They took my salami!!!

Well, here I am, back in the USA. It's not really as strange as I thought it would be, it's more just strange to consider the distance. For some reason it's weird to be back here at home and picture my apartment, my church, my friends and everything in Berlin. It's sooooo far away, but it's real and it's a part of me now, and I'm a part of it. It was an interesting thought while I was in Berlin, but somehow it's even more interesting now.

The journey was long, but not bad at all. Got to the airport heinously early, so I slept on my bags for like two hours at the gate before I boarded! I slept a lot on the plane too, which was nice. I usually have a very hard time sleeping when I'm traveling (by car, train, plane, whatever) but I lucked out this time. The flight from Berlin to Newark though was funny because it was like a transition from German-speaking-land to English-speaking-land. On the flight I heard both languages and when I checked in with my bags and such, I had no idea what language to speak! They could speak both languages of course, it was just weird because I can speak both too and I wasn't sure which one the Continental Airlines employees in Berlin were more comfortable with. Very strange. Most of them just started speaking English as soon as they saw my American passport, but one the flight attendants on the plane always spoke to me in German. Crazy.

When I got to Newark, I had to go through customs. The big bummer of the day was that they took the nice salami I had bought for my dad. It was really silly. For one, it was made from pork, so it's not like it could've had Mad Cow Disease, and it's COOKED, so if it did have Mad Cow, it wouldn't anymore, and I also felt like saying, "I've eaten stuff like this for 4 months now and I haven't died!" but you know how those American customs people are. Coming into Germany from the States it's no problem, but man, in America, stuff from other countries is poisonous! They weren't even nice about it. They opened up my suitcase, took out the salami, closed up my suitcase and handed it back to me, saying (referring to the salami), "This gets burned." Way to reward me for telling the truth on my customs form! Next time I just won't tell them. :) At least they didn't take my cheese though, which is also for my dad. But the salami was a bummer.

Then I had to try to figure out if I'd cleared the waitlist for my flight from Newark to Atlanta, which I didn't, so I had to get on a train to Philly and then fly with Southwest to Nashville from Philly. It was cool to be in Philly, my college town, if only for a little while. The familiar train station, skyline, all that... pretty cool. From the train station I took a cab to the airport, where I checked in rather quickly and was ready to go.

Oh wait, back up, I forgot something important. When I got to Philly I was really really thirsty, so I bought a bottle of Aquafina water from a vending machine for $1.50, and I drank it, and when I was done, I THREW AWAY THE BOTTLE IN THE (ONE) TRASH CAN!!! No deposit, and no sorting trash into four color-coded bins!!!

On the flight to Philly, there was one again a language transition going on, this time from normal English to Tennessee "English". Three ladies sitting behind me had hilarious Southern accents. So I had some time to really get adjusted!

I made it to Nashville around 8pm (having woken up in Berlin at 5am, which was 10pm the day before in Nashville) and my parents and brother were there waiting. Big time "group hug"!!! When I got there, they were like, "So where do you want to go to dinner?" They didn't have to ask, they already knew the answer--I wanted MEXICAN food, so we went straight to Cozymel's!!! It was sooooooooooooooo good... salsa that doesn't taste like ketchup, yummy queso and chips, chicken enchiladas with beans and Mexican rice... delicious! When I got home, Mom and I wrapped some Christmas gifts, and then all of a sudden I was like, "Uhh, I'm running out of gas, rapidly..." so then it was bedtime. My bed felt soooooo good.

Yesterday I got to go back to my church, BCN, where there was an intense hugging session! The Clarks didn't realize I'd be home in time for the morning service, so they got a little Christmas surprise! The service was awesome, especially since the kids got up and sang a couple of the songs from their Christmas musical. Kimmy was also singing and playing again and sounded awesome. And my goofy pastor was full of his good ol' goofy sermon jokes.

After church, Mom and I met my brother at Qdoba for more Mexican, 'cause I just hadn't had my fill yet, and then we went to Cold Stone for ice cream! I will be working there a little bit while I'm home, so feel free to come by and visit and enjoy the holiday special flavors--Candy Cane and Dark Chocolate Peppermint (delicious!). Mom and I had our annual Christmas viewing of It's A Wonderful Life, then I wrapped some more Christmas presents. None of us were very hungry (we ate a lot at Qdoba!) so we just had some leftover homemade soup for dinner, then opened the traditional Christmas Eve gifts and then watched Elf. I fell asleep during it, I was exhausted! I got some great gifts though! Brother and I each actually opened two (my brother's good at convincing the parents!), and I got some great jewelry made by my cousin-in-law Heather and some comfy PJ/sweatpants from my mom.

Now, it's Christmas morning, but my silly little brother won't wake up so we can open presents! It's almost noon and he's STILL in bed! Silly brother...

Merry Christmas everyone!!! Friends in Berlin, I miss you tons; can't wait to reunite in January, although it will be cold and dark. (I'm loving the sunshine here!) Friends in B'hood--CALL ME so we can get together! Much love to all o' y'all!!! :)