German Madness

So, after what seems like a very short summer, I find myself in Germany for the second time. Richy helped me pack and move and drove me to the airport. We left wednesday night and went to a club in North hampton, MA and then drove to his sisters house in Connecticut where we stayed two nights. They were all great and took me to a casino for the first time. Let me tell you, I had such a great time! Mohegan Sun looks so cool inside its like a gigantic indian mimd-west forest/mountain range park thing with thousands of stores, beautiful restaurants and decor hidden in peaks of fake mountains, a roof made of shining stars, everything. Even at 12am there were thousands of people happily playing slots and consuming their FREE alcoholic beverages! We sat down, put twenty bucks in right away together, and won $100. They gave me twenty bucks and I played the whole night. I cant wait to go back one day. Rich and I drove the next day to Adelphi on Long Island to finalize my thesis/transcript/degree and to say goodbye. Katie L. came with her son Kai and Mother (even though she didnt have to teach that day) to say goodbye, and I might see her in Berlin in a few weeks. She was a wonderful and inspiring teacher and now a great friend. I visited some friends and talked with Prof. Russell a bit, I told him about working at the wildlife sanctuary and he was happy that I got to spend some time connecting with nature and building within children a love for the environment at the same time. It has been the best job I have ever had even though, in terms of money, it paid little, but who am I to complain about that. We went out Friday night to a lounge and Simma met us there after work, man I love that woman! Saturday I visited Matt at Hofstra to wish him well and went to the city with Rich to see Avenue Q. That was an excellent show and rediculously funny (my favorite was Trekkie Monster haha) "....For Porn!" lol. Then we went to see Bently kick butt in Softball and walked almost the entire length of central park (it was very beautiful out). Then we went to Tsampa, my fave restaurant on E9th street and I introduced Texas (who I havent seen in FOREVER and missed very much), chris, katie, desi, avi, and rich to Tibetan food. We were off to the Belgian Beer tavern afterwards but couldnt find it and ended up in a Hookah Bar (shisha bar auf deutsch) somewhere where Rick, Joshau, and Simma met up with us. I love those bars, its such a relaxing place to talk with friends. Some of us went out dancing later, which reminds me that I got to see Peter for the first time in some time which was very nice. I got ot JFK on Sunday around 430pm and checked in with relatively little difficulty, had to pay around $50 bucks more for luggage however. The attendant was this really nice Indian guy and talked to me forever while there were hundreds of people waiting behind me, but haha whatever. He gave me a better seat so there. It was a brand new Lufthansa plane, but I didnt like it as much because you didnt each get your own personal TV to watch whatever movie you wanted like most other international airlines. Dafuer I had to watch Mr. Bean goes on vacation or something brainless like that, and by watch I mean sleep through. I got to Munich with only 15 minutes to spare to go through Passport control and get on my connecting flight. I made it, but there was a small mix up. First off my luggage didnt make it...it walked to slow and I couldnt wait for it to catch up to me so it took some other flight and made it to me two days later, needless to say I smelt really good (but that didnt matter much because it smelt like manure outside anyway, so no one really noticed). So I was walking along, I saw the Lufthansa plane in front of me and said ok good its a nice big one. A few minutes later I find myself alone staring about 20 Lufthansa employees in the face on a bus. I look over my shoulder and wonder "hmmm...now how could I have missed the terminal entrance for the plane...geegolly" so i gave them a polite "dont ask" smile, turned around and proceeded to walk back to the gate entrance. I happened to run into a late Lufthansa employer and she gave me the "what the hell are you doing going backwards down a gate" look that most would give in similar situations...or maybe its just a german thing. Eitherway, she politely told me the proper way to get to the Flieger and I followed her back onto that bus full of Lufthansa employees (hey, if you saw them all staring at you, was so exhausted that you had no bock left to speak german and explain your quizzical look, you would have assumed you went the wrong way too and that it was odd to take a bus to a plane through the gate...). Needless to say I made it on the right plane, got to Koeln, had to utilize my mad german skills to negotiate deals with Lufthansa baggage claim people to get my luggage to the next town over where my orientation was, explaining to them the urgency of my situation and that my life was in those bags, literally. Its funny, you go abroad, they see your American passport, and you start talking to them in their language and they automatcially start using English! For those of you who dont know, I dont really have a strong american accent when I speak german, but for some reason they pretended not to understand me and proceeded to speak english...gah. So i arrive in cologne, buy a BahnCard and ticket to Tostedt, and then, lo and behold run into a STARBUCKS!!!!! the disease of the world coupled with mcdonalds and walmart! so what do I do? I get thrilled and skip inside to order a chai with soy...i start ordering it in german, but ive ordered starbucks so many times that when i get to the "starbucks language portion" of the order, I start to speak Starbucks...and that fully confused the girl and so she immediately spoke Denglish to me making sure I knew what I was doing....again...::smacks palm against forehead::. I sat on the steps of the Koelner Dom, took a pic of myself which ill post later, avoided the skinhead group to the upper right corner, and stared at the hundreds of americans gathering with their luggage, pretending not to be one of them because I wasnt feeling particularly social at the time and didnt have my luggage so I could blend in(regardless of the fact I was wearing my billabong tshirt and Kirra baggy sweatshorts...very euro). eventually I scooched over and introduced myself. I met this cool cat named sebastian and we got up to break the ice by having a Bit (typical Koelner bier) or two (and lets just say it moved the conversation/friend making process along very well) Ill never forget walking into the bathroom and discovering to my utmost joy that germans sold for a euro from a vending machine condoms and TravelP _ _ _ _ (insert vulgar word, also another word for a cat). That made for good beer conversation. and many laughs. Voila, my first few hours in Germany.