First few days back at home

Well the flight was fabulous, for starters! It was worth every penny flying business class back home. We ended up having a 50 minute delay due to the air conditioner being out on the plane. In the 24-seat section, there were only 7 of us and three attendants. So I had two seats to myself (one for me and one for all of my crap) As soon as we got on we were offered drinks and the attendants knew all of our names :-) Our lunch was great, I had shrimp in coconut sauce over saffron rice and veggies (including water chestnuts, which I LOVE!) I watched three movies on my personal TV-- In the Valley of Elah, PS: I Love You, and Notting Hill... I also caught part of I Am Legend. So many movies were offered I couldn't watch all the ones I wanted to :-(.

I was one of the first ones off the plane and although I was tired, by this time I was really excited about seeing my folks. The drive home was long--three and a half hours (I flew into Ft. Myers), but I had a lot to talk about so it wasn't that bad at all. And when I got home, my sister and BECKY and a cake were waiting for me. I was SO surprised!! Later, Jeremy came, too! We ate cake and chatted and they were only there for about an hour because I was so tired I got a bit delirious after a while, ha ha!!

Thursday I woke up at like 5:30 am... I was wide awake and just couldn't go back to sleep. It was okay, though, I just went with Mom when she left. We went to Marshall's where I found a great pair of leather flip-flops from Clark's for $20, which, for that brand, is practically stealing, ha ha... after that we went to IKEA!!!!!!! And I must say that in comparison to Germany's IKEA in terms of assortment, its the same, but the prices are lower. Mom and I found some fabulous new furniture for my room and before we left, we snagged some 50 cent hot dogs and $1 ice cream cones! In Germany, the ice cream cones cost €1, which is about a buck and 58 cents at the moment... we put the furniture together when we got home. Court pretty much did it all herself, she is really good at putting this stuff together!! I worked on clearing out all of my stuff from my old dressers and desk. Crap, I should have taken before and after pics... didn't think about that... I just finished everything about 40 minutes ago, and the place looks great. It has been a lot of work. Mom and I were going to have a yard sale tomorrow but now its kind of up in the air since her ad didn't show up in the paper today... needless to say that after plowing through all my stuff, there is quite a lot to sell! I threw away all kinds of crap from perfect attendance certificates to pre-calculus assignments to 9th grade biology notes. Everything is GONE :-) I don't have the slightest idea as to why I thought any of that stuff would be valuable... a lot of my college stuff is gone, too... like anthropology and even some COM notes... I figure I know it or I don't, there won't be any time to read it anyway.

I did take some time to read some of my old stuff... from 10th grade, five years ago... my plans were to move in with a friend in Germany after high school and then start college afterwards, "worst case scenario, I'll go to UCF"... I don't remember feeling like I said I did or thinking any of those things. I read a lot of poems about my cat that I wrote when I was 10, 11, 12 years old, and ones about how much I hated Danielle Stevens in the 7th grade. I found my old scrapbook that I never finished, which included a collage of the Hanson brothers in their early days... lots of old books, German magazines from 2004 that I can actually understand now... and MAN was I skinny junior year!!!

Overall I have seen in going through my old things and sorting my new things just how much things can change in a short period of time... I am glad I wrote as much as I did, even though I remember back then how I wished I could keep a journal. I think what comes naturally and unplanned is the best way to document your life.

It is weird being home... before going to bed on my first night home, I saw my wall calendar, which was still open to September 2007... Mom had left it as it was. I suddenly felt scared! Even on the way home I just was overcome with the feeling that I had only been gone a month or so, but seeing that calendar made me feel like I had traveled back to the past, back to the time right before I left. I haven't gone through all the things I brought back with me from my travels yet... I unpacked my suitcases today (where the heck did I put my black USB!?), but set that box of stuff aside. I need to go through my pictures and start choosing some to put into an album... I think I will print all the pictures I want in the album before I even buy the album.... or I may do a Photobook and have that printed...

And after the 4 days I spent in Ingolstadt, it's hard to want to come back to Germany... I don't plan on going back for another year at least... a lot is just really up in the air because I don't know if I will be getting in with Siemens this fall or not... if I do, it could change things up a bit. I left a lot of crap at the Pauligs', so I have to go back at SOME point. Let me just get my life back in order, get a new job, start school again, and THEN I will worry about all of that.

I will still be traveling a bit for the next two weeks or so. I am here until Thursday morning, then it's off to meet Viktor in NYC for a few days. Then we'll be in Florida. I'll stay in Florida, and he will go back to Germany on the 17th... I don't know if I will feel sorry for him or not. Right now, I like Florida, because it's "new" again, whereas Koblenz had gotten old after 10 months. And I probably will continue liking Florida until it rains on Christmas again this year ;-)

There is just a lot of work still left to be done... a pile of mail to open, too!


Love,
Caitlin

PS: Does anyone want to buy my Mickey Mouse snow globe collection?