find us with some type of fruit in our hands and/or mouths constantly. Keeping it classy, like I said. 

Also, we have great seats on this Lufthansa flight! I will have to remember to thank Anne's grandmother for giving us a two-seat reservation; Anne and I say next to each other with either the window or the aisle to our sides. It really comes in handy when you both decide to use the restroom, stretch, or turn reading lamps on and off. Perhaps it is also beneficial that Anne and I are so alike. We looked at each other a couple of times on the dough and just knew we were ready for one of our many bathroom breaks. So much food, so much water and drinks (maybe alcoholic, I'll leave you hanging on that one detail).

I guess there really isn't a valid reason to post this entry. It's not describing anything remotely interesting, other than trying to fill my time on this plane, other than just realizing I spent a month a) away from home, b) meeting so many new people and gaining friends as well, and c) speaking at least two different languages every single day, on average three. Oh, and learning and discovering that the world is amazingly grand, more than the many worlds of my imagination through history and books could have ever prepared me for, and that despite this very grand world, people are people wherever you are and I love them all. 

So as we are making our descent down into Chicago, I feel the need to thank the people I  encountered during my journey through Europe. 

Thank you to the Best Western concierge for letting us use the computer in the bar to let our families know we were safe albeit stranded. 

Thank you to the very kind policeman in Düsseldorf who finally got us a taxi headed out of that city, just hours after we first landed in Germany. 

Thank you to my friends from Mexico, Miguel and Elena who gave me my first tips as a European backpacker. 

Thank you to Nele and her roommates for being such nice first hosts and consoling me as I watched Spain lose hopelessly and embarrassingly! 

Thank you to the Pakou tailor, Aigou, to whom I am forever in debt. He fixed my backpack and reminded me that there really still are good people in this world. 

Thank you to Leonor and Sofía from Argentina who made me laugh and made the time pass quickly as we waited to tour a cathedral in Paris. 

Thank you to my friend Henri, who taught me that you can still be an amazing fisherman if you let some of the fish back into the lake. 

Thank you to Jean Lamile, the painter in Avignon, who reminded me that all the many years of schooling one can receive will never equate the wisdom that comes with simply getting through life during so many years. 

Thank you to Lorenzo, who reminded me that despite his "non-good people are not allowed in the basilica" front, everyone can benefit from a little lovin' every now and then. 

Thank you to the Scheuber family and Brigitte especially for providing us with a roof over our heads, warm food in our stomachs, lots of laughs and a lesson in how hard work and family is really all you need. 

Thank you to the Barmettler family for being great hosts as well, special "Merci" for treating us to an amazing dinner and sharing food at the table, just as if I were part of their family! Thank you for the many many laughs we had that evening. Thank you to Miryam for being our tour guide, giving up her off work days to hang out with us, and for going paragliding with us!!

Thank you to Eliane for showing us around Luzern and for letting me singlehandedly deplete her family's cherry orchard. 

Thank you to Kuno for taking us to the chocolate factory and not minding (and even joining) in our shameless chocolate-eating spree. Thank you for encouraging me to be silly and taking that photo with the chocolate costume on! Thank you for joining us on our trip to Zermatt and for our lovely discussion about everything really and growing up multicultural. 

Thank you to Amelie and Uli for hosting us in Munich and Austria. Thank you to Amelie's parents for letting us stay at their Austrian cottage as well! I hope Germany takes the win at the World Cup, and I hope they enjoyed themselves on their Brazil trip! Oh, and Amelie, if I had to make a list of "ten things" for you, it would be something silly like, "ten things Amelie and I can think of to make us take breaks in the shade during a hike" :)

Thank you to the shopkeeper at the Munich fair for reminding me that love for yourself does not necessarily mean selfishness, rather, preparing yourself to love on others. 

Lastly, thank you to Anne, for being such a wonderful partner in crime and travels. So many things have crossed our minds, filled our conversations, made us laugh to the point of tears, I could go on and on. As I sit here, hoping we finish our peaches in time to avoid becoming unintentional fruit smugglers, I can't think of anyone else I would have had a better experience with. 

We are landing in Chicago, so I guess two legs are complete. California here we come!!